Applying for secured Credit card

[Paper33]

Good evening. I made my final payment according to my attorney last week. Although I have not been discharged as of yet, would their be an issue if I applied for a secured credit card? It has been a very long 5 years and I'm ready to get on with my life. Also at this rate when can I officially expect to be discharged?

[shipo]

A few comments in no particular order:

• I have heard anecdotally some individuals have been able to obtain a Secured Credit Card while in an active Chapter 13. However, I am not sure if this needs some sort of approval from the Trustee or the court system, or if this is a regional anomaly.
• My final Chapter 13 payment was posted during the first week of February this year and I got my Discharge exactly four weeks later.
• A week or so after my Discharge, I applied for a Secured Credit Card from Capital One and was denied because "...you are either in an active bankruptcy or you are planning on filing soon." I appealed and sent them a copy of the Discharge order from the court; to no avail.
• A month after my Discharge I applied for a Secured Credit Card from Bank of America if for no other reason than I'd been banking with them for over seven years. They also denied my application and for very similar reasons. I appealed this one as well, not only sending them a copy of the Discharge order from the court, but also pointing out my history with them as a banking customer; also to no avail.
• When my appeal to BofA was denied, I figured what the hell, and I reapplied to Capital One as they have a pretty good reputation as being bankruptcy friendly. Lo-and-behold, they approved me this time (I got my card last Friday).

I told you all of the above to say this, give things four to six weeks to settle, make sure all of the credit reporting bureaus show your Chapter 13 as having been discharged, and then apply. If you apply to Capital One, they have an unusual model for a Secured Credit Card, I say "unusual" because it seems unique amongst various financial institutions offering such cards in that they actually do offer some "credit". If I recall correctly, you are given several security deposit options ranging from $49 to $849, and based upon that deposit, you get a credit limit of your deposit plus $151 (i.e. my $849 deposit got me a $1,000 credit limit).

[Paper33]

Thank you for the information. Its crazy because credit one has sent me 2 preapproval letters in the last month for an unsecured card.

[shipo]

Yeah, I got a few of those last year; I swung the bat and was instantly denied due to the Chapter 13. After I tried to take them up on their pre-approved card offer, they took me off their list and I haven't gotten such an offer since.