Question: Exchanging Secure Cards for Higher Limit Unsecured Cards?

[Dj4Money]

  I have a Capital One Platinum Secure Card and a SDFC Rewards Secured Card.

 As somebody said in some thread called Toy Limits, these small limits are hampering me. 

 For 2016, I will be re-focusing on my DJ business and will need to make some equipment investments. I rather not get a store card but it wouldn't be a bad thing since Sam Ash and Guitar Center will price match prices found on legitimate websites.

 That said, I just rather use my regular credit  cards and just have bigger balances.

 I can start to pay off and close my Capital One card starting on Wed (1/6) but that is dipping into my cash reserves for my trip to Brazil. $400 is unsecured, so $129 will be returned to me. If it takes exactly 30 days for my closed card to register, it I won't be able to apply for the new card until Feb 6th. I leave for Brazil Feb 4th. Not that I can't do it from my laptop but I rather have the card ready to go before I left.

  Another way I guess would be to keep that card open, just pay it off. It won't hit until Jan statements closed around the 25th of the month. As soon as that happens I could apply for the card.

 If approved I would get in about 10 business days. 10 Days from the 25th would be Feb 5th but since the mail goes on Saturday, it's possible I could get it the day I leave, maybe before.

 Is this worth doing? What I mean is that if I pay-off and keep open or close this account, applied for the new unsecured card would Capital One start me off with $500 limit or do you think it would be closer to $1,000?

  One reason I can see them not giving me a higher inital limit is my score which is being beaten down by high utilization. The Merrick card I was pre-approved for add $700 of available credit. In the short amount of time I can pay my UTL down to about 30%. But the plan was to pay them down to 9% for when the repo comes off between May and August, my score should hit 680-690 with the only negative remaining the charged-off First Premier card.

 However if I use that cash, I need the credit back for my trip.

 Is it worth doing now or should I just wait?

[Anonymous]

Credit limits are generally based on

1. Credit History

2. Credit Score

3. Income

Closing your lower limit cards won't help you get higher limit cards. Having very low utilization will help, however.

Since you already have your trip planned, it really won't affect you either way from what I'm reading, the money will be spent, so you're just delaying paying down the utilization.

What card is it you want to apply for, and what are your current limits/utilization per card? What are your current scores and history?

[Anonymous]

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@Dj4Money wrote:

  I have a Capital One Platinum Secure Card and a SDFC Rewards Secured Card.

 As somebody said in some thread called Toy Limits, these small limits are hampering me. 

 For 2016, I will be re-focusing on my DJ business and will need to make some equipment investments. I rather not get a store card but it wouldn't be a bad thing since Sam Ash and Guitar Center will price match prices found on legitimate websites.

 That said, I just rather use my regular credit  cards and just have bigger balances.

 I can start to pay off and close my Capital One card starting on Wed (1/6) but that is dipping into my cash reserves for my trip to Brazil. $400 is unsecured, so $129 will be returned to me. If it takes exactly 30 days for my closed card to register, it I won't be able to apply for the new card until Feb 6th. I leave for Brazil Feb 4th. Not that I can't do it from my laptop but I rather have the card ready to go before I left.

  Another way I guess would be to keep that card open, just pay it off. It won't hit until Jan statements closed around the 25th of the month. As soon as that happens I could apply for the card.

 If approved I would get in about 10 business days. 10 Days from the 25th would be Feb 5th but since the mail goes on Saturday, it's possible I could get it the day I leave, maybe before.

 Is this worth doing? What I mean is that if I pay-off and keep open or close this account, applied for the new unsecured card would Capital One start me off with $500 limit or do you think it would be closer to $1,000?

  One reason I can see them not giving me a higher inital limit is my score which is being beaten down by high utilization. The Merrick card I was pre-approved for add $700 of available credit. In the short amount of time I can pay my UTL down to about 30%. But the plan was to pay them down to 9% for when the repo comes off between May and August, my score should hit 680-690 with the only negative remaining the charged-off First Premier card.

 However if I use that cash, I need the credit back for my trip.

 Is it worth doing now or should I just wait?

---

You will be able to apply for an unsecured Cap One card the very next day after closing the secured card - assuming there is a $0 balance. There is no thirty days to wait.

Hard to say what they may start you off at - do you know your EQ FICO Score 5?

[itsnew]

I have a Capital One Secured card (started at $300) I put more deposits toward the card totalling $1300 and was also approved for the Quick Silver and Platinum Cards. I started with both cards at $500 and after 3 months tried for a CLI and was approved for both now at $1500 each. Im still new and earning how to manage my credit file but your scores seem to be pretty good at this point.

My current scores

TU 599 EX 575 EXP 648

[Dj4Money]

 I haven't pulled my scores yet, just my free reports.

 The only card was going to get was the Cap One Platnium card.

 To get my UTL down to 28% need to pay it down to $1,2xx ($4,004 in overall credit) if my math is correct.

  I have't used a predictor so I don't know but I will assume my scores would go back to 660-665 with a lower UTL, last I looked it's 635 EX, 606 TU 600 EQ.

 FICO 5 was the same as my overall score.

 Since then I have been denied for a Barclay's but approved for a Logix ($500, same HP as my Auto Re-Fi) and took the Merrick pre-approval soft pull ($700).

[Dj4Money]

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@itsnew wrote:

I have a Capital One Secured card (started at $300) I put more deposits toward the card totalling $1300 and was also approved for the Quick Silver and Platinum Cards. I started with both cards at $500 and after 3 months tried for a CLI and was approved for both now at $1500 each. Im still new and earning how to manage my credit file but your scores seem to be pretty good at this point.

My current scores

TU 599 EX 575 EXP 648

---

 I started with about 600 EX score, 560 or something TU and like 550 EQ.

 I got the SDFC secured card first and then got the Capital One.

 That card started at $229 ($99 deposit) and with steps went up to $529 ($400 unsecured). On Norman's suggestion May of last year I applied and got the QS1 ($500). At 90 days I hit the Luv button and it jumped to $1,500; in Nov I got my steps increase by $500 to make it $2,000

 I guess I keep delaying the unsecured Platinum for some reason. 

[cartwrna]

I agree that credit limits given are not hampered by "toy cards", but more your overall picture. Like you I started with a secured Capital One card and a $200 limit. I now have around 50k in unsecured credit available. My highest limit being 20k, credit union card FTW The high balances is a big thing they look at, as well as inquiries, score, recent accounts etc. Everytime I applied for a new card/limit increase and was denied they would have "factors" that caused it, that gave me something to work towards fixing and it always seemed to play out in my favor but some took time. Good luck DJ, I still follow your progress from time to time

[Dj4Money]

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@cartwrna wrote:
I agree that credit limits given are not hampered by "toy cards", but more your overall picture. Like you I started with a secured Capital One card and a $200 limit. I now have around 50k in unsecured credit available. My highest limit being 20k, credit union card FTW The high balances is a big thing they look at, as well as inquiries, score, recent accounts etc. Everytime I applied for a new card/limit increase and was denied they would have "factors" that caused it, that gave me something to work towards fixing and it always seemed to play out in my favor but some took time. Good luck DJ, I still follow your progress from time to time

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 Thanks. Still working out the details for my trip.

[Dj4Money]

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@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Dj4Money wrote:

  I have a Capital One Platinum Secure Card and a SDFC Rewards Secured Card.

 As somebody said in some thread called Toy Limits, these small limits are hampering me. 

 For 2016, I will be re-focusing on my DJ business and will need to make some equipment investments. I rather not get a store card but it wouldn't be a bad thing since Sam Ash and Guitar Center will price match prices found on legitimate websites.

 That said, I just rather use my regular credit  cards and just have bigger balances.

 I can start to pay off and close my Capital One card starting on Wed (1/6) but that is dipping into my cash reserves for my trip to Brazil. $400 is unsecured, so $129 will be returned to me. If it takes exactly 30 days for my closed card to register, it I won't be able to apply for the new card until Feb 6th. I leave for Brazil Feb 4th. Not that I can't do it from my laptop but I rather have the card ready to go before I left.

  Another way I guess would be to keep that card open, just pay it off. It won't hit until Jan statements closed around the 25th of the month. As soon as that happens I could apply for the card.

 If approved I would get in about 10 business days. 10 Days from the 25th would be Feb 5th but since the mail goes on Saturday, it's possible I could get it the day I leave, maybe before.

 Is this worth doing? What I mean is that if I pay-off and keep open or close this account, applied for the new unsecured card would Capital One start me off with $500 limit or do you think it would be closer to $1,000?

  One reason I can see them not giving me a higher inital limit is my score which is being beaten down by high utilization. The Merrick card I was pre-approved for add $700 of available credit. In the short amount of time I can pay my UTL down to about 30%. But the plan was to pay them down to 9% for when the repo comes off between May and August, my score should hit 680-690 with the only negative remaining the charged-off First Premier card.

 However if I use that cash, I need the credit back for my trip.

 Is it worth doing now or should I just wait?

---

You will be able to apply for an unsecured Cap One card the very next day after closing the secured card - assuming there is a $0 balance. There is no thirty days to wait.

Hard to say what they may start you off at - do you know your EQ FICO Score 5?

---

 My FICO 8 according to Experian is 649, I can pull my scores here to be sure.

 I have enough cash to pay off the Cap One secured card.

 Does Capital One treat them as seperate accounts or one account? 

 Like I said I didn't want to pay-off the card and then only get $500 in return, even $750 would be a disappointment of sorts.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried the Cap1 pre-qualification site yet?  You can only have two rebuilders but I would check to see if you are pre-qualified for one of their prime cards.  Cap1 defines excellent credit VERY differently than most everyone else.  You might be surprised since you've been building positive payment history with them.  I'd check it out, the only thing you waste is your time, the pre-qualification is a SP, you only get the HP if you actually apply.

Good luck!