Capital One® Secured MasterCard®

GOT MY UNSECURED CARD ON MARCH WITH A 530 AND IT RAISED MY SCORE 613

Capital one really does raise your score. Just make sure you charge and then pay half bill or all of it and it will continue to bring it up.

try jewlery stores put some money down on something and get them to give you credit for the rest i couldnt get accepted for anything and just took a shot at getting an engagement ring put half down and the rest on their credit card points have gone up by about 20 in a month along with paying off some student loans but i wish i would known they would have excepted me sooner great way to boost your credit im hopping after i pay the rings off ill be able to get a real credit card also i hear target excepts people with no or poor credit just cant risk another hard hit on my credit

how long did it take for your score to jump that high?

My score was 568 and got approved. The card sounds good only time will tell. I will keep everyone posted.

How long did it take to raise your score with this card? I was just approved and need to reestablish credit to raise score to get a car. Help. thanks

Question i see you paid the $200 deposit  with doing that how much credit did you received 

How long did it take for you to get that much of an increase in your score and how long had you had your car before you refinanced it?

You got a card with a score of 530?!?! I'm not much higher than that. I'm going for it. Thank you!

Soonerjb, how long did it take for your credit scores to changed?

Sooner,how long did it take you to raise your score?

how long did it take for your score to jump that high?

How long did it take for your credit scores to increase?

HOW SOON DID YOU SEE THE IMPROVEMENT IN YOUR SCORE?

how long did it take your score to raise? i recently became debt free and am wondering how long its going to take to re-establish a good credit score

Very helpful !

How can I get  A  card.

WHAT WEBSITE DID U CHECK UR CREDIT FROM

how long did it take yr scores to go up?

i have the same card but my score has not done near that.  how long has it taken your score to jump.  i have had my card only 2 or 3 months i think.  please respond thanks....

did u find out your scores for free? i can only see one

How long did it take you?

how did your score improve in just 4 months? it takes 6 months to update with the credit bureaus

how long the that process take roughly ?

How long did it take you to raise your credit score? Also with this card from what i'm understanding you apply, deposit $200.00, charge on the card and as long as you pay what ever of the $200.00 you spent in full by the due date theres no interest charges?

how long did it take you to raise your score with this card?

WOW...Great review. I just received my CapOne Secured card. I had to pay a security deposit of $49 for a $200 limit and plan to deposit $50 here and there to raise my limit. I didn't know too much how to charge effectively but you cleared it up for me. Thanks.

Matrry1- Can you explain a little more about how waiting to make your payment boosts your credit score? Are you saying once you view your monthly statement and say the payment is due on the 1st of August but the date you view the statement is July 10th,  are you saying do not make a payment until right before its due? I'm confused by this. I'm not  sure I quite understand and I could really use some advice and tips on how to properly utilize credit cards to dramatically improve my credit rating. I always make my payment right before it is due  is there another way to make a payment that better affects your credit score? Do you mean making a payment 2 weeks before its due date can change the effect on your credit score?

And I don't use the card but once a month (after my billing cycle and payment has posted) to fill up my vehicle one time per month. I got this card to use it strictly for once monthly purchases and in turn make the full balance payment, in order to build my credit. 

Hello, I just need clarity on how you suggested we use the card...for example, say I purchase some gas, I get the statement and it says $40 due on Jan. 1...don't pay it right away, but wait a few days before Jan. 1 and then pay it, this way it's still on time but not super early??? Is this what you're suggesting???

I just need clarity because I want to use it the right way so I can see all it's benefits, I'm really trying to repair my credit for life!!!

I enjoyed your review until I got towards the end where you made the comment about people who "can't spell"....you made the following mistakes with misspelled words also. These are your direct quotes:

1.  "People get upset about the card when in fact they don't know how to use the card to beign with so the only person you should get upset with is YOURSELF!"                          should be begin NOT beign

2.  "So remember just because the card hasn't been of help to you, it doesn't mean it won't work for somebody else who need help with theior own credit!!!"                                         should be their NOT theior

                                                       "Be careful about stones & glass houses".

...People be careful of reading comments from people who "can't spell"...that is a definite RED FLAG of a fake comment of someone who is just bashing for no reason and doesn't have any common sense at all lol

What about those with bad grammar and punctuation? Should we be careful of those comments as well?

Thank you this was a very, very helpful review.

So does that mean we should be careful of your review?  You had several words that were spelled incorrectly, as well as punctuation errors. Sorry, but just saying! Before you point your fingers and judge others, make sure you practice what you preach:)

Hi Cosmo1217,

You're very welcome, glad I could help!

As for collection accounts, they stay on your credit report for 7 years. The time on them starts on the first delinquency date so in many cases there might be less time remaining on them than people think since a lot of folks thinks it starts when the account is moved to collections. To learn that 1st delinquency date though, can be a pain. I had 4 and not one of them showed the "1st delinquency date" on my reports from any of the 3 Credit Reporting Agencies. I used that in my favor though as a reason to contact each collection agency (more on that in a sec). Even the CRA's wouldn't tell me this when I first asked, except Experian (funny too, since this is the one most of us hate). Months later I had to call Transunion and that rep told me, so it may be who you talk to. If you've read my posts then you most likely now know how to dispute effectively, but I'll write it out again in case others find this info.

First and foremost, abosolutely YES, Dispute anything and everything. Nothing bad can come of disputing and the effort one needs to put forth is rediculously easy. People just need to sift through the insane amount of false information on the web. Even this post will quite possibly become out of date, but this is 100% factual. One thing people do (me included), is to Google things without being mindful of the date. There are tools to narrow a search to 1 year or less, but I tend to use 1 year at the most. Some blogs, articles, posts, books, (even apps) etc, our very outdated and information in them that predates the FCA (Fair Credit Act). Much has change and here's how to dispute, the best approach and more facts to kill lingering myths.

Disputing does NOT reset the clock on an account's 7 years (this changed a lot in the fair credit act). However, when contacting collection agencies you need to be mindful of some things. I say contact them because by law, you must even though sometimes it "supposedly" can be avoided. Don't avoid it, because if you just dispute, then the collection agency fights back, you will lose most of the time. If you contact them as I did though, you put work in front of them that 3 out of 4 in my case saw as too much work and never replied to me, thus I easily won my disputes. There are things you need to avoid when preparing for a dispute.

Don't call them, period. You have nothing to show the CRA's that you'll be disputing the account from in a phone call.

Never take ownership of the account before disputing.

Write a letter to each collection agency (letter folks, not email, haha). Send it to them certified mail and get email confirmation of signature who signed for it. Monitor this and once it is signed for you'll be able to get a pdf document showing the signature. Save this and start the clock. The only hard part is this part,,, wait 30 days. If they do not reply to you, you are very likely to win your dispute. If they do reply, that's still not a bad thing. Before I go in yet another direction with my over tired brain, here's what I wrote as my letters:

***************

"Hi there,

I recently pulled my credit report for the first time in years. My past certainly had some financial issues, but the account I'm writing to you about doesn't appear to be mine, or it lacks any useful information I can use to check the account's validity. If this account turns out to be mine, then I'll be hoping to clear the matter up as soon as possible.

There are some things I need before I can proceed:

1- Original account name.

2- Original account number.

3- First delinquency date.

4- Original amount.

5- Last but not least, if this account does turn out to be my own, I'd like to clear them up best I can. I have many creditors and limited funds so all I am asking you and my other creditors, is if they are willing to remove the debt from my credit report if this debt is paid in full. Please keep in mind I still need validation. If this can be accomplished with your agency, then please reply to me in writing. Sorry for the legal'ness of this, but I'm just trying to do the best I can with what I have available.

Thank you for your time and have a great day!

~ Dan

***************

3 of the 4 never replied and another agreed to remove it (in writing) if I paid the balance off. There was another bad account that wasn't in collections that I contacted also. They agreed to at least mark it as paid in full, showing a $0 balance. This isn't a bad booby prize since manual credit checks (most are automated) the person has a chance to at least see you did indeed pay it, and that does hold wait to individual's opinions.

Well, hope that helps. Sorry if there are typos. I had to rush this second writing because credit karma timed me out and I lost everything I wrote, haha. Wish they would fix that. On that note, if you have other questions (or anyone else). You can contact me. I can't put my email here because of spam bots, but just look at my user name here. Drop the 777 and replace that with 342. I'm at the yellow smily face :) That should be easy enough.

Time to run out and have a drink and yell yippee, it's a new year! Let's all hope this one's better than the last! Something tells me it will be ;)

PS. I don't work for anyone, I don't sell anything, I don't take money nor want it. My intentions to help are genuine since that's a rarity these days. I can care less to have peoples email addresses and don't spam, I fight spam actually. So if you email me and it's spam, you will be blocked. Just tossing that out there, thanks!

25 Dec 2013 Update *** Credit increases (non-paid).

This is a mini update since I just did my monthly update and won't have much more info until mid January to add any inforamtion. I chatted with a rep earlier and learned something that I wasn't happy about. Don't take it out on me, but I don't think you'll like it very much either. I asked about credit increases. The person then spammed me a quick paragraph on how I could get a paid increase (meaning you deposit more). I said that wasn't the one I was asking about and they finally told me:

"I do apologize, but we are not currently increasing credit lines for the Secured MasterCard without an additional security deposit being made".

There was a lot more said from both of us, but that's the only relevant sentence. They said they are constantly changing their polocies but the decision was made to no longer offer increases to secured cards without additional deposit. I plan on calling them to ask about this before my next update, since I tend to get much better support on the phone during business hours than online chat.

A couple quick things. I haven't been posting long on Credit Karma but now see how cluttered my responses to myself look with these updates. Seems that when people vote them up or down, that dictates the order that they're listed. In order to keep things less confusing, I'll be making all future updates with the date in upper left corner as see in this post. Sadly, we can't update our existing posts, but moving forward this should help I think.

Another small note is this site is behind the times with getting  updates. It's meant for reviews and not meant as a public forum I guess, so there is no option for me to reply to you. All I can do is reply to myself. That now being known, I would say if you ask me a question, to just check back after a day or two and I'll do my best to stay on top of this. I'm on often, so will have to manually check since the option to recieve email alerts seems to be for any new posts to entire thread and not post related.

Next (more informative) update should be around mid January.

Take care.

My score actually went up twice now in the last few weeks. Unfortunately I don't think it was this card since I've been attacking lots of other things on my credit report. I thought the card would have been reported by now, but I talked to a Capital one rep and they said not until the end of my first billing cycle, which will be 12 Nov (card received 24 Oct). I went from 579, to 603, and just last week 627. This is all just my Equifax score. My Experian went down 50 points somehow but hope that was a major glitch somewhere and they hadn't updated what I had removed.

What I did was this:

• Sent 4 Creditors certified mail saying I needed validation. I also told them I had limited funds and if the information proved to be correct (and mine), that I would be paying off the first to reply to me and 1st priority to those that in writing told me they would then remove themselves from my credit report once paid in full.
• I waited 30 days, then disputed one of them with Equifax (Only). A week later I got an email stating it was removed from my report. Wow, I really didn't expect that at all.
• The 2nd bad mark on my credit report was removed by the creditor for paying it in full upon validation, and they did agree to that in writing like I asked.
• I paid a very small one in full and the creditor at least updated the status to show Paid in full. That was the 3rd and highly doubt that would or even could be calculated in my score (looked upon more positively, yes, but not calculated).
• The 4th will stay on my credit report for 2 more years, since I refuse to pay it. Was a car loan and the got the car back after 4 years of payments and I only owed $1,200.00. They have $2,100 on my report and I was bent over backwards with them, so no deal, ever.

Some important notes:

1. If you can't seem to apply for a dispute. It's most likely because you don't have a credit report pulled from that credit burea in the last 30 days. Even the $1 online "free" ones from various sites will allow you then dispute with that particular burea.
2. The above is why I only did the dispute with Equifax. I have read many many times that you need to dispute with each of the 3 bureas (Equifax, Experian & Trans Union). However (and that's a big however), the dispute that I won was removed from all three. How I know this is simple. 2 1/2 Months ago I paid for all three reports. I had the one that was removed on each of the 3. After I saw that Equifax removed it, I paid for another experian report to dispute the same one with them, but it also was removed without me doing anything at all. Also to note, it wasn't scheduled to come off my report for a few years. I re-read some of the articles that I thought said "You Must" report with each, and it actually says that you should, since it's just not guarunteed it will be removed from teh others. This really surprised me and I consider myself lucky. I never had to pull a new credit report with Trans Union for the dispute, but got a letter back saying that they do not have the account I was disputing on my report. Another bonus since it was on there just a couple months before.
3. I hate to sound like a cheat here, but dispute everything! Seriously, what do you have to lose? Nothing. I planned on paying 3 of them and the sole purpose of my letter was to find out who would remove it, vs who would at least put paid in full (or show a 0 balance). The dispute was only for the one that never replied to me in 30 days (which I read somewhere I had to do). It was without a doubt mine, but it lacked original creditor\lender, and it lacked my first delinquency date (they all did), so I disputed. Never thought it would get removed but it did. I paid one and it was updated, so won't bother now to dispute it since it shows the balance change. The other I got removed for paying off the debt and them agreeing to do so. 1 out of the 4 agreed to do that but it's worth asking.

So what I have planned now is to wait until mid December and pull all three reports again. Reason being for me, is that first of all, it gives the new card a chance to report to them that I have the card (and balance) which will be Nov 13th, and then Dec 13th will technically be the 1st reporting since a billing cycle was billed and paid. I should also note that I certainly wouldn't be pulling 3 reports for just a 2 month old card. It's mainly so I can see it updated with the other accounts I mentioned and also to see if my address change happens (that will once capital one reports to them). I'll update then and hopefully be able to give some more good news and answers. I have a few questions going on, but won't see them answered until I do that next credit pull.

Good luck folks. Hope that reads well, very tired and eyes won't even allow for a proof read ;)

Update I mentioned for mid Dec.- "When does Capital one do their initial report of my new card?".

Hi folks. I mentioned I would update around now, and here I am with some more info I know a lot of you are dieing to know. It won't make some people happy, but at least it's accurate.

Originally I was told it was the day after my first billing cycle. This is not true. Later I talked with a rep on the phone during business hours. Chatting is a waste of time and very annoying because they're horrible. The rep broke it down for me and told me that the normal monthly reporting is in fact the day after ones billing cycle (which is why to pay it off by the end of your billing cycle and not the due date). However, the initial report when Capital one reports your new account for the 1st time, is the day after the second billing cycle. The reason is this. Capital One and I imagine all banks, won't have any information to pass along to agencies until you have passed an actual "Due date". Your billing cycle most likely closes very close to your due date. In actual time this takes about 2 months. Here's my timeline:

11 Oct 2013 - Account opened.

12 Nov 2013 - First billing cycle closed (This is when your first statement and balance due will be prepared).

9 Dec 2013 - First Due date.

12 Dec 2013 - Billing cycle closed.

13 Dec 2013 - Capital One reports to credit bureaus for the first time.

17 Dec 2013 - myFico reported I had an added account on my report. Finallly (seems to take forever when you are looking forward to it).

There is one thing to keep in mind here. Don't pull your credit report that day or the day after and expect to see your card reported. Don't expect myFico to report a change right away if you have the monthly credit score watch, and please don't think credit karma will tell you this any time soon. The xfactor that you need to add to the timeline is waiting for the agency to do something with the new data Capital One gives them. They are expected to get it on your report as soon as possible, but that certainly doesn't mean they absolutely must get it on there immediately. In my case, it took 4 days.

I decided to pull only the credit report that I had myFico monitoring for now. Also since I have an unexpected travel coming this weekend and can't afford all three reports tonight. I pulled the one Equifax report. My score had improved from 627 - 643. My report now finally has an open account, haha, and a positive one for that matter. It changed my payment history as seen by myFico from bad to Good, since prior to that card I only had one other account that had been charged off and negative years ago. I won't go into detail of the myFico report since much of it only effects what I see and not a calculated score.

So what's next for me is some salad. Credit salad. I read a lot. Hundreds of pages if not thousands in the last few months. Variety of accounts is said to be a small factor, but in my case it's not doing it so much for that, but mainly because I need it. It's going to be a car loan for a cheap used car of under $3,000. My monthly payments will be $69 so worst case scenario I'll be able to pay that minimum. I intend to pay much more a month on the princaple however. I need more credit, but minly, I need a vehicle since my boss is changing policy on taking home the work vans. My credit is tainted with the collection account still so credit card apps will only get denied. Car loans are at a high and normally are much easier to get than a credit card. So I doubt I would ever take out a car loan for just credit, but I need it at the same time. Personal loans is also a no way in my case due to my credit, but again, a car loan? No problem. My interest rate will be high at about 10% to 12%, but for a $2,900.00 car I don't care. In my eyes it's just an account to have, pay off and have it reflect a good positive account for the next several years on my credit.

Hope that helps. I have a lot more to say about credit scores, but having had written lots of reviews lately, I need to read what I already said before repeating myself since you've most likely read all the above. The main thing is to not believe any score you get. The most accurate I've read is your myFico score, but then again I've said that many times and we've all paid for fako scores. My next update I hope to included some great data. During a time like this of getting a car loan, I can compare what the lender's report said vs what all these sites tell me. I intend to compare that with my scores bought from each of the 3 credit bureaus directly, myFico scores, and what credit karma reports (for me CK is always a very inflated score). The next update will be between 2 or 3 weeks would imagine.

Hope you all have a very merry Christmas and Happy new year!

A new year, new credit, a new and better life perhaps.

Danbo777-

I've been reading and enjoying your posts..you have a lot of good information..thank you! i was wondering how long a collection can stay on your report? Also, should I dispute these collection accounts? Your insight would be most helpful!

Hi Cosmo1217 - part 2.

Sorry but realized I left off a tad short and didn't say what to do next after writing the letters and waiting the 30 days (long day and "had" plans to go out so was rushed).

After waiting the 30 days you then file a dispute.

Problem with filing a dispute is you must have a recent credit report pulled. This doesn't matter where, in fact if you pull your Experian report from Experian themselves, your online log in for them will redirect you to freecreditreport. This is possibly only a must for Experian because in order to talk to them you have to have a 10 digit number that's on the report you bought. You will not see this on any online bought report so for Experian you'll need to file either on the phone to have it mailed, mail them direct, or buy through freecreditreport then call them and they'll transfer you to Experian.

Transunion and Equifax I know do not require a number, but can't say they don't need to see some form of having a recent report pulled since I pulled all 3 just prior to disputing.

They all offer online disputes. The links I saw changed several times so won't bother posting them. You're always better off just googling "Transunion dispute" or whichever you wish. If possible I'd say to call them. Even on the phone though, Experian will ask for a 10 digit report number unless being handed off to them from someone else.

If you did as I did, you then just tell them what you want to dispute and why. If the collection agency didn't respond to you after 30 days, then you simply tell them that you wrote to "said collector" asking for account validation because the account may not be yours, and that they haven't replied in 30+ days. Add to this that you sent the mail certified and have the pdf files of the person who signed (of course do list that persons name that signed for it if you can actually read it).

That's it. Write letters, send certified mail, get persons name via certified mail, wait 30 days, file dispute.

*If they do reply to you, then you can either try to work with them in either a payment deal or one lump sum. They may actually be willing to drop the price by a huge amount. I've read that many will and saw this myself over the years from the mail they sent me. They buy your debt for pennies on the dollar so there's normally room to play. Weigh what you think you should do. If you only have a couple years to wait and don't plan on really needing that boost in your credit report, then just wait it out. If you make a deal, get it in writing and avoid phone calls and never give them your bank information such as checking account number. Avoid new contracts since that is "New" and is the only thing that could fall into the categorey of restarting the clock (even though it's totally different).

Last thing I want to mention is that once the statute of limitations runs up (the 7 years), that only means the account is off your credit report and that the collection agencies can't sue youf or it. It doesn't mean that they cannot keep hounding you for payment. I try to settle what I can for only who will remove it from my report. They all have that power but some will say they don't. They themselve may not, but that is a false truth since their manager or boss most certainly can. It's my debt and I need to pay my bills. I'm sure none of us want otherwise and most of us had hardships that lead us off course or were blindsided in being young and unexpecting by just how fast interest rates can increase our little purchases. You do the right thing by writing the letter and technically that is the legal way to dispute anyway. Then dispute, and dispute, and dispute. Being denied only hurts the ego. It doesn't reset the 7 years and doesn't hurt you in the least.

Hi Foxxavierhh,

 Hope you find this reply. I think CK seriously needs to add a reply to link for people that reply. My only option is to reply to myself, and checking the box is only when new reviews are added. It's very simple to add one for just an alert for something more specific. Ok, rant over, haha.

Hard to answer your question since everything I wrote came from various sources. I went nearly 2 decades without checking my score, or credit reports. At one point I had great credit, but mainly because of the military and taking several loans out from the on base credit unions at the time. About a year ago I started to look into starting my own small business. I was doing a job at a customers house (not my own business yet) and we were just talking while I worked. He was giving me advice on LLC vs Corp,etc.He was an accountant and a credit specialist of some sort. He almost died when I told him I had been paying cash for most things the last 15 or so years. I never knew good credit fell off your report like bad did until he mentioned it. Again, I never really gave it much thought. Him and I became friends and he gave me lots of good info. My ex girlfriend also was\is a good source. She works at a Bank of America and even though she is not a loan specialist, she is going to school for a better position and will tell me straight out if she's not 100% on anything. Finally, proper Google searches, and lots of them. People (me included sometimes) tend to just read without paying attention to the dates. When reading blogs or articles about credit, it's extremely important to change Google's search preferences to the maximum of one year. Things change very often and the top choices that search engines give are often the ones clicked the most. So a page or two of 5 year old articles may be in front of one written yesterday if you do a normal search. Typically, I search for "Within the last month", and if the results are slim, or after I read what's there, I'll then up that to a longer time frame. Some blogs\articles out there have information from before the fair credit act was passed, and that's just amazing. Talk about bad information and very out of date.

Last but not least, always be wary of who you trust. An article written by someone on a site that sells something, has an agenda. I'd say the majority of people are easily swayed (or manipulated) when they really want something like repairing credit. They then take advantage of their vulnerability. Even credit karma does this by telling them they have a good chance for a card when they don't. Why? Because it's a business and they make money for every person they bring to any one bank. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy credit karma, but their scores are at times over 100 pts higher than my actual score. It's still a good service and it's free, so could they do better and still make money? Absolutely. They should have a better web designer (I'm available CK if you're reading this!). It's not that hard to check someones report and see if they have an account in collections for instance. If they did that, they could be honest with people and say "Do not apply for any non-secured cards until the collections account is removed". Instead though, they tell people they have a shot, based on their own inflated score model and the person gets a hard inquiry for nothing. They could easily improve many things and get more business and money in their pockets while building better credit for themselves with the community, but there I go ranting again, haha.

Hope that answers your question, but if you have a more specific question on exactly what was said, I might be able to find the exact source for you. Best of luck to you and happy holidays!

~Dan

**** Update **** 7 Feb 14

One main thing to update this time, and that many people have asked throughout this card's many reviews is about when Capital One will grant a credit line increase. Currently Capital One does NOT give credit line increases on this card. I asked via chat a month ago and I just called them to verify this was still true just minutes ago. They say: "We are currently not granting credit line increases on our secured cards, and the only way to increase your credit limit is by making an additional deposit on your card". This answer may change over time, but as of this date, 7 Feb 2014, it's 100% accurate so do not expect an increase anytime soon unfortunately. When and if you ever do decide to check, I strongly suggest calling rather than chatting since many times I've had horrible experiences with their chat assistance. Even if you create your own post elsewhere, it would be much appreciated to many if you could reply to this series of updates.

Not much more to update on this card that I haven't already mentioned here, or elsewhere in this particular thread. When I first started here on credit karma, I wasn't aware how the postings worked so do have other posts on this card and things about credit in general on other pages. Rather than post the same information, please check those posts. Both are lengthy reads and one is mostly about how certain things about credit actually work. Many people are incorrect about many things and it's amazing that this card could not have 5 stars. From what many people state, it seems more like they're building credit for the first time and are just ignorant to how certain things work (ignorant meant by it's actual definition in simply, not knowing). Their intentions are honorable, but there are a lot more inaccurate posts for this card (or credit in general) than there are, accurate.

These other posts are titled:

1.) "Dates, ImageCard, Paid limit Increases" - Page 5 currently.

2.) "Myths and misunderstandings" - Page 6 currently.

 * This is if you left the current default "Results per page" to 10. This too may change in time.

This update will be my last for this card until I have something worth updating it for. I'm pretty sure after this update there won't be anything more to say. I do actively monitor though, so all questions will be answered (but keep in mind your replies do not have "Reply" buttons, which means I will need to reply to you by replying to my first post above).

Final thoughts; This card is the best option for people with no credit or bad credit in my opinion because of several factors. Easier to qualify for, it's from a prime company with no way to see if it's a secure or not, fair APR rate since after all, it's helping you. If you have bad credit or no credit, don't waste too much time adding pointless inquiries on your credit report. Get this, let it help you. Try to refrain from being too over anxious for your credit to repair. It takes time. Be responsible and always pay by your billing cycle close date (not due date).

Best of luck folks!

Danbo--Thanks a lot for the info.  Do you mind if I ask where you got all this knowledge and information?  I am in the process of increasing my score as well.  Thanks!

Awesome...congrats!  One piece of advice from a veteran to a newbie - try not to use so much of your available credit.  Your score will go up a lot more.  Use a MAX of 30% if you MUST.  But try and keep it 10% or under.  Also continue to pay the entire balance every month so you never pay interest...in no time, AMEX will be kissing your feet!

thanks a lot to all the above comments, makes me feel at ease...i too have never been approved for anything and all of a sudden, but i had to put a 100 deposit down for 200 credit and they say my card should be on the way!!

Good comment. I like this one and you're right. Thanks for you contribution.

In responce to "CK Moderator" "Regarding us being out of date, we only report what the bank reports to Transunion. We retrieve the data in real time."

Sorry to perhaps seem as this is an attack. It certainly is not. I respect moderator and moderate and administer 7 forums of my own currently (hobby related folks).

Credit Karma is incredibly out of date as you can see with my tickets I've submitted.

CreditKarma states that if the data is inacurrate to file a dispute. This is horrible since people will be filing for things that may not exist. Since most moderators only know as much as most of those who visit these sites, but pay more attention to what the guidlines are, let me explain exactly how credit karma works. This is documented fact as this users experience and again, I have this "Documented" and all available for you or anyone to see.

Creditkarma gets it's data from Transunion when you sign up for Credit Karma. After that, or since I've signed up back in October 2013 my data credit kama reports for the most part has in fact stayed the same. They do report new things, such as new credit cards, new inquiries, new, new, new, but old stays there.

To better explain to you since I'm sure you actually read, unlike credit karma's support. Here's my ticket(s) beef.

I noticed that after I disputed several items and had them removed that they still showed in what credit karma calls my report. I read all the FAQ's, I read everything credit karma ever posted actually since I believe in being thorough in order to be analitical. I read credit karma state over and over again how if it's in the report on this site, then that IS in the report from Transunion since this is supposedly live data. Believing this, I called Transunion since I just recently pulled my report with them and had one active (less than 30 days). They assured me over and over again that the said accounts were removed from my report. Being a web designer in an advanced hobbyist way, and knowing how streaming works (data), I figured that credit karma most likely only gets new updates and old won't fall off because there's no arguement to compare it to (data wise, not people complaining). This so far is the only thing that holds water, not what credit karma states. I believe that they are simply ignorant to how things actually work and just don't know that there are many flaws. I also figured that there must be some trigger to get my creditkarma data totally refreshed, perhaps something they're selling somewhere. Again I looked all over, googled, etc. Nothing. The only thing I found several of was the Transunion links here and there are the site. I was hopeful that if I followed one of their links, that Transunion would also update them with all the data in that report and get rid of the old BS that this site can't let go of. Sadly that only cost me more money for a report I already had and one that the Transunion rep also mailed to me when I called yet again. The rep had no idea who credit karma was and that means nothing since he's only a rep, but facts are still facts just because credit karma chooses to ignore them. I then gave it another month. I pulled all three reports and again all my disputes for the accounts in collections were gone. Another month passed, a new ticket to credit karma. Yet again they don't read and just say "If there's a problem with the data on our site, then it's on your report and you'll need to dispute it!".

No more patience with credit karma or any support that can't seem to get a brain cell to properly fire. I've tried patiently to spell it out for them too many times.

So sorry, but you too are ignorant to the flaws in this sites way of gathering data. Ignorant by the definition, meaning you do not understand, nothing wrong with not knowing something. Now you know.

I suggest since support here is unable to read, that you have someone contact me. I do https and have 13 certifications. One of my forums has tighter security than the NSA, in short, I know what I'm talking about. The issues with the collecting of data on creditkarma are flawed in a way that few people would see them and higher would just ignore them since they weren't reported mainstream. I on the other hand have your source code right in front of me. I can't say exactly what the problem is that way but am quite confident that I could get to the bottom of it with your webmaster in a matter of minutes.

TL;DR

The site's issue is a script in "Linking your Transunion Report to credit karma".

The site's ability to see new data works without issue (definitely far from live, at best 5 days after from all my experiences).

The site's ability to update old data doesn't work when presented with a nul. In other words, if my banks name changed to a new name? Then there's something to "COMPARE" it to, so in those cases, it will work. If it is nul, meaning there is just the absence of that data, it doesn't not work since my belief is your programer, developer, or webmaster's script doesn't see nul as an object, or populated field. So not there = old stays on because it is content.

*Pleas don't think a "credit score" is data, it is far from it. it's a calculation via model and not the kind of data I'm talking about..

Sorry for the rant and thanks for doing what you do. You're not the bad guy\girl here and I hope that didn't come across in my frustration. Moderators in my eyes are the unspoken heros that keep public forums healthy and proper. My (a lot of our) beefs are with not being listened to. If credit karma can't fix it, it's because they're to arrogant to look into it, period. In that case all they need to do is create a new annual refresh when someone buys a report from this site. That's insanely simple and sure even someone not willing to read what I suspect is the issue will at least raise an eyebrow at the chance for profit.

Happy New Year!!!

~ Dan

Ive only had one card in the past but it seems to me they rase the limmit a lot faster with most companies if it seems you are able to make payments on time but have a larger % of your max limmit on the card. ie if your limmit was 1k then if you keep your card at 800 or so in my exp they would raise your limmit faster then if you keep it at 300 or so balance and never got close your limmit.  i went from 200 dollars limmit on a card to 2k in just 2 years to bad i didnt know how much that would hurt me later on but still it seemed the months i was closest to my limmits were the months they gave me increses the most.  (note that that was a clout visa card not this card)