Discover Secured

[Newbie2018]

Thank y'all. I'll definitely keep you guys updated on any data points 😍
Thank y'all for answering all of my questions and being quick

[Anonymous]

Just to updated on this, I finally passed the 600 mark on my FICO and checked the Discover prequal, approved! My own Disco now. Super excited about this. Haven’t received the hp yet though. Usually comes through right away.

[HeavenOhio]

Don't worry about the pull. You already had a bunch. In this case, the pull was well spent.

Once you have the Discover card in hand, ditch Credit One. You'll be nicely set with three good cards. Then garden for a year. That'll make all of your inquiries unscorable, and I'd guess that some would become old enough to fall off.

[Newbie2018]

@ggyytb congrats hun

[Anonymous]

Thanks!!! Joining you in the garden for a while!

[HarlemBoy]

My Discover secured card (with a $1,000 collateral) graduated 2 days after the 7th statement, and I only found out because the credit line was suddenly $1,800 and the menu to add co-signers was active (I do not intend to do so but that is a message).

I did not get any message from Discover nor any other information - it is just that the term  "Secured" suddenly disappeared everywhere.

I do not even know how they will pay me back the collateral. ACH? Check?

Discover secured cards DO graduate. And I have scores now on three agencies. It was a really good way to start US credit history. I will wait another 6-10 months to try a MasterCard or Visa (as visiting my parents in Europe with Discover will be a pain, but my Checkings account Mastercard Debit card will work on the European ATM networks).

[AppHappyTog]

You really can't go wrong with Discover. The fact that even as a secured card you still get the benefit of the cashback and the first year match, as well as being able to convert it to the 5% rotating categories is amazing, paired with the fact that graduation is a possibility after seven statements. You can start with the lowest deposit for you CL and call to increase it as you'd like, which is a plus so your limit is higher when you do graduate in the event they dont auto cli you (once you add additional funds, it takes about a week to process on their end and bump your cl up).

[HarlemBoy]

From my graduation success with Discover - what I did

1. I used the card for everyday purchases and for flight bookings

2. As the more expensive stuff brought me to 90% credit utilization I immediately did an online payment as soon as it posted to get back to a low rate again.

3. I used the Discover card for everything on the net and at cash registers - and I always invoked a payment if it was more than 30% of the credit line and I paid attention to have at least 4 days between two payments (otherwise Discover will withhold the payment for some days).

The 4-5 payments in a month to bring utilization back to normal were apparently not seen as negative.