Secured Cards: Reporting As Secured?

[Underh20]

An employee of mine is a new immigrant and finding it very difficult to establish credit.  She was lucky enough to get a NFCU credit card with a $1,000 limit and is thinkng of a Citibank or Bank of America secured card.  The only problem is that now some secured cards report as secured.  It seems the days where only you and the issuer knew the card was secured are gone.

Does anybody know which cards report as secured and which do not?

She believes that having the card showing up on her credit report as "secured" is the kiss of death and will make USAA think less of her when she asks for a CLI or could make other potential CCC's decline her applications thinking she can only qualify for secured credit.

[llecs]

I have/had two cards report as secured and never was denied for credit due to their status. While the secured cards were reporting as such, I was approved from other CCCs like National City, Wachovia, Capital One, and Juniper.

[Underh20]

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@llecs wrote:
I have/had two cards report as secured and never was denied for credit due to their status. While the secured cards were reporting as such, I was approved from other CCCs like National City, Wachovia, Capital One, and Juniper.

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Sounds good.  But she has it in her mind that it is detrimental.

Any idea which secured cards do not report as secured?  BoA? Citi?  Wells Fargo?  NFCU?

[llecs]

While unfounded, if she's that worried, then tell her to get a BofA as that will unsecure within a year. After a year, then she could try for unsecured CCs. I don't know about NFCU, but I think the others report as secured.

[Anonymous]

Bank of America shows shows up as a Secured card, but as far as a credit score...it definitely doesn't make a difference because my score didn't change one bit when it became unsecured.

[Anonymous]

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@Underh20 wrote:

An employee of mine is a new immigrant and finding it very difficult to establish credit.  She was lucky enough to get a NFCU credit card with a $1,000 limit and is thinkng of a Citibank or Bank of America secured card.  The only problem is that now some secured cards report as secured.  It seems the days where only you and the issuer knew the card was secured are gone.

Does anybody know which cards report as secured and which do not?

She believes that having the card showing up on her credit report as "secured" is the kiss of death and will make USAA think less of her when she asks for a CLI or could make other potential CCC's decline her applications thinking she can only qualify for secured credit.

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FICO only sees the account, revolving, limit, balance, age, etc.  A manual review would see the comment that it is a secured card, but think about it this way.  A secured card poses less risk to lenders because the debt is covered.  It also shows "reserves" and it shows responsible credit building.

If she is an immigrant and little or no history, she can't expect to have a AAA 20 year profile.  And CCC's and lenders will understand this, that she is new to credit but is responsibly building it.

I used Amalgamated Bank of Chicago to get a $15,000 secured Gold Mastercard years ago.  It reported as secured, but I never had any issues with it and obtained a $10k card from BoA (unsecured) the next year.

[Anonymous]

BOA secured definitely shows up as secured, but as others have said it hasn't "hurt" me.  It was my first card, and I've since gotten cards with HSBC, Home Depot store card, and Discover.

[n2win]

Wells Fargo shows up as secured on manual review.

It helped raise my credit scores considerably, allowing me to successfully apply for other cards

It is now unsecured.

[Anonymous]

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@n2win wrote:

Wells Fargo shows up as secured on manual review.

It helped raise my credit scores considerably, allowing me to successfully apply for other cards

It is now unsecured.

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n2win -

When your WF Converted to unsecured, did they give you the same CL you had with your (collateral-backed) secured card? Just curious.

[n2win]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@n2win wrote:

Wells Fargo shows up as secured on manual review.

It helped raise my credit scores considerably, allowing me to successfully apply for other cards

It is now unsecured.

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n2win -

When your WF Converted to unsecured, did they give you the same CL you had with your (collateral-backed) secured card? Just curious.

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I got a CLI of $200, which brought it up to $2200.  I was hoping for more but I'll take what I can get in this credit environment, and say Thank You, lol.  At the time that was my highest CL (not now tho), I suspect if I'd had another card reporting a higher limit it would have been higher, but no proof haha

Another interesting note, even though I had a balance on the secured card, when it unsecured they refunded the entire amount, and just moved the balance to the new card.  Was very quick and painless 

Also, the higher limit and "unsecured" status were reporting to all three CRA in less than 2 weeks.

I had heard some negative things about WF before I opened accounts with them, but they have really been nice to work with.

hth