Which Secured Card To Get

[Anonymous]

I want to apply for a secured card soon after being an AU for a few months on a relatives Discover card (see my other thread here: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=creditcard&thread.id=33555 for more info)

Anyway, I hear the BOA card is nice, but it's hard to get. I'm not looking to rebuild credit, but rather build it, because I have absolutely none.

What are some other good secure cards minus BOA secure that are somewhat easy to get?

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, the ones that are easy to get are generally not the ones that will grow with you.  BofA is good, because it eventually unsecures, and you keep the history associated with it.  As you pointed out, though, you will most likely not be approved for this card if you don't have any credit.

Orchard will almost certainly give you a secured card, but they will not graduate you in the future unless you reapply for a different card.  (And once you've established some history and have passed the point of needing a secured card, why would you want an Orchard anyway?)

I have heard good things about National City's secured card.  I believe they will also graduate you eventually, but I don't know about their underwriting requirements.

Citi also has a secured card you may want to look into, although I don't know anything about it.

Edit: National City apparently does not graduate secured cardholders.  See follow-up post below.

Message Edited by cheddar on 12-30-2007 11:25 PM

[SmartCookie]

Are you a student?

Would someone in your family be able and willing to co-sign a card for you?

[SmartCookie]

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cheddar wrote:

Unfortunately, the ones that are easy to get are generally not the ones that will grow with you. 

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This is a very important and often neglected point.  Choose wisely.

[Anonymous]

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cheddar wrote:

I have heard good things about National City's secured card.  I believe they will also graduate you eventually, but I don't know about their underwriting requirements.

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By sheer coincidence, right after posting this I ran across a post on another board where the poster was complaining that National City told him in order to graduate he would have to apply for a new card even after having a secured card for two years.

Yikes.

[Anonymous]

Student, yes, but technically no, and yes I have someone that will co-sign for me.

[SmartCookie]

Check out USBank Cc's at usbank.com

They have 2 cards to look at, the College Rewards Visa, and the Young Adult Visa.  Both have a req that you must make 1 purchase a year to avoid the annual fee, and the YA Visa is probably a better choice as you have a co-signer.

That aside, if I were you I would still apply at Cap1 to see what I could get.  They do issue cards to people who have 'limited or no' credit info and I have seen many folk get a card from them in your situation.  With that though there will probably be an annual fee, and Cap1 will not remove it permanently from your account... but they are good about waiving it when it comes due.

If you can get a few of these things going, keep your UTI low and explain it to whoever you are getting AUs from as well, purchase your FICOS and see what else you can get.  At the very least, you should be fine with getting approved for one of the BoA secureds at that time and that would be very good.

[ccaddict]

BoA gave me their student card with 0 credit history. Two months after I entered the country and 1 day after I got my SSN.

So you could try their student card if you are a student.

[Anonymous]

I was just told about the Elan secured card. After 18 months of good history they will unsecure it . I was going to try National City but I'm thinking Elan now.

[ccaddict]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I was just told about the Elan secured card. After 18 months of good history they will unsecure it . I was going to try National City but I'm thinking Elan now.

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Never heard of them before. Hope you have done your homework on them...