Are you in the building or rebuilding phase? Do you have a credit report or history?
I would recommend getting a card with a credit line that is in line with your spend and what you feel comfortable using as a deposit.
Bank of America offers a secure card; $99 deposit for $500 credit line if eligible.
Check Discover card too. Are you a member of a credit union? If not, I would join one.
I would not recommend Capital One. Recent data point shows they will not graduate. I wouldn't recommend Wells Fargo either. WF takes too long to graduate.
I would say number 1. It will allow you to have 3 cards so you can implement AZEO. You can always pay it down if you are nearing the credit limit. You can also do a variation of the credit limits if you feel $1,000/3 might be to restrictive, eg. $2,000, $500, $500
You're welcome.
Avoid Capital One for now until your credit profile is in a better place to get an unsecured card from them.
Yes, Discover appears to be a solid choice. Check out the Credit Card Approvals forum. Try doing a search on the secured cards you're interested in and see how quickly they graduate.
Edit: Well the other advice is great.
I chose opt. 3 cuz my secured and credit steps just steadily pssssd me off cuz I wished I had waited one month for my reports to reflect a better standing. So Disco still treats me crappy but oh well. Cap1 is giving me some goodies now. If it doesn't matter about having 8 derogs vs. 1 when you app just so you can implement Azeo then go for it. (my choices in the beginning just bothered me to no end. That's my hang-up.)
(My Original Post)
@dirknights wrote:
So in regards to my initial question and the AZEO Method, which one of the 3 options would you recommend?
3. Cuz then 7 of 8 derogs will have vanished from your cr's. So when you app for number 2, you may avoid a small sl and/or secured...ymmv but it will help having only 1 derog vs. 8.
Also, a higher limit gives you the ability to use it and not hurt your utilization and you won't be having to micromanage as much.
All the best to you and update, love hearing about progress. 
@dirknights wrote:I am interested in doing the AZEO method. I currently do not have any credit cards. I have 3k, that I can spend on acquiring secured credit cards. My question is, how many credit cards should I get? It seems that the system works best with 3+
I considering the following options:
- Get 3 cards at 1k a piece? or
- Get 2 cards at 1500 a piece (have a higher credit limit per card)
- Get 1 card at 2500k, wait 2 months and then get another 2,500k card.
My only concern with the last option is the impact on the queries (that they are separated), and that I wouldn't be able to initiate the AZEO method for the getgo.
If it's easy to add money to a secured credit card once they are created, then I suppose I could go with (1). As I have no experience with this, any help would be much appreciated.
I would go with the 3 cards. Why? FICO likes less than 50% of cards reporting a balance. So at 3 and practice AZEO. Your at 33.3%. Use your cards and let one report a small balance and then PIF. If you dont have any installment loans. Grab a self lender or local CU for a secured loan. And your set for a year. Then start making the pre-qual rounds. Try Disco, BB&T (east coast), Citi, BoA, before you go after the secured fee ridden cards. Good luck!
@dirknights wrote:Thank you.
Until I received your response in regards to the Capital One Card, and graduating, I was looking: Capital One, Discover, Citi, U.S. Bank Secured, DCU Platinum, Armed Forces Bank Secured. Discover seems to be the no-brainer in the group.
Stay away from Armed Forces -- I opened an checking and savings with them and all I did was set 85 bucks on fire (25 for funding checking and savings + 35 for applying for one of their loans in which I was quickly shot down... their website sucks and no way to easily move money in or out.
USBank is ok but very very buggy... They let me open 2 unsecured credit cards and the only way I knew I was accepted was when they sucked the money out of my checking account unexpectedly. I went to setup my first month payment to pay in full and somehow it did a triple pull on me -- instead of paying 500 bucks, it pulled 1500 bucks and showed me with a 1000 credit balance. It was 2.5 weeks of living hell trying to get it resolved -- and still feeling the after affects. I would close it down due to their incompetance but already took the hard pulls and trying to, well, rebuild. Plus, they hold payments for--EVER!. I payed a the 29.00 annual fee and they placed a 14-day hold on it with no way to get it lifted. 29 freaking bucks held for 2 weeks?
Citi has been very good -- they place a hold on payments but easy to get it lifted if you can do a 3-way call once it has cleared your bank to verify it has cleared.
But Discover is far and away the best -- amazing customer service... they've only held my payment once -- I put down a 1000 bucks with them and run everything through there and then keep paying it down -- rinse/repeat. I was able to product change to their NHL card (Go BLUES!!!!) and get 5 percent on whatever their promo is for that quarter -- 4th quarter is Amazon -- they'll be losing money on me for that!
Just my 2 cents worth... Hope it helps!
