Why you should trust CardRatings.com
At CardRatings.com we discuss the most up-to-date news and trends within the credit card space. Since we first pioneered the concept of online credit card reviews in 1998, our team of financial experts has provided comprehensive and unbiased credit card reviews for more than 175 cards, plus hundreds of additional resource articles to help educate everyday cardholders so they can feel more confident about their card choices. All our content is written and reviewed by industry experts. Though our content may occasionally contain references to products from our partners, we maintain strict editorial integrity and advertiser relationships and compensation never influences ratings, reviews or featured products. The difference between editorial content and advertising must always be clearly stated. Learn more.
Secured credit cards have proven to be an excellent tool for helping people with bruised credit to build their score back to a health level.
With a spending limit tied to a refundable deposit connected to the account, these cards help incentive users to use their card responsibly, in order to build credit and have that deposit returned once graduating to an unsecured card. Some cards will allow you to open an account with an initial balance of your choice but others require a minimum balance. Depending on the card, this initial deposit/balance can be quite high. While this gives you a higher spending limit, it also can prove to be burdensome to someone in a challenging financial situation.
A sub-category of secured credit cards are those which require a small initial deposit. This can be as low as $200, $99 or even $49. Now, this might seem like a very low spending limit. However, when the card companies reports your monthly payments (side note: you’ll want to make sure the card reports to all three major credit bureaus) it won’t matter what your spending limit is, just that you made a timely payment. These initial deposits are refundable and you can continue to make deposits into your account to raise your spending limit.
There are several other factors that will go into choosing the right secured credit card. Fortunately, our editors have done all the research for you and have compiled this list of the best secured credit cards with low deposit requirements to help you decide.