First Premier

[Anonymous]

My fingerhut payment start next week, and the biggest reason for no secure card right now is I really can't afford to toss the funds for a deposit as I don't have the extra money laying around right now due to paying off the old debts on my reports.

[Anonymous]

I know you said cap1 denied you for a secured card. They did me too at first, but only because I accidentally clicked no checking account on the app. D'oh! I called and fixed that though. Depending on why cap1 denied you, it might be worth the phone call to them. They allow you 80days, I think, to make your deposit or deposits, so you wouldn't have to cough up $200 all at once.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I know you said cap1 denied you for a secured card. They did me too at first, but only because I accidentally clicked no checking account on the app. D'oh! I called and fixed that though. Depending on why cap1 denied you, it might be worth the phone call to them. They allow you 80days, I think, to make your deposit or deposits, so you wouldn't have to cough up $200 all at once.

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Also if you have something coming up, like an electric bill, you could use that money plus a little extra (for a cushion) to fund a card, then use the card to pay the bill. You'd have a nearly maxxed card, but if you work to pay it down quickly, that shouldn't be a big problem.

[Anonymous]

For many, sub-prime cards work fine and boost scores quickly. Sure it's expensive, but that's the price of having bad credit.

With that said, if going sub-prime, steer clear of First Premier at all possible. In my view, 36% and charging for CLIs make it the worse of the bunch. Try for Credit One - you'll likely qualify. A typical starting line is $300-$500 followed with a CLI boost, assuming some usage, of around $100-$300 after 3 months. Additional CLIs will often occur above and beyond that. Maximum line is generally around $2K, so don't expect huge limits with any sub-prime card.

Another one to try for is Milestone Card (a step up from the likes of Credit One) - they have a pre-qualifier site, so no adverse effect on your score. Likely won't qualify for that, but worth a try. https://milestonegoldcard.com/get-your-gold-card ... You can try it every month (or more often, but won't help, since they cache old pulls for a few weeks) - even if you don't ever intended to get that card, it's a way to gauge whether your credit is likely good enough to qualify for other cards.

The biggest advantage of secured cards, beyond the ease of qualifying, is the much lower cost compared to various sub-prime cards. Over the course of a year, OpenSky may cost around $35 (their annual fee) while in that same time, for a $300 line, Credit One and First Premier will often cost around $75 (limited to 25% of initial credit line by law). And in the second year, the cost jumps up a bit more. To put it another way, is paying an extra $40 or so for the first year for an unsecured $300 line worth it to you?  -if it is, go for Credit One and/or one of the others.

[itsnew]

I like Cap1 I started with Cap 1, Received Premiere Bank shortly there after and my DH had Milestone. Premiere Bank after almost 1 year is still 300 and asks for 25% of whatever your increase is if they approve you. Milestone is terrible too difficult to make your payments. With Cap 1 I started with the 300 Secured card then 6 months later applied for the Plat MC and Quicksilver One in the same day and was approved for 500 each. I then waited 3 months and asked for a CLI and approved. Both cards are at 1500 and I've continued to deposit into my initial secured card so the limit on that card is 2000. I'm still due for another CLI in 3 months with Cap 1. Research the forums I learned everything here. It's great!