@Wizard10 wrote:
Going on 24 months I think with no graduation in sight. Should I call CSR? If so does anyone have a specific number I should call?
Mine took 30 months before it graduated. Numerous calls during that timeframe only resulted in assurances that it was being reviewed monthly. I concluded that with Discover it was a "waiting game." Totally surprised when it did graduate because my TU score had dropped to 623, way lower than usual and there was a balance reporting. I was told though that I could apply for a 2nd card since my first one was a year old. Yeah, right! Declined that offer because my thinking was that if I wasn't eligible for graduation how would I be approved for a new unsecured card. YMMV. You could always check their pre-approval page to see if anything shows up and if not, the reasons for denial might provide a clue on what's holding back your graduation.
Congrats OP.
@mthrasher16 wrote:Congrats! I just graduated last night too. Like you, I was watching the board for tips and advice so I'll throw some data out there too to help some folks out.
Opened Discover IT secured 12/2016 - so 26 months ago - with a $200 deposit.
Credit score was 600 - 620
Credit Report Badies: 3 credit card and 1 student loan chargeoffs (The 08' - 10' recession screwed me royally)
1 $2,000 Avant personal loan in good standing
$0 balance on an OpenSky credit card, $600 limit
No hard inquiries on EQ or TU
For the first cpl years, I treated this card badly. I only ever used it to buy gas, but would frequently go over the $200 limit, buying 2-3 tanks of gas a week (Insane commute). I paid it everytime I exceeded the limit, and paid that off in full never carrying a balance to the next statement, but I guess Discover didn't like that I was exceeding the limit so it wouldn't graduate.
For the last 7 statements, I followed all the 'rules' that you're suppose to. On 6 of those statements, the card never carried a balance of more than 30%, and it was always paid in full. On 3 of those statement periods I didn't use the card at all. During 1 cycle it did reach 50%, but again, paid in full.
And last night - graduated to unsecured with a $2,000 limit - woot!
So from my eyes, it seems that weather you're just issued this card or have had it a while, it's 7 months to graduate from opening the account or from your last credit card boo-boo.
Current Data Points
Credit score is somewhere around 685 - 700 (I'm not sure the date discover pulled my data again)
No Chargeoffs - they all fell off
$0 balance on Avant loan - paid in full all on-time
$200 balance on OpenSky CC
Current car loan with GM financal for $6k, all payments on-time
Maybe 1 hard inquiry on TU or EQ
I doubt it's 7 months from last boo boo. I'll hit 24 months in August. My last boo boo for Discover was December 2017, and that was a partial payment error of 2 days late. My last recorded boo boo on my reports was over 2 years ago.
@Anonymous wrote:Just had my 10th statement cut today and still secured, though I know it may take a few days if I'm fortunate to graduate this time. I'll keep an eye on it until the end of the week and then I'll know.
Not sure what else I need to do. We charge it up to about 80-90% of the limit but make at least two big payments to pay the statement balance each month. Heck, the last payment I made was $800 at the end of last week. That's the usual for this card for us.
If your due date is the 1st, the 7th is the latest I've seen a graduation updated.
@GApeachy wrote:So I called Discover yesterday and csr told me they like to see <30% spend on the secured. I was trying to use it heavily and pif every week thinking that's how you show responsibility...she said no to just keep it under 30%. Just thought I'd share. Good luck all, I will update once I unsecure as well.
That's a canned response all credit card companies use. We have plenty of data points showing people graduating with 80-90% utilization as well as getting CLIs on regular cards with that kind of utilization. Disco is kind of known for not giving a CLI if you're not using the available limit. If you're not bumping up on the limit, they don't gives increases because it appears you don't need it.