If you have poor or fair credit, one of the best strategies to increase your credit score is to obtain a secured credit card. A secured credit card is backed by a cash deposit that you must supply either at the time of submitting your application for line of credit, or when your credit application is approved. Your cash deposit is your credit limit. After 6-18 months of on-time payments, some credit card companies offer an award of a credit limit increase which is unsecured (meaning you do not have to pay any additional deposits to increase your credit limit). To get this discussion forum going, what are some credit card companies that you know of that offers either secured or unsecured line of credit to applicants with no credit, poor credit, or fair credit?
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I first started out with a secured credit card from Open Sky and Capital One. My initial deposit for Open Sky was for $200.00 and my Capital One secured credit card initial deposit was for $300.00. Over 12 months, I've deposited a total of $800.00 to my Capital One card. After roughly 6-12 months of on-time payments, I asked for a $500.00 increase on my Capital One secured card and they approved it. Another 6 months later I got another $200.00 increase that I did not ask for. After 2 years, I was eligible to get unsecured credit cards for 3K and up, but maintained my 2 credit cards since my current credit limits is all I can comfortably afford to have.