Blew my budget on a secured card deposit and still got denied

I saved up $600 for a secured card deposit, thought that would be enough to get a foot in the door, but the bank in Phoenix turned me down because of a 2-year-old medical bill. How are you supposed to build credit when the gatekeepers won't even let you in?

4 comments

4 Comments

owens.anthony1mo ago

My buddy Marcus tried the same thing in Tucson with a $500 deposit, and the credit union told him it was "insufficient to offset his risk profile." That's banker talk for "we still see that old cable bill you forgot about." He ended up having to get his mom to co-sign a secured card, which kind of defeats the whole point of trying to build your own credit.

sean8541mo ago

My credit score was so bad that when I applied for a secured card, the bank asked if I could put down my firstborn as collateral instead of cash. I guess that old medical bill on my record makes me look like I might skip out on payments to go to the hospital again. But hey, at least now I have a good story about getting rejected even when I'm literally handing them money.

claire_grant341mo ago

Did you end up taking your mom up on that co-sign offer?

allen.iris1mo ago

The real issue nobody talks about is how medical debt gets reported way differently than other kinds of debt. Like, you could have a $200 bill from a random ER visit that goes to collections, and suddenly it tanks your score the same way a $20k car default would. There's actually been some movement lately to remove medical debt from credit reports entirely, but it's taking forever to go through. Meanwhile people like you get stuck in this cycle where you can't even get a secured card to rebuild. The whole system treats being poor or sick like a character flaw instead of just, you know, life happening.