I am looking for a low deposit secured credit card. I just finished with my capital one secured deposit and should be getting my card from them soon, but would like to find another company that is as good as cap one about letting you pay your deposit as slow or as fast as you want and with how much ever you can send them whenever. Does anyone know any other company that is as good or better than that? If so please let me know.. Thank you.
May I ask you why you want a secured card in the first place? I always counsel against those because you end up paying interest for spending your own money. Once they have you hooked, they seem to be very reluctant to unsecure them as well. On top of that, they are much like borrowing money from a finance company. You end up with sub-standard credit. Don't make much difference that you pay them like clockwork, borrowing from finance companies doe not build good credit. Even unsecured cards from the sub-primes does not build all that great of a credit report. It takes Amex, Diner's Club, Discover, bank cards, that sort to build great credit. So why do you want secured cards?
Bill, do you really think that automated scoring systems can tell the difference between Amex and Providian? I can't imagine that they could.
We just got one for my husband through FCNB and they were very helpful. Min deposit was $100 then your credit limit could be up to 300% of your deposit, based on your credit. The only fee was the $35 yearly fee, no app fee or processing fee. The phone number is 1-800-876-3262. We have only had the card for about 1 month, but so far the CSR's have been very helpful and courteous.
I never fiddle with scoring, so I probably won't be able to give you a satisfactory. While I understand that scoring is important, and I also realize that those creditors who only go by score are not going to find out such things as what kind of credit cards are involved or much else. You meet their score requirements or you don't. And that's precisely why I don't fiddle with that. What is important is when you go to buy something of value, the creditor is going to look at that printed credit report and it is the printed report that is going to determine whether or not I get my new car or whatever. I'm pretty much of the opinion that if your printed sheets come out in great shape, the score will go along and reflect that. Hope that I am right about that!
Here is a good link.... http://www.bayhouse.com/order-credit.shtml#Sterling Apparently some secured cards list themselves as secured and some don't. You want the ones that don't. Also you want ones that report balances. I have a secured card (1st Consumers) and it did raise my credit score. They also, after one year, sent me back my deposit and have sucessively raised my limit until it is now $4000. (I started at $1500). I don't think they advertise like all these other guys (Future card, etc.)
For secured cards that report unsecured, my 1st premier MC reports unsecured. Just thought I would let you know.
I want a secured card because I messed up my credit when I was younger 18-20 (22 now) and no company will approve me for a unsecured card. I have learned my lesson and am doing things right now.. I am just trying to prove that I can pay the stuff back ya know.. ?
Well, as far as I am concerned, the best bet is to do battle the way we are telling folks to do it here on this forum and clean up your credit ratings and then build new credit. In my opinion, that's the best way to go. Just one thing, and that is that there are only so many sub-prime cards you can use to rebuild with. All wealth has it's limits, and the number of companies willing to put out sub-prime cards to get going with are limited too. I'd almost be willing to bet that there are less than 15 companies offering sub-prime easy to get cards out there. Blow them all up and you are in deep trouble trying to get started again.
