@chris4434wrote:
Two years ago I signed up for the secured Discover Card (with a $1000 deposit). At the time, my only other credit cards were a $100 Macy’s store card and a $300 Capital One VentureOne. I patiently waited for the card to unsecure at the 7 month mark and it didn't. A year passed and it still did not unsecure. During this same period of time my credit score dramatically increased to the upper 700’s. I was given credit line increases on the Macy’s to $6700 and $10,500 on the Capital One VentureOne. I was also approved for the AMEX Platinum, PRG, SPG ($6,700) Delta Gold ($10,000), Chase CSR ($12,000), Chase Freedom ($3500), Chase Hyatt ($5000), and Capital One Venture ($15,000).
After two years with Discover I became frustrated and called them multiple times to try and get someone to look into why my card had not unsecured, despite having a stronger credit profile than many people who were unsecured after 7 bill cycles. Each agent and manager I spoke with said they had 0 control over that and the “system” automatically looked at my profile after each statement to determine if it was eligible to unsecure. Obviously there was an issue because I was receiving preapproval mailers and was preapproved on their website for the unsecured card. I was going to just cancel the card but really didn’t want to so I filed a complaint with the CFPB. After a month Discover responded and stated they would be unsecuring my card and send my deposit back. I received the email today stating my card has been unsecured and I’m glad it is but irritated at Discover for not doing anything about it until I contacted the CFPB. Now I can keep the Discover card indefinitely and have it as one of my “foundation cards”.
I'm glad you were able to get your card unsecured, but getting the CFPB involved seems like a bit of overkill. From what I know about Discover's secured card, it does have the ability to unsecure eventually, and for most people it can after 7 months, but they are under no obligation to perform said action. What exactly did you put in your complaint? I wouldn't call it a governmental issue when a lender won't unsecure your card.
I think this is more of an example of what not to do. Lawmakers that are in bank's pockets are using information like this to support the neutering of the CFPB's capabilites. The CFPB doesn't exist to fight your battles when you don't get what you want from a lender. They exist to help the little guy have a voice and stand up against the big machine, and to keep banks from destroying the economy with bad lending practices. Valid examples include situations like when BBVA Compass falsely denied all of us accounts because of "failure to verify information" or when you have trouble getting a lender to report a closed account accurately to a credit reporting agency, or when a debt collector will not remove a debt from your credit report, despite having no proof of the debt. All three were legitimate situations that I had to get the CFPB involved in.
