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So, coming up on about 1 year of account history for a Credit One (yeah I know) and a First Progress secured card. Both have annual fee's, and I feel at this point I'm well in the right direction with about 35-40k in lines. Time to close them before the new year hits? What say ye! Also got a True Value card from comenity that had 1 charge put on it and nothing else, i got it cause I have a True Value close to me, but when I went to use the card they said they don't accept their own credit card there. So, its practically no use to me. There's no AF on that one, leave it alone and wait till they close it, or do that one also while I'm at it?

Hello friends. I'm so glad to be here! Thanks for having me. My Creditkarma score is 555. I know that's not FICO, but it's going to be terrible regardless. I'm 28. So my credit right now is a mess. I've dabbled in trying to fix it, but I really want to make some serious progress now. I'll try to be succinct yet thorough. Credit utilization, payment history, age of credit history, and credit inquiries receive "A" marks on the report card thing. Total accounts (3 accounts) is D. Derogatory remarks (1 + 1 in collection) is B. Overall grade is F, obviously. The following 5 are my baddies. 3 Collection accounts. Two charged off accounts that at least are now paid or in the process of being paid: (1) Sears-CO, paid in full to CA after they had it for a month. I didn't do the DV or anything. Staying until 11/2015 (2) Capital 1, CO, process of paying in full via payment plan. Sent them a DV letter, and they (a legal office CA representing Cap 1) got back to me with all the documents from what I could tell. 1 more year to go. Staying until 1/2016 (3) CA hired by my past leasing office (OC) for not paying a small cleaning bill. I found out recently after pulling my CR. Received no notification from either CA or Leasing office to the best of my knowledge. OC claims not to have received my forwarding address (that I also updated on USPS when I moved). Comes off CR mid-2018. 2 Closed accounts with late payments: (4) BOFA credit card, several late payments over 3 years. Longest one is a 120 day late entry. Will become positive account in 1/2015. Stays until 2/2018. (5) Chase credit card. A few late payments over 2 years. Longest is 60 days. Will become positive 8/2014. Stays until 12/2017. *also 1 hard pull for credit card application last year More about me: I have 3 active accounts in good standing (no late payments). 5 positive (no late) overall including car loan payoff. I used to have excellent credit prior to about 2008. I just got super lazy about paying bills and well.. now I'm in a shameful state. Based on information I'd like the input for my plan and would like suggestions on possible letters to expediate some removals from CR. My to do list so far: 1) Delete previous addresses with CRA. 2) Apply for a credit card(s) to increase accounts. I'm debating between applying for several secured cards that from what I understand should be easy to obtain with a deposit and/or applying for a unsecure rewards card such as Capital 1 Newcomers rewards card. I should have done this earlier. I didn't know about secured cards. My concern with secure cards is they suck, annual fee, and mostly useless once my FICO improves, and I'm eligible for better credit cards. Do I keep the secure cards after credit improves or close them? Most of the recommended secured credit cards have annual fees. I don't plan on keeping any sort of balance on any of the credit cards month to month. Also, I have around $1000-1500 to start off with for the secured cards. What is a recommended way of putting in the deposits for the secured cards that I apply for? 3) I'm not sure what to do about baddie (3). The apartment complex is part of a huge company that basically owns one of the major cities in Orange County, CA, and I'm not even sure they have the authority to accept payment. I'm looking into a PFD or Goodwill letter depending on who I would address the letter to. PFD for CA and Goodwill for OC? Is 1-2 punch worth considering? The CA doesn't seem to be reporting it from month to month. Just the date that the account has gone into collections. 4) I'm open to ideas on using letters for the other baddies. Finally.. do letters still work effectively? A lot of the posts regarding DV and letter approaches were posted a number of years ago. Back then, things like PFD was a lot more successful. It seems to me that the CA's would be much more efficient and experienced dealing with the claims. If you made it through this, THANK YOU! I am just one guy who couldn't sleep a wink last night thinking about all this, and I'm just looking to turn things around.

http://www.doctorofcredit.com/the-discover-it-secured-card-does-graduate-to-an-unsecured-card/ Say what you want about Discover, but this is a solid rebuilding option that starts at $200.

Anyone know much about Suntrust credit cards? I have an old student loan backed by them but that's my only experience with Suntrust. Doesn't look like anything too exciting but not too bad either. Not much of anything in credit pulls. https://www.suntrust.com/PersonalBanking/EverydayBanking/CreditCards/CashRewards Anyone want to be a GP for one? The cash back card is 2% up to $6k on gas and grocery then goes to 1%.

My daughter doesn't want me to pay for her graduate school.. and I have mixed feelings but the idea of her taking three more years of debt makes me sick at heart given the interest rates. If I were to set up a three or five year CD securing a loan to her for tuition, made payable to the school, what do you think the lowest interest rate would be... perhaps a $75K loan that would be essentially a line of credit paid out over the next 3.5 years against a collaterized CD. Am I missing something? Would navy do something like that? Looking to keep her from paying high rates and putting herself into debt but want to keep some distance between the give and take in these matters. I know nothing about student loans, she is getting a PhD in Clinical Psych and she is very conservative in financial matters... but i can't stand to see her racking up 8% interest plus while she is going full time and working 20 plus hours a week. All adivice welcome on this. I want to keep some arm's length but help. I may forgive half of it.

Hi, everyone. I have gone through the master secured cards thread here, and I am thinking that one or two of the three would be my best options. SDFCU (I am a member) Wells Fargo US Bank What I have questions about are: In the thread, it seems like it states that SDFCU is chex sensitive, but I am missing if that is for membership only or for secured app too...it looks like they don't check credit for secured card, but do they run you through chex again? I think I got into chex after I became a member with SDFCU. Am I safe applying for SDFCU Secured Card if I am in Chex but already a SDFCU member? Well Fargo - pulls Experian, but I couldn't see anywhere if it is Chex sensitive or not? And it MAY graduate someday? US Bank - same as Wells Fargo question about Chex? Pro - this one actually should graduate after 12 months....I am leaning in this direction if I can get in ***Capital One doesn't like me right now because of judgement I was never served for and am trying to get vacated, so they are not an option...I know we would all tend to suggest them ;-) Thanks in advance for your advice. I am trying to clean up my chex report, I just got it in the mail and it will take awhile. I would like to get a secured card on my reports asap in the meanwhile.

Currently I have two secured CC to help rebuild my credit. ~BOA Visa with 5k limit and is about 17 months old. ~WF with 2k limit which is about 6 months old. Do you think opening another secured card would help? If so how much of a limit should I use? Thanks

Hi All, I am looking for a bank or credit union where I can open a secured visa or mc like Armed Forces Bank that does not do a HP and it does not matter if you are on Chex but will allow you to add money anytime as well. Do you have any suggestions? I am not looking for Cap1 secured. I looking for a normal bank or cu. Thanks for reading.

I have a Capital One Secured Credit Card with a deposit/credit-limit of $2000. I deposited that much money into it in the hopes of bumping my score by having a lot of available credit and no balance. I have had this card for 2+ years now, perfect payment history and low balance, and am ready to remove it or convert it to a non-secured card. Unfortunately, Capital One can't just convert it, they said they'd have to close that account and create a new, unsecured one. Should I close this 2 year account, knowing that I need to finance a car within 1-6 months? What will the effect be on my credit score? Will my AAOA go down? I don't necessarily plan on re-opening a non-secured account with Capital One if it doesn't help my credit. Neither do I need the cash right now (card is fully paid off), but would always be nice to have more emergency cash in my savings, and with a car purchase coming up, it's always better to have more cash on hand. My other accounts are: * Credit Union secured card, $1000 limit, 1 year * Non secured CC, $800 limit, 1 year * Retail store credit, $5500 limit, 1 year * Retail store credit, $800 limit, 6 months Thanks!

I'm helping a friend start to build his credit history. He's got one baddie that I'm hoping will go away soon. If it does or it doesn't, I'm wondering what would be a good first card? I'm thinking the FNBO Kickstart because it has a free EX 08 FICO, and apparently it graduates. The AF is $29, which is bad, but might be worth it for the FICO. However, I've read that this is a "subprime" card and might not be good for building credit, it might look bad on his credit report. I've not really read anything good about FNBO on the web. Is "subprime" credit card a real thing? I know that Open Sky is terrible and I know why. Is FNBO Kickstart not worth the free FICO? Is there a Credit Board Preferred Secure Visa/Master that does all the right things? The right things being, pulls only EQ or TU, reports on all three bureaus, graduates, and doesn't cost much so you won't hate to keep the trade line.

I'm working on my husband's credit. A lot of medical stuff has fallen off, thanks to Why Chat, but he still has few negative things going on that I'm working on right now, so they are dwindling down in number. Right now we are waiting for a response from the CRAs about some debt from AFNI (not sure what it is or where it's from) that is beyond the SOL. Would it be better to wait to try to get a secure credit card after all the bad stuff comes off first, or do we try for one earlier? I guess my questions right now is more about order in which I tackle the rest of the stuff on his report. We have bankruptcy, scheduled to fall off in 2017. He has a paid judgement. He has a few shady things from Verizon, T-Mobile and Comcast. T-mobile and comcast are particularly tricky and underhanded. At one point, he called t-mobile, who said he had a credit with them (like he paid them too much on something and they owed him money) while at the same time sending him to a CA for him owing them money on something? Comcast is all around dirty and we just switched to Dish Network because of their foolishness. (there is convoluted history behind that as well...) He has some really good history building up on his credit with Aaron's rent-to-own furniture. I was vehemently against him going to Aaron's for many many reasons, but I must say that he has been doing extremely well with keeping up the payments (I know, i know, we are paying waaaaay more than if we were to buy stuff outright, but it's good when you are in a bind and don't have enough cash to fork out to buy something outright, your credit is in the toilet, but you do have a little and can make regular payments and plan to keep the item forever, regardless of what happens to it...we only get things we absolutely need when we are in a total bind with no other choice, never EVER anything frivolous and we've paid off and still have a few things from them from the past couple years.) But anyway, he has been paying them regularly and I'm still learning about scores and stuff, but it is one thing on his credit that is "green" instead of red, and has been consistently green for the past couple of years. After I am done tackling this thing from AFNI that is beyond SOL, (the rest are more recent) what is next? Do I continue to keep going to the CRA initially before going to the CA? Will the CRAs start to get suspicions if every couple of months they are receiving another dispute letter from us about something else? Which, by the way, is there are certain amount of time that it's best to wait before sending in a dispute letter to the CRA for the next item? Do I go to the CA first for any of this stuff? Can I "double up" on anything, as in, request/wait for validation from the CRAs on the AFNI that is beyond SOL while at the same time sending a letter of directly to one of the other CAs over, say, the T-Mobile stuff? When, in all of this, does the secured credit card and working on rebuilding start to fit in? Also, I probably need to maybe see about the judgement lastly, right? I think we could probably wait out the bankruptcy. We have nothing pressing right now that we NEEEEED to get our credit right for, but it's time for us to grow up. Trying to get my list of priorities in order. Thanks in advance! Sorry for the book of a post.

I'm super excited. I received my secured card graduation letter in the mail today! I received a big drop in the APR and the fee elimination. The letter didn't mention if I would receive a credit line increase so I'll wait for the new card and account information. Now I'm going to open up a secured personal loan with them to create another positive trade line. So, by the time all my baddies fall off by next year if I can't get them off earlier, I should have a very nice credit score.

Hi folks, 360 days ago, I opened a secured credit card with capital one to rebuild/repair my poor credit with a $1000 deposit. I've always paid it on time and today I just received a pre-approved offer from them. I only currently have their secured mastercard and an american express charge card so I figured it'd be good for my score if I got another credit card. I called them to see if I could convert my secured credit card (credit limit was $1000 a year ago, $1450 now) into an unsecured credit card but they said they don't do that. How should I go about getting my Grand back without hurting my credit? Should I sacrifice a goat? If so, what words should I chant as I'm doing it? I would appreciate the advice. Thank you!

I just obtained a membership application for the credit union the Sheriff Office, that i work for, uses. Going to set up a savings account with the deductions coming out of my paycheck. Figured it be a extra way to put money off to the side. Just don't know how it will or even if it will help me in regards to anything related to my credit. Worse case, ill just have extra money stored. Another thing I've been looking into. Secured CC's. I was told since I'm on the road to credit recovery, I should look to get a secured CC to have a positive TL reporting while cleaning up the bad ones. I just don't know which is better as compared to another. I know most have annual fees, lump sum down-payment to use as your credit limit. Any suggestions on which would be good to look into? I know some things I should be looking for is roughly how long it will graduate to unsecured (if it ever does) and how it reports to CRAs (if it does). Thanks

So last month I had my secured card through Bank of America unsecured early.. at the 10 month mark and they increase my credit from $1,000 to $2,000... This resulted in a hard pull.... I was bored and decided to hit that luv button again 1 month later and ask for a credit limit increase again to $5,000 just to see if they would raise it... resulted in a hard pull and the dreaded 7-10 day message. I log in today and I now have a $5,000 limit! woohoo! guess I should have asked for more! This is still with several student loan late payments from a couple of years ago... and don't worry I will update the credit pulls database when I get the official letter in the mail next week

For those of you with BOA Secured cards: I have had this card for 11 months, and am pretty familiar with it, including adding additional security deposits to increase the credit line (which I've recently done actually). I expect that it will unsecure after the first of the year considering payment history, reduced util that will report by 1/1/14 and improved scores. Today, I noticed that there is a 'request a credit line increase' button on my login page. I've always called in to do the increases before, so I'm not sure if this is new, or I've just overlooked it before. Do those of you with this card see this option upon login? Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone. I'm in the process of paying down/off my Capital One Accounts (3 accounts total) that have had high utilization (including 100% and some overlimits) for the past 24 months. The accounts are as follows: $320 limit, opened Dec 2011 (former HSBC) $850 limit, opened May 2011 $2300 limit, opened Aug 2010 (secured) I'm going to ask EO that they unsecure the highest limit/oldest card and consolidate limits. My question for those who've done it is, how long do I need to let these sit with minimal balances before approaching the EO for this unsecure/consolidation request? Also, is there any point in adding deposit to the secured card before asking for them to unsecure it? Thanks in advance

Hey All! I've had my Cap 1 secured MC since April 2012 and the CL is the initial $300 that I secured the card with. I've read where they will do CLIs for secured cards after 6 -12 mos. of good pay. I have never been late and usually pay in full every month since I've had my card. Saturday, I chatted with one of their CSRs and asked for a CLI. She walked me through the process of asking for one online and told me that I would receive documentation in the mail in 7-10 days asking for proof of income. I received an online document in my inbox this morning that said that Cap 1 does not do CLIs for this type of card -- which I know is BS! Should I call their backdoor number about this?

Hi everyone! I have been lurking here for a little while and thank everyone so much for all expertise and help. Before I found this forum I wasn't doing things in order. I did have some initial deletes and fixes but I stopped trying to repair for a couple of months so that I could start over and start with address deletes. I just sent out letters yesterday to all 3 CB's for personal info deletes. This brings me to an account that I need help with after I get the initial personal info fixed. My husband and I both had a secured cc through PNC that we opened in June of 2011. My husband was in the military at the time and we were in the process of getting reassigned somewhere else. We had hit our 12 month mark of on time payments and were told that we could get the $500 deposit back. We went in to our local branch (this was also our bank) and talked to one of the loan officers who stated they had never heard of giving the money back. So she made a call and was told that we could close the account and have it applied to the account. The balance was $322. She said we would get a check in the mail for the $178. We moved from Ohio to Myrtle Beach and didn't think anything of it. In January of 2013 I decided I was going to do our free credit report pulls and see how our credit looked. We were shocked to see that PNC had charged our account off for the $322. We didn't receive one single statement, bill...nada, and here it was reporting on both of us. I have tried talking with PNC and the credit bureaus...I've sent letters out to everyone. The CB's come back as verified every single time. PNC sent me some information and it looks like they waited until it charged off and applied the $500 to FC's and late fees so that we would be stuck with the $322. I don't know what to do from here...they clearly owe us $178 because we closed it in July of 2012. Any advice? Sorry to be so wordy lol. Thanks!!

Are there any recent US Bank secured credit card graduates? Am looking for some insight on length of time before receiving conversion or if I need to instigate the request. I've had this card for a year and 3 or 4 months. Just completed a 0% balance transfer offer with NFCU and wondered if now would be a good time to try to get the card unsecured. I still have some baddies on my reports and not sure if I should hold for my NFCU cards to report or try to get USB to graduate before they hit my credit reports? Any insight, experience or opinions? As always, much appreciation!

Greetings All, Well... I just don't know what to say.. Navy Federal has brought a tear to my eye tonight. This all started about 13 months ago where as part of my credit repair I opened a Secured nRewards Visa for 2k. Six months into this I raised the deposit and thus the credit limit to 5k, and then 8 months in up to 10k. In each case there was no credit pull for an increase, just the additional deposit. At 12 months on the mark, they automaticly released the 10k on hold in my share account and unsecured the card. I did not request this, heck, I did not even know until I logged in and noticed I had a much higher available balance in my share account. After that, I called and inquired if I could have my card switched to the Flagship Visa Signature card. They did it without hesitation and without a credit pull. Given my international travels, this card serves me very well even with the annual fee. The additional rewards, lack of foreign fees, and extra perks more than make up for the annual fee. And that brings us to today, month 13. I decided to roll the dice and try for a NavCheck just to see what would happen. I hate to eat in inquiry, but thought it was worth the risk. I decided to go for broke and requested the maximum a 15k limit. Instant Approval on the website. I then asked to be transfered to the credit card department, and asked if it was possible to use the same inquiry to check for a credit increase. I mean, if that one went so well, lets see what else I can do. I was informed they are a seperate department and if the request had to go to manual review, it would require an additional credit pull. I asked if we could check for an instant approval and retract the request if it required a manual before a credit pull was performed. He said yes, that can be done. Well, I asked for an increase from 10k to 15k. I was informed the system would auto approve me for up to 22k, I was then asked if I wanted the 15k I requested or the 22k that was offered. Heck yes, I took the 22k. There was no credit pull required for this increase. I feel like I am still dreaming. This is far and away the largest limit card I have, with the next best one being an old Orchard card, now Capital One for $1600... I am 100% sold on Navy Federal. By far they have taken care of me more than I could ever have asked for. Even during those calls they kept thanking me for being such a good customer. Telling me that is why they are willing to do what they have done. They seem far more concerned with my relationship with them than past issues and problems. For any of you that are lucky enough to be Navy Federal members, take care of your comittments to them, they will do the same for you in turn. Thanks for listening, and joining in my joy!

Greetings All, Well, I had a nice suprise from NFCU the other day. They automaticly unsecured my nReweards Secured Visa after exactly 1 year. I opened this account with a $2000 deposit, at 6 months, I upped it to $5000, and at 9 months, I upped it to $10,000. When they unsecured it they left the full $10,000 credit line in tact. To add to it I called and asked if there was any way I could convert it to the Flagship Rewards Visa Signature card as I travel internationally a great deal and it was done right on the spot with nothing but a soft pull (verified) to determine the interest rate, in my case it stayed at the 17.9% I had on my nRewards card, but that really does not matter to me as I pay it in full every month. I did inquire if a limit increase was possible but was told that would require a hard pull so I declined. The represenative seemed very aware of the difference between soft and hard pulls and did an excellent job of describing each one correctly. This is now officially my hightest limit card by a long shot, and has made me a true beliver in NFCU.

Greetings. My score is 690 and I want to build it up by adding more lines. I have one new BofA Visa with a $10K limit, a Macy's, and 4 mortgages. No late or collections. I just applied for a Chase/Southwest premier Visa. I am now considering adding a pre-paid (AMEX/Serve) or a secured card (Cap 1). In general, given my situation can anyone recommend whether I apply for a pre-paid or a secured card? I've heard that a secured card is better for increasing your score. Also, any thoughts on AMEX/Serve or Cap 1?

Ok... so Dear Neighbor has open loan with USAA never late on it as well as a mortgage which had a series of lates, however paid all on time for the last year. She has no other positive credit.. probably about 13-15 mediclal baddies however with collection agencies. I am going to coach her through handling them, however, she is interested in trying to at least open one account in the meantime to start it aging. My questions here are... 1 - Since the relationship with USAA has been ongoing with the loan for about 2 years, should i have her inquire about an unsecured product that may be weighted on with her flawless payment history on their other product... 2 - If denied, is she automatically offered the secured card option without having to do another pull for this? She is military retired therefore i would assume full member as well. Just didnt want to route her to Cap One secured or straight to the USAA secured if the history may work in her favor to get USAA unsecured having already established a relationship with them. Your thoughts here?

Hello All - First time poster looking forward to improving my credit score. I'm interested in obtaining a secured credit card to start the rebuiling process. My question is would it be better to get one card with a higher balance of $1000, or two different cards with $500 each? Thanks in advance.