Many of the credit card offers that appear on the website are from credit card companies from which Wise Bread receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). This site does not include all credit card companies or all available credit card offers. Any opinions expressed are those of the author's alone, and have not been reviewed, approved, endorsed, or provided by the issuer.
The BankAmericard® Secured Credit Card is designed to help consumers who have no credit established or are in the process of rebuilding their current credit rating. (See also: Best Secured Credit Cards)
When you are approved for the card, a security deposit of at least $300 is required to open the account. You can deposit as much as $4,900. Your credit limit is determined by your income, ability to pay, and the amount of your security deposit. Your account activity is reported to the three major credit bureaus. If you manage your account responsibly, after 12 months, you may qualify to have your security deposit returned while you continue using your card.
Security deposit return. Upon review, there is a possibility that your deposit will be returned to you after 12 months, allowing you to continue to use the card as an unsecured credit card. There are very few secured cards which are able to offer graduation to an unsecured card once you have established a positive credit rating with the secured version. This allows you to keep your account open even after you have improved your credit and provides the benefit of an aged account to your credit rating.
As with most secured credit cards, this one comes with an annual fee, high APR, and foreign transaction fees. If avoiding these are important to you, you may want to check out these other cards:
The BankAmericard® Secured Mastercard is best for those who are working on repairing or building a good credit score and can typically pay their balance in full each month.