I started my rebuilding with a USAA secured card at $1k CL. That card is now over 1 year old and will get charged an annual fee when I get my statement in July. I now have other good cards, including a USAA rewards visa with $3k CL that is 8 months old, so I no longer use the secured card at all, its not in my wallet, and it is always at $0 balance.
And so I was thinking about closing the secured card. I was thinking about asking USAA to combine the secured credit limit with the limit on my Rewards visa. Or possibly just asking for a CLI on the Rewards card before closing the secured, but I hear that it is a hard-pull inquiry. There is currently a specific card that I would like to eventually obtain that could take longer to get if I have to wait one year from July for the USAA hard-pull to fall off.
Does anyone have experience with USAA CLI's or combining credit limits using 1 secured card?
EX:694 TU:744 EQ:777
Hrm, I'm pretty certain it'd be off-limits but that's just a guess. Call and ask, worst case they tell you no.
I was planning on calling tomorrow, but just got excited about the idea and was hoping that somebody had done something similar and could post an answer right now. I will post an update as to how it goes tomorrow.
UPDATE:
I just got off the phone with USAA. They could not combine the credit limits, but were able to increase the credit limit on my rewards card from $3k to $4500, which cost me a hard pull (probably equifax). I then closed the secured card, avoided the annual fee, and USAA is somehow crediting the $1000 secured deposit back into my checking account, even though it was in a 2-year CD.
I am happy with this result. I wish USAA didn't have to pull equifax, but it is what it is. At least I am not paying any fees, I have some extra money in my checking account, and I didn't sacrifice my overall credit limit to close the secured card.
EDIT: It was a hard-pull on equifax. I can see it on my USAA CMS. Since I have so many inqs on equifax, this does not effect my score at all. It does, unfortunately, make a longer wait to get inqs off my equifax report to apply for a PenFed card, but I think I will just use what I have for a year and be happy that I pay no fees.