@Cdnewmanpac wrote:I agree with others that the issue of whether the word "secured" appears on credit reports is a red herring. The only time it might even be noticed is in a manual review.
I'm also curious why nobody has recommended Wells Fargo? The AF is pretty reasonable and they allow deposits up to $10,000. Yes, it reports "secured", but I got a mortgage through WF private mortgate, a chase southwest visa sig and a usaa card with a 7k limit all while having only cards labeled "secured" reporting.
WF can be iffy about graduating (it is done by computer and no manual review is possible), but I don't remember there being any fees to add to my credit limit (though I only did it once). I know BofA is more reliable with graduation and has rewards, but if you want a big limit, I'd at least consider the WF card.
I think the WF card has earned a bad rep because if their inconsistent graduation policies. I mean seriously, you'd have better luck predicting the lottery with a Oujia board than figuring that part out.
I tend to group them in my "everyone else" or "your bank" category as a result, where there's hundreds if not thousands of other lenders. You're right though, they're a reasonable option for this as they report to the bureaus, and have a nice tasty limit, and likely aren't a challenge to deal with beyond the usual big bank issues which I think are overstated anyway.
The problem is only a few secured cards are really needed, and WF does nothing especially well to bring attention to itself; however, there's also a legion of cards which "suck more" and those are to be avoided like the plague, so there likely needs to be an additional category... but I can't see recommending it in any of my usual top two (or three) secured cards, but this question is a different beast.
I don't think we ever asked the OP, how much were you thinking of putting into the card anyway?
@MaryJane197 wrote:I dont know that many secured cards that allow you to add money to increase your CL. Capital One is one and USAA, if your a full member. AFB has a secured card you can add to the CL but it has a fee involved in adding money. I wish someone would make a current list of all the good secured cards, that are open to all members, that you can add a CL to at any time. I think the list would be small though
I'd be curious to learn of such a list....
@j_casteel wrote:I make good money but have poor credit scores and since I really don't need a line of credit I was thinking about opening a couple secured cards to help build credit and instead of depositing money into a savings account each payday i would deposit funds into the cards to increase their CL's quickly which will hopefully help me get better cards later.
Which secured cards would work best for this? I would be making deposits every 2 weeks til I max them out. I'm thinking about the BoA secured card and also looking into some local CU's as well.
What are your thoughts on this? Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
John
US Bank has some good rewards with their secured cards. Check out the aero mexico card.
