Fleet secured cc â??info and question

I have seen some questions about the Fleet secured Visa card in the previous postings. Just wanted to shed some light on this â?? and also ask a question.

I have their application/brochure right in front of me. â??Todayâ??s the day you can start building good credit.â? No application fee. No annual fee. APR is 18.99%. Default APR is 23.99%. They match your deposit dollar for dollar ($200 min to $5,000 max). Simple mail-in application.

â??No one but you will know itâ??s a secured card at point of purchase.â?

This leads to my question â?? does anyone know if they report to CRAs as â??securedâ? or as â??classic Visaâ?? I am concerned that they mention the â??point of purchaseâ? as opposed to just saying â??no one but you will know,â? like some other banks.

Additionally, they offer a Savings Secured Loan. â??Instant answer. Guaranteed approval. No credit check required. Establish a strong credit history.â? 5.25% APR. Secured by a savings or CD account. â??Visit your local branch to apply.â?

Same question as above - how is this loan reported to CRAs?

Many thanks.

 

Bumping - plus some new info. I suppose I should have just gone to the source in the first place.

This is rather amusing!

Spoke with six (6) different customer service reps at Fleet over the past 2 hours (just kept calling, racking up the statistics). Asked all of them the same question: is your secured card reported as "secured" or as "regular"?

3 out of 6 said "it is reported as secured."

The other 3 said "it is reported as regular."

Place your bets. I will keep calling until the balance tips at least 30% one way or the other.

 

Thanks Luke. Has that done anything good to your reports and/or score?

Still making friends with the Fleet reps re: their card...

 

8 pm EST. The balance is 6-4 in favor of "reported as secured". However, the 6 were real quick to say "secured." The 4 who said otherwise actually took their time, put me on hold, checked and came back with "reported as regular." I guess I will keep at it for a while.

Incidentally, if this is of no interest (except perhaps from a sociological standpoint), please tell me so, and I will shut up.

 

Just to finish off the Fleet saga: I called Fleet and asked to be transferred to their credit department. Their definitive answer is that the card is indeed reported as secured. As for my survey of Fleet reps and their knowledge of this subject, the final balance was 11-5 in favor of "reported as secured".

On a related note, up until half an hour ago I was unaware of the fact that a more or less comprehensive report existed on secured cards, their terms, and how they report to the CRAs. Some of the info may or may not be outdated, but it's definitely better than anything else I've found. If this is not news to anyone but me, I apologize.

http://www.cardweb.com/cardtrak/reports-dead/secure/secured/issue32.pdf

 

Again, please keep in mind this report was written circa 2001 (judging by the footer), and thus some info may be outdated.

As for American Online (Pacific) Bank, I just applied for their secured card, got approved (duh), and should receive it "in 11 banking days". After it's reported to the CRAs and there's been some activity on it, I will post a review.

 

Regular. I enclosed the paystub (didn't see any harm in that, EFX and EXP both have my current employer - should I not have done that?)

Sent everything out this past Tuesday with a US Postal Money Order and CRRR. Haven't got my green card back yet, but called them on Friday after CreditWatch alerted me to a new inquiry. They said the account was approved and I should receive the card in 11 banking days. They also said that the card will start reporting 30 days after the account is approved.