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I have always had problems with credit. The saying is true, the older you get the wiser you become. I experienced credit first in college….I remember they were handing out t-shirts if you signed up for a card. I didn’t think much about it, but surely in the mail some weeks later, Congratulations on your Citi card. If only I had known what I know now!
Well, fast forward to today….I received my CapOne Secured card last year and have been keeping up with it pretty well. So…I applied for some more cards and….I got em! One after another and now I have 5 cards in all! 2 MC’s and 3 store cards! While I was excited for the cards, the bills aren’t that exciting.
It now brings me back to those days of I need to pay all of these cards and the minimums are not that big, but when they are all put together, they are! I will not be or need to be applying for anything until these are all paid off. I know that I should use them at least every six months to keep them active, but I don’t need anymore right now. I think they will make my reports look good with the great payment histories and when all of them have low utilization, that will look good too.
Excellent advice ambersun. Just like you, my first experience with credit was in college. I used to get calls and offers through the mail all the time and that’s how I got my first credit card. I wish it was as easy now for me to get credit as it was back then!
Unfortunately I didn’t use credit responsibly then and I’m suffering for this now that I have a family and want to buy a house (I’m sick and tired of paying rent and living in small apartments!). But well, I just need to be patient. I’m using the Capital One secured card to rebuild my credit and I think I’m moving in the right direction (hopefully).
It’s good to hear from other people that have been through this so thanks for posting!
If you don’t mind the question, can you tell me what is the other MC that you have (is it a secured card?) and also, how has your experience been with the Capital One Card.
Thanks!
Well with the Cap1 Card, I had to start out with the whole amount secured, $200. I sent in $225 and just have been adding to it periodically. I am just up to $500 now. I have heard that bigger limits attract bigger limits so I want to add more to at least get it to $1k. I haven’t been able to keep it below 35% or 50% utility but I have paid it on time all the time. I haven’t seen an increase from them at all, but my score isn’t that great either. My goal is to get to another year and apply for an unsecured with my credit union, hopefully I’ll get a bigger limit and be eligible for big limit increases.
Probably about 3 months ago I went on an app spree. I applied and got HSBC 2% reward card $39 annual fee $300 limit. I went to their pre approval link to see if I was eligible for anything other than a secured card and that’s what the screen came up with. Capital One also has a preapproval screen, so instead of having to get a hard inquiry on your report, you can get a soft one (only you see this one, not the creditors, they see hard inquiries) and be confident you will be approved (I think almost always).
The other 3 were charge cards, WFFNB – Express, Victoria Secret, and Blair. I think I just got caught up in the “my score is a little higher, let me see what I can get” phase. On these, I’ve read where you can be preapproved, but you have to go on the sites and add a few things to your cart and go through like you are going to check out, you may have to or may not ( i don’t remember) put in your cc # and right before you would have to click on submit (which I didn’t) you will see a pop up window that says you are approved…for xxx amount of $$, if you are preaproved, I got $250 on VicSec, $200 on Blair, and $350 on Express. I heard this works on almost all WFFNB company sites if your scores are to their liking. I tried on others in between the ones I was approved for and didn’t get the preapproval message for those. So this is it for now. At least six months!
I think I just got caught up in the “my score is a little higher, let me see what I can get” phase.
That’s really funny! I see that happening to me as well, going on an app spree. I can actually see it coming.
Congratulations on your HSBC unsecured card, that has to say something about how you are handling your credit now.
What do you think about Capital One’s policy on refunding deposits. I was about to send an extra deposit for a CL increase but now I’m thinking about getting a second secured card instead. For example, I like that both Citi and Bank of America will refund your deposit after 18 and 12 months respectively. Capital One only mentions they’ll refund your deposit after you close your account, and I don’t plan to close it any time soon!
Oh yes, I actually read someone’s post that talked about that on this website. I was waiting on my deposit to be refunded or at least for an unsecured amount to be added in that same amount, however, I never saw anything. I have never read where anyone has gotten their deposit back……I have read where they have gotten a limit increase though, but I have not experienced neither one.
I think I just got with them because they were easy to sign up with and the deposit was so low..everyone else was $500 to start, BUT if I knew what I knew now, I would have tried somewhere else like the ones you have mentioned. I did try with my credit union and they wouldn’t give me the time of day even on a secured card!
Personally, I think you should go with another card. The fact that I thought I read that I would get my deposit back after a year and my card would then become unsecured really attracted me to the Cap1 secured card.
I agree, I think Capital One offers the best deal in terms of a low deposit. I was approved for a $200 CL card with a $49 deposit. But for some reason I also thought that they would give the deposit back after a number of months, but now that I go back and read, they only say your deposit is “refundable”, but when you close your account.
One thing that I do like is that “you may earn credit line increases based on your payment and credit history”, which basically means getting unsecured increases (I’ve already had a $100 increase). All in all I think it’s a great card and it’s serving its purpose.
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