annoneil01

rollinhigh, publicsavbk and ckmoderator have already answered why secured cards can be a good option, particularly over debit cards.

besides, being the victim of erroneous charges myself it's MUCH better to deal with erroneous charges on a credit card than it is on a debit card. much MUCH better.

hi publicsavbk, thank you for posting on this thread by the way. anyway, what i think dajcarroll is asking is...... will the card ever be unsecured and available for usage? or is it secured only? Reading your response to dajcarroll, it appears that this card is secured only and the only way to get one's deposit back is to close it.... is that correct?

Remembering the Crown Jeweler vs. Experian&Equifax fiasco...... isn't it possible for a company to send information to a bureau and for the bureau itself to refuse to report out of concerns of fraud/playing the system? (the only other bad thing about that is that companies pay for the privilege of reporting, I have heard nothing about whether or not Experian refunded Crown during the time Crown itself though it was reporting to Experian.)

I too will look at this thread occasionally to see whether this card is a good card or not to recommend to people with little/no/bad credit. I also agree with CK Moderator that more actual data is needed from actual cardholders.

"Why do we have to fork out this money?? I want to improve my credit but.."
-- perhaps it's a blessing in disguise, so that people who can't really afford credit card usage become more invested in their credit instead of taken advantage of by folks like Aspire. If you can cover a deposit, you have the fortitude to be responsible with credit. If you can't cover a deposit, how can you afford to be responsible with credit? Something like that. Good luck in getting your situation together, smithsmeat. (and good luck for me, too, heh.)

denied why? what was your FICO/
FAKO, who did they pull, what was your utilization on your other cards, were you actually in school when you applied for the card? what reason was listed on your denial letter?

CK Moderator is right, possum09. That's on top of AmEx having their own special in-house system based on 'points'. You can have a fabulous basic mortgage-enhanced FICO (or FAKO), but you won't meet their criteria based on other things. I hope you return to the site to let us know what was on the official letter.

Eh. I made the mistake of applying for this card last year. FICO doesn't mean everything, I had a 739, didn't lie about my income ....... and was officially denied because I was a part-timer at my job. That was the sole reason listed on my denial letter. An attempt at reconsideration led nowhere. I had no idea they had access to that information. I had no idea that Transunion, Equifax, and Experian provided THAT information, because it's not on my copies from them. I wonder if First Simmons declined me for something that was on another consumer report, one which for whatever reason they didn't want me to know they had really based their decision on. I also wonder if First Simmons is one of those 'special' banks -- like, they'll take old money, but not a truck driver. I don't know. I was approved for several other cards during the same time period, pre-economy being destroyed. Of the 18 members who have said yes to recommend this offer..... has anyone actually been approved? And has anyone actually gotten more than the so-called 'toy limits' that have been reported of those who have gotten in?

snd4000, yes it does affect your credit score........ if that slash affects your utilization percentage. CSRs don't always know (or are not allowed to tell you; or are misled by management into giving false information) about what's going on. What have you seen since you made the post in April? Was your utilization affectd by the slash?

Hi, Darrin692001. I, too, have had the exact same scores through for a very long time. I keep a log. My Credit Karma FAKO has not changed since APRIL 23, 2009. On the 'good' side, that's exactly the same as my True Credit Transunion FAKO, which also has reported the exact same score since April 23, 2009. Off-topic, April 23rd is also the day that six hard inquiries were added back onto my true Transunion report, lowering my FAKO by 3 points. Could have been worse. :) A true credit report direct from Transunion later revealed that the only change was Transunion had chopped nearly all of Credit Karma's soft inquiries. I'm going to order another true report in a couple months. If I'm still at my current FAKO in November, I'll just accept that I've plateau'd and this is the best it's going to be until my accounts age more (barring a catastrophic life experience). :) What's your exact situation, Darrin?

Advanta is closing all cards to new charges beginning June 10, 2009?

i agree with bigboynoise and dkilby. there has to be a better way to help people who are in chexsystems than this. the fees are outrageous, and unlike a 'second chance' bank account it doesn't look like you'll be 'upgraded' to a real credit card or real bank account after a certain time period. Instead of getting interest bank on YOUR money, you have to pay 14.99% interest -- again, on YOUR money? This may be legal, but it's legal usury. Can not recommend.

don't you have to provide proof you're in school to have one of these cards?

In response to Karmatruth: Quicken looks like the better deal than Bank of America.

(minus) Not everyone has a Bank of America account, or would be eligible for a Bank of America account.
(plus) Anyone who has $25 can pay for Quicken's basic software, and it's not going to cost them a 2 year hard inquiry against their credit report
(doubleplus) Quicken's Online site itself is free for anyone to use, regardless of FICO score
(tripleplus) Quicken charges no one any fees, there are no minimums, there is no interest. It's free.


So sure, if you already have Bank of America, use what you already have. If you don't have Bank of America (or are not eligible for its products), it doesn't do you any good to be told to use a product you have no access to. And it sure as hell is NOT WORTH AN EXPERIAN HARD INQUIRY (or more, since Bank of America will pull multiple times, no matter what their reps say) to get a service someone else is now offering for free to everyone. That's as bad as all the folks who tell people to use services which are only available to American Express cardholders, as if everyone has American Express.

Quicken wins, by dent of making itself more accessible to more people. In Bank of America's case, I can't get ANY information about it; no matter what link I use in a Google search, it directs me to a page asking me where I am located. Entering my state does NOT take me to a page to get more information on My Portfolio.

If people have real complaints against Quicken online, be nice to hear them.

gibsonsg -- I recently had an account cancelled with an entirely different bank from WaMu because I had a zero balance in there for about 25 days. On a different note, I have a savings account with a third bank (credit union) which I haven't touched 2 moves and 6 years ago which come to find out is STILL open. I had left that account with interest pocket change in it.

It sounds like they wanted you to come in and close the account because there was still money in it? And you wanted them to mail you a check for what was there? You did the right thing by withdrawing that money. Of course you may have to worry about 'non-activity' maintenance fees, but WaMu doesn't sound like that type of bank.

doublee, what was your score? did you have any bankruptcies or collections on your report?

Wait, Discover is pulling TWO credit bureaus at a time now? And that's separate from them pulling your credit report again when your bank faxed information. Yikes. Thank you for the information, mirex1982.

hummer, what was your score?

LRSantini, there was no option for me to choose 'no'; is that because I had already voted 'no' before writing my response? I don't know why it has a green 'thumbs up' next to my opinion. I'd rather have the neutral sign.

Capital One is now most notorious for dinging all three credit bureau reports and low credit limits even for high FICO scores. They are required to report credit limits, now, so that's no longer the issue it was pre-2007. It is still notorious for not growing with people. They do have a new system in place called 'Credit Steps' where if you're part of the program you'll get at least three automatic CLIs (starting from the 3rd month). Some people have reported not getting any CLIs at all after the third automatic. That's better than many of us older CapOne holders who are on the 'never eligible for a CLI' program. Capital One doesn't tell anyone this. The only way around that is to apply for a new Capital One card, with it's new low limit, and hope you got approved on a program which allows it to grow with you.

If you must apply, apply with caution. Know what's on your credit report, not just your score. Many people have frozen all of their credit bureaus, for the sake of protecting against identity theft, and only give permission one bureau at a time. That way you won't be dinged across all credit reports, and you have more control over your credit and overzealous hard inquiry checks. And no one can open a card with your permission this way.

I cautiously recommend 'Capital One' for the new 'credit steps' program, if you are in need of credit rebuilding; but they're going to have to do a lot better.