If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll have seen mention of the Discover it secured card. It’s one of the best secured cards currently on the market due to the fact it has the same rewards program as the regular unsecured version. For those with excellent credit this isn’t anything exceptional – but for those with no or bad credit even having a rewards program is fantastic.
Unfortunately there is no way to apply for the secured card directly. You have to apply for the regular version of this card, if you’re denied they will sometimes offer you a secured card. I did a bit of snooping (talked with somebody who works with Discover) and was told that they are currently offering the secured product to denied applicants that they believe would make good long term customers. When asked what they consider good long term applicants this is what he told me:
- Must not have any bankruptcies on file
- No credit history, with income
- Not a lot of new accounts on file
- 3+ years of paying on time if bad history on credit report
These are not hard & fast rules (apart from the bankruptcy on file) but guidelines. He also gave me a little tip, he said that if you’re denied for the unsecured card and don’t receive the secured card offer you can call the regular reconsideration/hotline and specifically ask for the secured product. This won’t guarantee that they’ll give it to you, but it will greatly increase your chances of being offered this product.
He wasn’t able to either confirm or deny that the card will graduate to the unsecured product with responsible prolonged used. For the majority of our blog readers this won’t be particularly useful information, but this product is one we get a lot of e-mails about so we hope this helps sort out some of the confusion.
