- This topic has 16 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
My wife had to go to the bank the other day (Bank of America) to get a new debit card, and while she was there, they offered her a secured credit card. I didn’t think much of it, because she also has the Capital One Secured Card, so I thought it was just the regular secured card that I had seen on their website.
A couple of days ago, she got the same offer from them through the mail. It’s called the BankAmericard Cash Rewards Secured VIsa. I didn’t know there was such a thing. I can see this card on their website but it’s not a rewards card. I’m thinking that you can probably get a better deal if you actually go to the bank and request it, or if you have a checking account with them. This is the best deal I’ve seen on a secured card so far.
According to the information she received, it earns 1% cash back on every purchase, 2% on groceries and 3% on gas. She was offered a $500 credit limit with only a $99 security deposit. Also, after 12 months the account will be reviewed, and may qualify for an upgrade to an unsecured card and a deposit refund. And of course, it reports to all 3 credit bureaus.
Not a bad deal at all! (better than the Capital One Secured card I currently have). So, if you are looking for a secured card and have a Bank of America checking account, I suggest that you go to the bank and ask if you are eligible for this card. Maybe you don’t even need to be a BOA customer to get it.
Have you guys heard of Rewards Secured Credit Cards before???
Oh wow, that is a good deal! This sounds like a combination of their Cash Rewards card and their 99/500 counteroffer secured card. It’s usually one or the other, never heard of a rewards secured card before! I’ve heard of some people being offered the 99/500 secured card as a counteroffer when they are declined for an unsecured BoA credit card, but that offer doesn’t have rewards. Is your wife planning to apply for the rewards secured card?
Yeah, that’s exactly what happened. They asked her why she didn’t have a credit card with them. She told them she used to have a rewards cards, but the account was closed. Apparently they tried to reopen her account but was declined, and was offered the secured card instead.
She’s going to ask if it’s possible to put down a bigger deposit to get a higher credit line.
Let us know how it goes. I’m really jealous lol. I wish my bank, Chase, has these types of offers but now they only have their “high end” cards and cut out their old secured card and student card from their credit card portfolio.
I think BoA cards are really hard to get, but they do have generous credit lines. My dad has a BoA card and they give credit line increases often. The BoA student card was one of the ones I applied for a few months ago, but they only offered to give me one if I have a guarantor. I really wished for the 99/500 counteroffer, but oh well.
I’m kind of jealous myself, lol. I should go and see if they offer me something similar.
Maybe you can start by opening a checking or savings account with BoA. I think they should offer you a better deal once you are a customer. Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes.
UPDATE:
After a week of considering our options, we went back to the bank today. As I mentioned in my first post, my wife already had an offer for the 99/500 “Partially Secured Rewards Card”. So she got that one. We though it was a good deal, though we wanted to be able to add more money to increase her credit line, but apparently this is not possible. I thought that was kind of strange but well…still a good deal.
If you guys have been following my blog post, you probably remember that for some months I’ve been waiting for the right moment to open a 2nd secured card. After yesterday’s credit score increase, I thought this was the right moment! If I was going to apply for another card, I wanted to do so at a moment where I could be eligible for an unsecured card.
A few weeks ago I got a loan from a family member. As much as I hate doing this, I thought if I was going to open a 2nd secured card, I might as well borrow some money so I could really speed things up a little bit. Also, I’m married with children, so having a card with a bigger credit line is something I really need in case we are going on a trip, need to book a hotel room, rent a car or just to have a backup for emergencies. We would also like to buy a home in the near future, so I’m trying to speed the process as much as I can.
Well, apparently I still don’t qualify for an unsecured card. I think I’ll be doomed for some time because of the charge-off that appears on my report. But I was prepared for this. I also didn’t qualify for the 99/500 card.
They offered me a fully secured card, which I was happy and ready to take. But here’s the cool part, I was surprised when the guy said this was a “Cash Rewards Secured Card”. My credit line: $4000. After 12 months if everything goes as planned, I’ll qualify for an unsecured card with BOA, get the deposit and pay it back.
So, this is going to be an interesting year. I’ll probably start another blog post with all this soon
Fontanaman: If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of deposit did you have to put down to receive the cash rewards secured card from Bank of America? The full 4000.00?
Hi Shizume, welcome to the forums.
Yes, I had to put down the full 4k. They didn’t offer me a partially secured card, but a fully secured card so I had to put down all the money.
I’ve been reading a lot about this card lately and everybody seems to say good things about it. The only bad comments I’ve read are from people who got denied.
Apparently Bank of America reviews your account after only 9 months (though the site says 12), and if you’ve been good they’ll graduate your card and give your money back.
Are you trying to rebuild or establish credit? Do you currently have a secured card?
Hello to you as well and thank you for the welcome.
I am trying to do a bit of both, as my credit history is limited and I also had a not so good run with my first credit card when I was 18. It was a Capital One unsecured card and it was my very first. Needless to say that I was inexperienced and didn’t handle it well at all. It was closed and eventually charged off but was dropped from my credit report at the beginning of this year.
So I started over with the secured card in May, it didn’t start reporting/wasn’t officially opened until June. I’ve been following the reviews religiously and was so happy when I found this blog’s entry on the Capital One card. I was constantly coming back to read the comments and I still do so, but now I read the forums as well.
I had to put down the full 200.00 for the deposit and I recently sent in an additional 200.00 to increase my limit to 400.00. I am currently waiting for my new balance to show on my account, which should happen by this Thursday. I plan on increasing my limit periodically.
As for managing the account, I’ve educated myself now and try to spend as little as possible on it. There have been some emergencies and unexpected events that made me spend more than what I designated as my own personal limit but I always pay the balance in full. There was only one month that I couldn’t pay the balance in full, but I still made my payment, and thus I had to pay interest. I don’t plan on having that happen again.
However, I’m thinking that I need another secured card to help me out since all the reports I’ve viewed keep telling me that A.) my account history is too short, B.) I have too little revolving accounts and C.) my credit limit is too low. I can’t risk shopping around and putting in applications because I don’t want any more inquiries on my report. In the meantime, I suppose I’ll increase my current limit when I can and keep paying it on time.
My utilization is currently reporting at eleven percent, which makes me so happy, since it reported last time at eighty-three percent due to unexpected expenses popping up and me not being able to get the balance down in time.
I have three collections on my report, totaling 126.00 and I know that is negatively impacting my score. I don’t really know how to handle collections, unfortunately. I could just pay them off, but would that make them be deleted from my report entirely? Can collection balances be transferred to a credit card? I don’t know much about how transferring balances works either. Obviously I still have much credit education to do.
As for the collections, according to my Experian report, one should be dropping off the record next month and another in January of 2012. The last one won’t be falling off until December 2013. So do you have any advice for how to handle those pesky collections?
They’re the only thing that is on my report, other than the secured card and once they’re gone, I can say goodbye to that “potentially negative” section of my credit report. And hopefully for good.
Strange enough though, my Equifax report only shows one of the collections on it. The one it does show is the one that my Experian reports says will be on record until next month.
Whew, sorry for being so long-winded. I don’t really have anyone to go to for credit advice, so I guess I wanted someone to share with. In closing, I’ll share my scores. I’ve checked all of my credit scores for this month and they’re reporting as follows:
Transunion – 654
Equifax – 621
Experian – 614
And they all put me in the D grade level. Naturally, I would like to improve them all and get as far away from the D as possible. But in my defense, I did start off in the F level, so that D isn’t looking too bad after all.
Hey Shizume, thanks for sharing!
As far as the collections go, well, those two will fall off your record pretty soon so that’s great news. Nothing to do there. I’m not sure if I would do anything about the one that expires in December 2013, or if I would just wait until it falls off as well (unless you’re planning to buy a house soon then yes, I would probably try to do something about it).
It’s already 5 years old so it’s probably not hurting your score much anymore (I would assume). You also have the option of negotiating a pay for delete to get it off sooner, specially if it’s not a large sum. You can also try to dispute it with the 3 credit bureaus, it’s an old collection so if they can’t verify it’s your they have to delete it.
There’s another thread going on that might be helpful, about pay for deletes: http://www.newdirt.org/forums/topic.php?id=36
The 2nd secured card sounds like a good plan. It worked pretty well for me so I recommend it. I think trying to get a higher credit limit for the 2nd one is also a good idea. Then we all just have to wait for these accounts to age to see the benefits.
How much do you have to spend a month to really get anything from the rewards? My linit right now is only $600 I plan on adding more but will 30% of $600 a month get me enough points to do anything with? Or do i need to wait till my limit is higher? How would you rate the rewards program? should I even hassle with it? Thanks!
I like their rewards program but the truth is you really have to use the card a lot to see the benefits. I use it as if it was my “debit card”, and pay the full balance every two weeks.
With a $600 line and using only 30% of your limit, it might be a little harder to see some results, but you can set a goal to make at least the $39 annual fee that you pay for this card. That means you need to get at least $3 cash back each month, for which you need to spend at least $300. Now, that’s 50% of your current credit line, but you can spend $200 at a time and pay the balance in full, then use it again.
You can also register for BoA’s Add It Up program and earn extra cash back for buying stuff online (apple, best buy, target, etc). I’ve used it a few times and have earned some extra bucks. Granted we are not going to get rich, but at least the card will pay for itself.
I recently opened my account with BoA. Needed a $25 deposit in both checking and savings.
I saw the $25 pending from my bank but it never went through. Then it vanished (as if canceled payment). So my BoA account says $0 in both accounts. Saturday I got a letter for the pin number for the card.
Needless to say I’m hesitant to throw money in there. Seems like their whole goal is selling investment accounts. Or other products.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.