Hello everyone,
So was interested in applying for the Savings Secured Platinum Rewards Credit Card but read online that it reports as a secured credit card. Is the card still seen as a bank card even though it reports secured? Does it affect the scoring when it comes to FICO? I believe I read that the only way it would affect an approval for a different card is if the app went to manual review.
@Credit_Master wrote:Hello everyone,
So was interested in applying for the Savings Secured Platinum Rewards Credit Card but read online that it reports as a secured credit card. Is the card still seen as a bank card even though it reports secured? Does it affect the scoring when it comes to FICO? I believe I read that the only way it would affect an approval for a different card is if the app went to manual review.
For FICO scoring purposes there should be no difference.
However, some credit union cards may report weird if you use it for AZEO. You won't know until you try it for AZEO and get the not using revolving credit negative reason code, e.g. All Zero score penalty.
So, I pulled my credit report today and I see that my 12th payment has posted on Experian but, EQ & TU haven't updated yet. I called member services when I got home from work and ask the nice CSR lady about getting my card unsecured according to the information given when the account opened up 1 year ago. Since I didn't get home early enough to speak with the loan department she took all my information down and said she will email it over to the loan dept. to see if it can be graduated. She said it shouldn't be a problem since I kept my utilization at 1% all year & never missed any payments. She also noted that with my other open credit card accounts I also kept them at 1% utilization since they were opened and she said that is also a plus. I told her that all I'm asking is that SDFCU keep their promise to unsecure after 1 year if the card was used responsibly ( which it was ) and she said it was totally reasonable for me to ask them to do that so, I won't have an answer until Monday or so next week and I will let everyone know what they said. She asked me if I was interested in applying for another card and I said no and that I shouldn't have to use a hard pull to try to get an unsecured card if they promised to graduate after 1 year and again she said that is totally understandable. I asked her how long out of BK do you have to be if I were to apply but, she said she didn't know so, I told her I'll sit tight and wait for them to unsecure the card. Hopefully I'll have good news next week but, I did say that I have no intentions of waiting another year if according to their website they would unsecure it after 1 year with responsible use and payments so, keeping my fingers crossed on this. I'll keep you all posted !!! 
@Bippy_33 wrote:So, I pulled my credit report today and I see that my 12th payment has posted on Experian but, EQ & TU haven't updated yet. I called member services when I got home from work and ask the nice CSR lady about getting my card unsecured according to the information given when the account opened up 1 year ago. Since I didn't get home early enough to speak with the loan department she took all my information down and said she will email it over to the loan dept. to see if it can be graduated. She said it shouldn't be a problem since I kept my utilization at 1% all year & never missed any payments. She also noted that with my other open credit card accounts I also kept them at 1% utilization since they were opened and she said that is also a plus. I told her that all I'm asking is that SDFCU keep their promise to unsecure after 1 year if the card was used responsibly ( which it was ) and she said it was totally reasonable for me to ask them to do that so, I won't have an answer until Monday or so next week and I will let everyone know what they said. She asked me if I was interested in applying for another card and I said no and that I shouldn't have to use a hard pull to try to get an unsecured card if they promised to graduate after 1 year and again she said that is totally understandable. I asked her how long out of BK do you have to be if I were to apply but, she said she didn't know so, I told her I'll sit tight and wait for them to unsecure the card. Hopefully I'll have good news next week but, I did say that I have no intentions of waiting another year if according to their website they would unsecure it after 1 year with responsible use and payments so, keeping my fingers crossed on this. I'll keep you all posted !!!
@Bippy_33 please let us know what happens. I got two of their secured cards after my bankruptcy, and i'm curious how easy the graduation is.
@Credit_Master wrote:Hello everyone,
So was interested in applying for the Savings Secured Platinum Rewards Credit Card but read online that it reports as a secured credit card. Is the card still seen as a bank card even though it reports secured? Does it affect the scoring when it comes to FICO? I believe I read that the only way it would affect an approval for a different card is if the app went to manual review.
I've attempted rebuilds using both secured and unsecured "sub-prime" cards. I can tell you that secured is definitely the way to go assuming you have a decent secured card that doesn't take half a decade to graduate.
Sub-prime cards probably cost you as much in fees as a secured card and you get stuck in sub-prime heck. But reputable secured cards will allow you to get rolling towards prime cards much faster.
Plus, when you get your deposit back, it feels so good... like finding 20 bucks in your pants pocket when you're doing laundry!
@jmcmillan wrote:
@AllZero wrote:
However, some credit union cards may report weird if you use it for AZEO. You won't know until you try it for AZEO and get the not using revolving credit negative reason code, e.g. All Zero score penalty.
I can confirm that AZEO works with the SDFCU secured card. I got a 20-point increase on my FICO 8 with 8% reporting with SDFCU.
Good to know. Thank you for sharing the data point.