Does Navy Federal do early graduation on secured cards?

[Anonymous]

I just got a Navy Federal secured card with $500 on it. I plan on using it for gas and groceries so roughly ($800/month) which I won’t allow there to be more than $150 on it at a time. This will require me to make multiple payments per month. I dont really want to secure on it more than the $500 at least to start with. But I’ll eventually like to get a larger limit. From what I’ve read, they graduate around the 12 month mark. Has anyone been able to graduate theirs earlier than this? And when they do graduate and do a CLI is the limit determined by just your CR, or do they also factor in how much your using the card?

[Anonymous]

Should be a year to graduate, but some people have seen them graduating after 4-5 statements.

[JimBo99]

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@Anonymouswrote:
Should be a year to graduate, but some people have seen them graduating after 4-5 statements.

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I second this.  Mine graduated the day after my 5th statement.  Was available in my savings account that day.

[Anonymous]

That's awesome! What were your guys' scores like when you were graduated early and what did your usage with the card look like?

[Anonymous]

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@JimBo99 wrote:

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@Anonymouswrote:
Should be a year to graduate, but some people have seen them graduating after 4-5 statements.

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I second this.  Mine graduated the day after my 5th statement.  Was available in my savings account that day.

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Do you know if Navy did ANY kind of credit check for secured card? soft or hard? I am trying to avoid any kind of pull....i have some things on my report and dont want to have to explan them

[joltdude]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@JimBo99 wrote:

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@Anonymouswrote:
Should be a year to graduate, but some people have seen them graduating after 4-5 statements.

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I second this.  Mine graduated the day after my 5th statement.  Was available in my savings account that day.

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Do you know if Navy did ANY kind of credit check for secured card? soft or hard? I am trying to avoid any kind of pull....i have some things on my report and dont want to have to explan them

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Yup Navy does an HP on secured cards...

http://www.beverlyharzog.com/review-navy-federal-credit-union-nrewards-secured-card/

[Anonymous]

I was told by the Navy associate that the Nrewards will start checking and softpulling on month 6, or statement 5 pending. It used to be month 13... I did log on to the online chat and they still told me month 13. Went back into a different branch and asked them. They called the credit dept and said 6 months lol. From what I hear is they bump you to $2k. I put about $1500 through a $500 card and made up to 8 payments a month. 

I'm about to hit statement 5, PIF and already approved for a cash rewards for 10k. Crossing my fingers they unsecure it. If not I'll cross them again on month 6... then 7.. all the way to 13.

I had my Nrewards for 91 days before applying for a second card. Approved, TU pulled (609) but they gave me an internal score of 289.

Good luck!!!!

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to give an update. This is from Navy Federal this morning on upgrades from Secured to Unsecured:
Navy Federal 11/19/2018:
Thank you for your message. Navy Federal receives your credit score from Equifax every month. Even though your Secured Visa account reflects good repayment history, your account has not been converted to a regular nRewards account based on your credit score. After a Secured credit card account has been established for a period of six months, the account undergoes a monthly evaluation to determine if it qualifies for conversion to a Non-Secured account.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please let us know.

[spiritcraft1]

Just to add some data...

It is also a hard pull to raise the limit. 

I knew it would be a long road to unsecure and wanted to use it so I increased mine from original $1k to 5k.  It has been open since 9/16 and I increased the limit a year ago.  I have still not graduated.   There are a couple considerations however in my case.  First, I was approved with a very low 400's FICO.  Until recently, I did not want my score to go up much since I was awaiting SOL on a couple rather large accounts.  I am now a couple months from that date.  (my credit downfall was sudden, absolute and swift and all SOL dates are bunched together).  My score has been rising this year now however.   I also now have a secured Discover that I have been hoping will finally report (started using the card Oct 13th) and expect my score will rise further short term to the 600 range.  We will see if they unsecure any time soon but I am willing to bet that they give me an unsecured card before my nRewards actually unsecures.

Did I doom myself by increasing the limit to $5K?  perhaps, but I am looking long term and will be just fine at some point in the not so distant future.  I am building perfect history with them and also have all business banking with them.  If it takes another year, I am ok with that personally but would love seeing the "unsecured notice" in my email box.

[Anonymous]

It looks like you have a GoRewards card now. Did your secured card upgrade or did you app for a new one?