Approved for NFCU nRewards Secured Card

[twilliam1313]

I just opened a account with NFCU today and opened a checkin and savings account.  My question here is how much should I put down for the secured card for the best chance at at CLI at 3 months and for it to become unsecured at 6 months?  I was planning on putting $1k into it but after searching in the forum and reddit ive seen that people are saying to only do $200 or $500 for the best chance at the CLI and to become unsecured.  Im trying to start building a good relationship with NFCU so wanted to see if anyone could point me in the right direction here.

Thank you

[GZG]

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@twilliam1313 wrote:

I just opened a account with NFCU today and opened a checkin and savings account.  My question here is how much should I put down for the secured card for the best chance at at CLI at 3 months and for it to become unsecured at 6 months?  I was planning on putting $1k into it but after searching in the forum and reddit ive seen that people are saying to only do $200 or $500 for the best chance at the CLI and to become unsecured.  Im trying to start building a good relationship with NFCU so wanted to see if anyone could point me in the right direction here.

Thank you

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if they're going to graduate you, that means they're okay with you having $2k in unsecured revolving credit card limits with them. 

that means that it really shouldn't matter how much you deposit between $200-$2000

Some nRewards cards get a 3 month CLI of ~$300-$400 on top of their deposit, which is a good sign of potential graduation.

You do gain a benefit from a larger deposit by: showing you have more money, spending more on the card and paying that back in full, showing you can handle and PIF a higher credit line.

Theoretically, if you do a $2000 nRewards, if/when it graduates, it won't get a CLI (and you shouldn't get the 3 month CLI), therefore you won't need to wait 6 months from graduation to get a CLI, you should just be able to ask for one immediately. But I've never seen a DP for that. 

If you're planning to heavily use the card and PIF every month, I'd put as big of a deposit I could afford up to $2k that you would be okay with not having access to if it doesn't graduate in 12+ months, although it might just graduate in 6 months, depends on the rest of your EQ file/score/performance

if you don't have any loans, consider a 5 year, $3001 SSL with navy to help with your credit and your internal score with navy. 

[twilliam1313]

Okay, that makes sense and what my thought process was at first but then i started to question myself after doing research.  Made some credit mistakes years back and now am trying to get back on track.  I moved 75% of my direct deposit to start going into NFCU and my income is 130K right now. Was planning on using this card for everything right now and using AZEO and just paying it off as soon as I use it.  My fico scores all in the 640 range right now.

[keekers]

Just a data point for the nRewards...my son opened one 3 months ago with $200 to start his credit. His 3rd statement just cut and he got bumped from $200 to $700.

[CreditPoor]

Best advice is $500 to start. You'll want to max that out and pay off immediately several times during the month and NEVER CARRY A BALANCE. Last parts most important.

[md_rebuild]

A NFCU secured card was my first after my BK7 discharge.   I opened it with $500, and probably put around 2K a month on it, paying it off in full every time it got close to around $400.  After 6 months they unsecured it and gave me a SL of $2,500.   Since that time (4 1/2 years ago) I've grown it into a card with a CL of $14.5K.    NFCU can be very good to you....After you get your scores up to about 680 (and you have about a year or two using your unsecured card) app for the Flagship or Amex.   I did (and had gotten a few cards with other lenders - and my DTI was low and my utliz of all my cards was less than 10%) and they gave me huge starting limits.

[xiuxiuejar]

My datapoints FWIW:

Applied Late January. Put $1000 down. Card arrived Feb 3rd. First three statements below:

1.  Feb 19th: Statement closing quicker than expected, so ended up $100 balance and $20 minimum payment. Had actually charged $421, but paid $321 a few days before (luckily). So ended up with 10% utilization on card. But didn't report this month...
2. March 19th: Knew what to expect this month, so charged $355 and paid $458. So ended up with $3 credit somehow...
3. April 19th: Charged $575, paid $559. Somehow ended up with $13 right before statement hit, so 1% utilization. Also noticed on this statement that the available credit was now $1400.

So $1000 to $1400 increase. Other data points: I have 5 cards all received in last 6 months. Cap1 Platinum, at 3 months received auto increase to $500 and offer to change to Quicksilver, I changed to SavorOne instead. Apped and approved for Discover It Secured and US Bank Altitude Go Secured also with $1000 each on those. Just applied for and approved for AMEX Gold last week. All baddies are off EX and EQ with one still on TU. FICO8's are at 760, 743, and 660. Utilization on one or two cards at 1%.

[twilliam1313]

Thanks for sharing all of that, still waiting on the card right now but put $1k into it.  Hoping to get that auto cli after 3rd statement and graduation to unsecured at 6th.

[keekers]

Good luck; keep us posted.