Unexpected Credit Limit Increase

[shipo]

Hello BKForum community, I logged into my TDBank online account today to pay my TDCash credit card and had to do a double take. It looks like sometime over the last week my credit limit on that card got a very nice bump from $5,000 to $8,500.

History of my TDCash card:

• Following the discharge of my Chapter 13 in March of 2020 I made a few false starts to get back into the credit game and ended up absorbing something like 12 hard pulls against my credit reports in the first few months; this certainly didn't help my scores.
• In late June of 2020 I decided to pony up for a $5,000 limit secured credit card from TDBank; the card was approved and I made my first charge in early July.
• In early January 2021, exactly six months from the day I made my first charge, the interest bearing savings account used for my security deposit was unlocked (i.e. my card was graduated to unsecured) and my TDCash card was upgraded from a regular Visa to a Visa Signature card.
• Then as reported above, in late February of 2022 my credit limit was bumped $3,500 without any associated request from me.

What I'm curious about is what caused the CLI:

• Was it due to the card being unsecured for 13 months?
• Was it due to my Chapter 13 falling off my credit reports last month and my scores rocketing up over 100 points?

Honestly, have no clue, but I'll take it.

Long story short, for those of you rebuilding following a bankruptcy, if you live in an area serviced by TDBank (roughly the eastern seaboard), I cannot recommend them strongly enough.

[Carmella]

That's great! I looked up TD bank online and it looks pretty straight forward. I still get that feeling I want to open a card/apply for a card. When the time is right I will try a secured card with TD bank.

[shipo]

That's great! I looked up TD bank online and it looks pretty straight forward. I still get that feeling I want to open a card/apply for a card. When the time is right I will try a secured card with TD bank.

My only concern for you is there are no branches in your area, and I believe as a bank they are what is referred to as "Geo Fenced" in that they cannot open new accounts for folks who live outside their areas of operation. Checking a map, it looks like the closest branch to you is something along the lines of Leesburg, VA.

[Carmella]

[GL57months]

I just checked their website as well, and Ohio is not on the list of states in the Location drop-down box. Bummer. I was not sure if allowed to reference banks here, but I think it is a great help that shipo has posted this info, thus I will report that Key Bank in Ohio, helped me with a small balance, savings account secured card, three weeks after my Trustee posted paid in full. They approved the card two days after the security deposit was made and the application was completed in the branch. The local branch employees were very helpful and respectful. A positive experience in my case.

[shipo]

Congratulations on getting an account set up! Another option for folks in Ohio is Fifth Third Bank; I have no personal experience with them, but have heard good reviews on them. Per their web site, you can deposit enough to bring your secured credit limit up to a maximum of $5,000, which seems to be some sort of a magical number once the card graduates. In my unscientific studying, getting a secured credit card with that limit means, when graduation happens, secured cards on the MasterCard platform become World Elite cards, and cards on the Visa network become Signature cards.

On other well reviewed secured card is the one offered by Discover.

[GL57months]

shipo it would be really magical if I had 5K to deposit anywhere, LoL. The silver lining to that financial status is I have a larger after-tax income replacement percentage rate with my social security income. The bend factor helps those of us slightly under the middle-class income bracket stream. COLA helps also.

[Carmella]

Thanks for the info GL57months and shipo Both banks mentioned are close to my house, easily accessible. I will keep that in mind and I will most likely wait until next year, even though I have kept thinking about starting before BK is paid. Ironically I don't have accounts at either of those banks.

[shipo]

TDBank does it again 10 months later...

I logged in to my TDBank portal to pay my bill today and noticed my second auto-CLI in 10-months; this time from $8,500 to $11,500; I have to say, TD has really taken care of me.

Long story short, if one lives in the TDBank geographical area, I cannot recommend them strongly enough.

[Carmella]

Well that's something shipo I totally forgot about this conversation. It's a good reminder.

I want to get my husband some sort of card. I wasn't thrilled with Ally for the auto loan and don't really want to have another high interest credit card. Though he probably should have a credit card in his name maybe this is the route to go.

[shipo]

Hey Carmella, if I recall correctly you live in the area of Fifth Third Bank; if so, I still hear good things about their credit card offerings, so they might be worth a look.

[Carmella]

Yes, shipo we live close to 5th 3rd Bank. Would we go to the bank and inquire in person? That's what I was thinking. I would like to get my husband a credit card and secured would be fine. It's too hard to keep paying everything in cash. We only have one debit card for each bank account, and it would be a pain to manage two of us using a card from the same account, so he has continued with cash. Hopefully the secured card wouldn't gouge with interest. The plan would be to pay it off monthly, but just in case I don't want to deal with 25% or higher interest like on the Ollo Card.

Speaking of the Ollo Card (now run by Ally) I got it while our BK was still active, but didn't use it until after we were discharged. I think I have only used it 3x and paid it off in full. 5 months after the discharge they upped our limit from $1,500 to $2,400

[shipo]

Yeah, I'd go in and inquire in person; their secured card gets good reviews, but I think there is a fair chance you'll qualify for an unsecured card or two.

[GL57months]

Update on my Key secured M/card, opened in Feb 2022, in Oct 2022, the security funding in my savings account was released. I got an email 3 or 4 days after I noticed the funds becoming available on their mobile app. Sweet! I did not request this action, the decision was based on a planned review after six months of perfect payment history, small charges monthly, and under 10% of the credit line balance. About a month later, I received a call from the local branch offering an upgrade in card and increasing the $400 limit to $1000. I was pleased and interested but decided to wait for the one-year anniversary of my discharge. Glad I did, as my credit union also released my security deposit on that secured card, and raised the limit to $1000 as well. The rep said they would keep the same account to maintain my payment record for one year, and I could use my same card instead of waiting for a new card that Key was going to issue.

Both were positive outcomes, just one slightly better than the other. The Key process would have required a trip to the branch, not a big problem, but the credit union was all completed over the phone. FYI, this was Ohio based Credit Union.

[Zombie13]

Making good progress GL57months!
We have a secured card with our credit union, opened in march or so of last year. When I inquired about converting to an unsecured card, they said they would run a credit check / hard pull. That sounds like, it is not an automatic process for us. I will call them again to confirm. My question is, when is a good time, after the bk discharge, to attempt the conversion? PenFed reports one of my scores as 760. I figure, may need to do it before the 2 year anniversary of the discharge occurs, since then, our credit scores may drop due to re-bucketing. I think I need to create a new thread for that, to avoid 'overtaking' this thread.