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Question about how a secured card helped me rebuild after a mess in Denver
So I messed up my credit pretty bad a couple years back - missed payments, collection calls, the whole deal. Moved to Denver last March and couldn't even get approved for a basic apartment without a co-signer. A coworker told me to try a secured card with a $200 deposit from my credit union. Six months of paying it off in full every month and my score jumped 80 points. Has anyone else had a secured card actually work that fast or did I just get lucky?
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rose_clark817d ago
$200 deposit only?? @hannahj49 i cant believe that was enough to start
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...and honestly I think the speed depends more on what else is on your report than the card itself, like if you had a bunch of late payments that fell off right when you started the secured card you'd see a bigger jump. The deposit amount matters too actually, I've heard putting down $300 to $500 instead of $200 helps your credit utilization stay really low from day one (since they report the limit the same as your deposit). Also worth checking if your credit union reports to all three bureaus or just one or two, because some of the smaller ones only report to Experian and Equifax and that can make your score look different depending on which one you're checking.
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