Capital One® Secured MasterCard®

10-second breakdown:

The Capital One Secured MasterCard is a no-frills spartan credit card that does one thing, and only one thing – help people who are serious about salvaging their tarnished credit before it gets even worse.

Key benefits:

• Get a higher credit limit after five consecutive monthly payments.
• Up to a $3,000 opening credit line (based on creditworthiness and deposit.
• Different deposit amounts are available based on your credit (starting at $49).

Who it’s for:

Mistakes happen, after all no one’s perfect. But what are you supposed to do if you have no credit history at all or worse – a bad credit score? Your credit score is important for a lot more than just your credit card APR, it affects your loan rates and might even get you denied that apartment you’ve been eyeing. It’s not all doom and gloom though, that’s where secured credit cards come in. The approval bar is set much much lower because your credit limit is set based on the amount of money you deposit with the credit company. Essentially they hold your money in limbo as collateral, if something goes wrong they can use it to pay off your balance. If you improve your credit score and get a different card, no problem you get the deposit back when you cancel the secured card.

This card is for individuals with poor credit (from 600-649).

The details:

There are a lot of secured credit cards on the market, after all there’s no real risk to the issuing company, but Capital One stands head and shoulders above the rest with their Secured MasterCard. When you apply for the card, Capital One determines your minimum refundable security deposit, between $50 and $200. You can opt to deposit more though if you want a higher limit, all the way up to $3,000.

What if money’s tight right now, and you can’t put up that kind of cash up front in a lump sum? No problem, Capital One offers a unique service for approved Secure MasterCard holders, you can pay your deposit in installments. You have up to 80 days to pay off the full deposit – it’s a great feature and a real life saver for individuals with a fixed income.

If you qualify, Capital One has even been known to extend the credit limit above what the security deposit is. Almost all other secured credit cards offer you strictly the amount of your security deposit but it’s nice to see Capital One is a little more lenient.

There’s no rewards program to speak of, but this is perfectly normal for secured credit cards – you’d be hard pressed to actually find a secured card that offers rewards. On the plus side, the card offers no annual fees at all, it’s really nice to see, a lot of the competition in the ‘improve your credit’ market charge an annual fee for the convenience of helping to raise your credit score. The APR is extremely high though at a variable rate of 24.99%. With no bonus for transferring balances, this is definitely not a card you want to keep a monthly balance on.

The same APR rate of 24.99% applies to cash advances as well. While yes it provides instant gratification, you may end up paying double the advance or even more if you let it slide a few months – it’s best to wait until you build up your credit a bit and get a card with a better rate before getting an advance.

If you’re a frequent flier there’s a lot to be excited about, the Capital One Secured MasterCard has no foreign transaction fees – feel free to go wild on that next trip out of the country. While it’s a more normal feature for credit cards targeted at high credit scores, it’s rare to see at this level and a definite perk to keep in mind for nomads.

While you won’t get your FICO score sent to you monthly like a lot of other credit cards offer, Capital One does offer it’s own in-house credit tracker. It comes with a credit score simulator, alerts, and an overview or grade. The grade does take into account TransUnion, but don’t let the name fool you. It’s not the official FICO based score, it’s more of a rough approximation.

Overall the Capital One Secured MasterCard is the best secured credit card on the market today and backed by one of the largest and most trusted issuing companies. Keep in mind that all secured cards aren’t something you want to keep a running balance on or transfer a balance to. With extremely high APRs and no rewards, hold off on the large purchases until you build up your credit and have access to nicer credit cards. Think of the Capital One Secured MasterCard as more of a tool or a stepping stone on your journey back to a nicer credit score.

Although the Capital One Secured MasterCard doesn’t offer any rewards, that’s not unusual for secured cards in general. If you’ve been neglecting your credit recently and are ready to step up your game and make some improvements, Capital One will stand by your side and help you get to greener pastures.

For complete rankings of all personal credit cards, go here.

http://authority.org/credit-cards/capital-one-secured-mastercard/ http://authorityorg.tumblr.com/post/149922255702