
It’s also worth noting that you should be able to qualify for a decent unsecured card in about a year’s time if you use your secured credit card responsibly. Responsible use generally means on-time monthly payments and not maxing out your spending limit. You can keep close tabs on your progress and see where improvements are needed by checking out your WalletHub Credit Analysis page.
Best Secured Credit Cards Compared
Credit Card | Best For | Security Deposit |
Discover it® Secured Credit Card | Winner | $200 |
Capital One Quicksilver Secured Cash Rewards Credit Card | Cash Rewards | $200 |
Citi® Secured Mastercard® | Beginners | $200 |
OpenSky® Plus Secured Visa® Credit Card | No Credit Check | $300 |
U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa® Secured Card | Dining Rewards | $300 |
Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards Secured credit card | Small Business | $1000 |
Methodology for Selecting the Best Secured Cards
WalletHub’s editors regularly compare dozens of secured credit cards based on their overall two-year cost, incorporating features such as fees, security deposit requirements, rewards and interest rates. The lower a secured card’s two-year cost, the better. It’s important to keep expenses low when you’re rebuilding credit, and paying extra usually won’t get you better rewards at this point in your credit career.
How Two-Year Cost Is Calculated
Two-year cost is used to approximate the monetary value of cards for better comparison and is calculated by combining annual and monthly membership fees over two years, adding any one-time fees or other fees (like balance transfer fees), adding any interest costs, and subtracting rewards. Negative amounts indicate savings. When fees or other terms are presented as a range, we use the midpoint for scoring purposes.
Rewards bonuses and credits have been taken into account for two-year cost calculations. However, bonuses applicable to only a very small portion of cardholders are not considered. For example, credits and bonuses awarded for spending or redeeming rewards through a company portal with non-co-branded cards have not been taken into account. Similarly, bonuses and credits related to spending with specific merchants using a non-co-branded card have not been taken into account (for example, if Card A offers credits with DoorDash, this feature would not be factored into calculations because it is hard to assess how many cardholders would use the benefit or exactly how much value they'd get from it).
Cardholder Spending Profiles
Given that different users have different goals and are likely to use their credit cards differently, we identified spending profiles that are representative of different users’ financial priorities and behaviors. For each cardholder type, we have assumed a specific amount of monthly spending by purchase type (e.g., groceries, gas, etc.), as well as an average balance, balance transfer amount, amount spent on large purchases and average monthly payment. Spending assumptions are based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for consumers and PEX data for businesses.