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My Discover IT Secured graduated this morning.
I secured it with $1000, a month after Discover declined me for an unsecured card. My 8th statement cut 3 days ago (the first cut less than two weeks after I was approved, so 7 full months + next statement date is my guess). My 7th statement showed $4 over the limit because of interest, and I currently am showing 91% utilization across the 8 cards and PLOC that I have. Had some stuff come up that was more important than scores with my son that mandated that I throw money at it, so I used the credit because I needed it...next month will be back under 30%, the month after I should be 0% again). Experian is 635, two weeks ago TU was 649 and EQ was 621 (EX was at 629 two weeks ago).
Honestly, if I were Discover, I would not have unsecured my card this month, but they did, and they gave me a limit increase from $1000 to $2000. I don't understand it, but I'm not complaining. I'm just putting this out here for data points. I did not receive a congrats email, but yesterday, my limit showed $1000, and this morning my limit showed $2000. Also, sometime in the last week or so the "Transitioning to an unsecured card" link disappeared from my account home page.
If it may have come into play, I was doing some side contracting work around the time I got the card, and with $1000 secured limit, I ran over $4000 through the card in two months, paid it off multiple times with my extra income and started month 3 with a $0 balance. I don't know if spend history and payment history comes into play, but maybe it does. Statement 7 showed $1004 ($4 over limit), statement 8 was at $799, and they unsecured me anyway.
@mytakeoutmiami,
Without knowing more specifics, I might suggest not opening another secured card. Sounds to me like you are on the cusp of normalcy and would better be served by a cool down and evaluate period. 2 cents.
Congrats Jago22! It looks like you accomplished Credit Karma's goal of 21+ accounts.
I got a Discover IT Chrome secured in December. A few days after my July statement cut, I noticed my limit went from $200 to $1500. Since I didn't add any money to my security deposit, it looks like they've graduated me. Discover didn't send an email yet.
This is an attempt to thicken up my "thin file". In December, I got denied a store card for the company I work for. At the time, I had a 799 Experian FICO score but First Bank Card didn't like the fact that I only had 3 credit cards and no loans (the third credit card was also only 2 mo. old at the time). I promptly applied for a credit builder loan because of the low interest rate and small minimum amount. Then, I got prequalified for a Discover card. Unfortunately, Discover ended up denying me an unsecured card due to "too many inquiries in the last 3 months", "too many inquiries in the last 6 months" and "no open installment loans". Once my inquiries fall off the report, I plan on applying for a few more cards. Might as well take advantage of sign up bonuses and rewards.
I'm now on month 15 of still being secured on my Discover. I honestly don't get it. I just got approved for a $5k SL with NFCU, and I've been very good with all of my credit since our BK DC last April. Discover gets paid in full every month and we run quite a bit through it. I'm going to move all of the recurring stuff to my new NFCU card and possibly sock drawer the Discover. Even my wife who has similar credit was able to get an unsecured card with Discover 4 months ago with a $500 SL.
Did you, by any chance, have a returned payment? A lot of people had issues graduating if the payment got returned even if they noticed it and fixed it before the due date.