Wondering if anyone has had any experience with this situation. I have had *really* bad credit for many years and haven't had any credit or even applied for anything in years; have basically just been waiting for everything to fall off. Anyway, now I have only a few items on my credit reports and I think I can probably dispute them away, but I am not sure how to start building some positives. This leads to my question: I keep getting offers in the mail from First National Bank of Marin for a secured card. I have considered taking them up on this as a way to start re-building. The problem is, FNBM is one of the cards I had that got charged off about ten years ago. They have a little disclaimer on their offers that says you can't have had an account closed by them in the past, but do their records go back that far? I'm assuming they do, but wondered if anyone knew for sure. I don't want to send them money for a processing fee (or application fee or whatever it is), and then have that money be wasted because I am not eligible for the card. I wondered if anyone had been through this already and could tell me what happened. ???
Y'know, unfortunately I think I had a Cap One charge off about the same time (ten years ago), so I'd be in the same pickle with them I guess. This was all a long time ago, during a traumatic divorce that makes my memory blurry, but *if* I recall correctly I had: Charged off card with First National Bank of Marin Charged off card with Capital One Charged off account with Household Retail Services Charged off card with Montgomery Ward Charged off card with Signet Bank So, would it be smart to assume that these are all places that would never ever accept me again, even years in the future? It is my understanding that credit reports go back only seven years, but are the internal records at these places kind of...eternal? By the way, on a different note, what if I ever try to buy a house? Are they going to find all these old items that were never paid? I *would* have paid them all off after I emerged from my post-divorce stupor, but by then they were all about five years old and it was brought to my attention that paying would be a *bad* move because I would re-age everything, so I just waited for them to drop off. At this point in my life, all these years down the road, I don't know what the right thing to do is.
4 years ago I had a charge-off with Cap One, they gave me a secured card 2 years ago with a $200 line. I now hvae a $3000 line and 9.9% apr. If it is secured they have nothing to lose.
I would highly advise AGAINST getting FNBM. First they will charge up your card with the costs and you will be left with $15 credit. Your first month plus interest will eat that up. When you make a payment, they have a rep for holding it until AFTER your due date. They then charge you $35 late fee. That puts you over your limit, so then you get hit for another $35 over-the-limit fee. For many folks this escalates into hundreds of dollars and you never used the card! They have further ruined your already bad credit!!!! I would look into Bank of America's secured card. Put down your deposit first. If you don't use the card, or charge small amounts, you won't get into the above problem.
NO DONT NO IT. They are crooks. They will rip you off even more than before. I had their card and it was the worst.
