@crrredit wrote:Congrats!
Having a card graduate is an awesome feeling. I have a FNBO that was secured for a year and a half. I kinda gave up on it graduating and stopped using it much until December when I quit using it at all. Once a week I take a few minutes to sign into my accounts even if I haven't been using them just to be safe. When I signed into my FNBO account one day in March, it showed I had a $1,000 CLI. Then a few days later I got my deposit money back! I almost closed that thing a week before. Not sure what that says about heavy usage leading to quicker graduation.
The rules for graduation of secured credit cards are as varied as the number of financial institutions offering them. After my Chapter 13 was discharged in early 2020 I opted for a secured CapOne card with a $1,000 limit (the max at the time, may still be); unfortunately I lept before I looked. During the 6+ weeks I had the card open I discovered two main impediments to its usage and eventual graduation:
- At the time it was widely reported on the various forums which review cards the CapOne secured card would routinely go years, often five or more, before graduating, if ever.
- CapOne doesn't (or didn't) like multiple payments in any one billing cycle for new cards; apparently that triggers some AML (Anti-Money Laundering) policy, and the second through nth payment in any given billing cycle can be held for up to twelve days, even if the payment was pushed from the card holder's bank.
Since I couldn't rely on the card having enough head room for me to use it as a daily driver, I closed it after less than seven weeks and opened up a higher limit card from TDBank. The switch in cards proved to be the smartest thing I did during my rebuild, not only did the TD card give me enough head room to use as a daily driver, it graduated in January of 2021, almost exactly 6-months after it arrived in the mail. In the two years following graduation TD has imbued the card with two automatic CLIs bringing my current limit to $11,300; I strongly doubt I'd have a limit much above a few thousand if I'd opted to stay with the CapOne card, assuming it graduated at all.
@Beulaensarangdi wrote:Figured I'd give some info
Had my Capital One Secured since Oct 2021 - paid $49 to get the $200 limit. Kept it at that. Used heavily when I initially got it, but moved to the SavorOne I have now. Use it once a week for a drink out of a vending machine. I have kept a small balance on it, right now it's $8.89, regularly - anywhere from $10 - $40, throughout having it.
Checked yesterday evening to see what the balance was (was going to pay it to zero or very close) and noticed I had a $49 credit applied. Thought I may have made a payment I forgot about (I usually don't forget as I use a spreadsheet with payments and dates made etc). Thought it odd but didn't delve deeper as it still showed Secured, no increase or change or whatever.
This morning looked again and saw that it's just showing as "Platinum" - no secured wording associated with it.
So YAY!!
Scores range from 620-640 depending on what reports and the agency.
Congratulations on having your card graduated to unsecured.
Congratulations on your Cap1 graduation! Did your limit stay at $200 or did you receive a CLI with the graduation?
@Beulaensarangdi wrote:Figured I'd give some info
Had my Capital One Secured since Oct 2021 - paid $49 to get the $200 limit. Kept it at that. Used heavily when I initially got it, but moved to the SavorOne I have now. Use it once a week for a drink out of a vending machine. I have kept a small balance on it, right now it's $8.89, regularly - anywhere from $10 - $40, throughout having it.
Checked yesterday evening to see what the balance was (was going to pay it to zero or very close) and noticed I had a $49 credit applied. Thought I may have made a payment I forgot about (I usually don't forget as I use a spreadsheet with payments and dates made etc). Thought it odd but didn't delve deeper as it still showed Secured, no increase or change or whatever.
This morning looked again and saw that it's just showing as "Platinum" - no secured wording associated with it.
So YAY!!
Scores range from 620-640 depending on what reports and the agency.
Congrats! I've never been a big Cap1 fan (thrice burned) (I like Discover Secured, they start you with 2% gas reward, but you can PC to 5% rotating), but you can't argue with your results! Hopefully, they also give you a CLI soon!
@FalconSteve wrote:
@Horseshoez wrote:
@cThe rules for graduation of secured credit cards are as varied as the number of financial institutions offering them. After my Chapter 13 was discharged in early 2020 I opted for a secured CapOne card with a $1,000 limit (the max at the time, may still be); unfortunately I lept before I looked. During the 6+ weeks I had the card open I discovered two main impediments to its usage and eventual graduation:
- At the time it was widely reported on the various forums which review cards the CapOne secured card would routinely go years, often five or more, before graduating, if ever.
- CapOne doesn't (or didn't) like multiple payments in any one billing cycle for new cards; apparently that triggers some AML (Anti-Money Laundering) policy, and the second through nth payment in any given billing cycle can be held for up to twelve days, even if the payment was pushed from the card holder's bank.
Not allowing you to make more than 1 payment is a crappy policy and holding it up for 12 days is crap customer service, but wouldn't act as AML. You could get around this a bit. If you know that you'll spend $600, your limit is $200, push a billpay payment for the current balance plus $600 (if you can)... or just go Discover... better cashback anyway.
Holding payments was only an issue with my secured card; since I got my Quicksilver and subsequent SavorOne card, I haven't had a single payment held. As for Discover, I know lots of folks like them, but when I applied after they sent me a pre-approval offer in the mail, they denied me a card, and denied me again upon appeal; at this point I have no use for them.