Discover it® Secured

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You will have to place a security deposit of at least $200 to open an account. After you receive your first monthly statement, you can apply to increase your limit. If approved, you will be able to do so by adding to your deposit.

The Discover Secured Credit Card’s requirements for approval are straightforward and fairly easy to meet, even with bad credit. Discover it Secured merely requires a bank account, some income to balance out any debt and a lack of bankruptcy in your history. 

As a result, the Discover Secured Card’s approval requirements are more relaxed than any other Discover credit card’s. And it’s a great choice for either rebuilding bad credit or building credit from scratch.

Still, approval isn’t guaranteed. So it’s worth taking a closer look at the factors that could lead to rejection before you apply.

Here are the Discover Secured Credit Card’s requirements:

• A bank account. You use this to pay the security deposit. And you’ll need to be able to deposit at least $200 to be approved.
  
• Some form of income. This isn’t that huge of a factor, as Discover has your deposit as collateral if you don’t pay them back. But Discover does say you can be denied if your income is too small.
  
• As little debt as possible. You can definitely have debt and still get approved for this card, but having an overwhelming amount might disqualify you.
  
• No pending bankruptcy. You can get approved with a completed bankruptcy on your credit report, but not if it’s still pending.

So the Discover Secured Card’s approval requirements aren’t all that high, but there’s still always a possibility of rejection. That’s why I recommend checking your credit score and report before you apply, to get a better grasp of your situation. And don’t forget that if you do get rejected, you can ask for reconsideration by calling Discover at 1-800-347-2683. 

Yes.

Credit card companies report to the credit bureaus once a month, at the end of their billing cycle. You can learn more about how finance charges are calculated from these WalletHub guides: https://wallethub.com/edu/how-credit-card-interest-works/25789/ & https://wallethub.com/edu/annual-percentage-rate/25564/ .

​There are two ways to get a Discover Secured Card credit increase: 1) add money to your security deposit or 2) graduate to an unsecured card after consistent on-time payments. But depositing more money is certainly the easier and more immediate way to get a Discover Secured Card limit increase. You’re unlikely to graduate to an unsecured card (i.e. get your deposit back) for at least 7 months.

You can find more info on both options below, starting with the more accessible of the two.

Here’s how to get a Discover Secured Card credit limit increase:

1. Add to Your Deposit – Discover it Secured’s deposit can be as little as $200 or as much as $2,500. And your spending limit will equal whatever you put down. So if you deposited less than $2,500 at the start, adding to you security deposit will result in a credit limit increase. Specifically, your limit will increase by the amount you add.
To deposit additional funds, you’ll need to log in to your Discover account or call Discover customer service at 1-800-347-2683. Bear in mind it’s possible that Discover could deny your deposit if you haven’t been paying on time.

2. Pay On Time for 7+ Months – Starting 8 months into your account, Discover will take a basic look at your credit and payment history. If they like that they see, Discover may choose to graduate you to an unsecured card. If that happens, they’ll return your security deposit and you’ll have an equal or higher unsecured credit limit.
Exactly how high that credit limit will be depends on Discover’s evaluation of your credit. And if a year has gone by and you’ve been consistently paying on time but haven’t been contacted by Discover, there’s no harm in calling them up and inquiring about graduation.

Finally, you can always apply for another card from a different issuer. Your credit line will be separate, but you’ll have a higher amount of total credit.

Sorry, no can do. That's going to be the answer for most (if not all) secured credit cards. They tend to not allow balance transfers on them. You can do balance transfers off them to other cards, though.

You cannot send your security deposit later, it doesn’t work like that. You have to cough up the minimum $200 to even be considered for approval. You get it back if you’re not approved though.

Your Discover Secured Credit Card may graduate to unsecured as soon as eight months after account opening, assuming you pay your monthly bills on time and otherwise manage your finances responsibly. But there’s no guarantee when, or if, it will happen. It all comes down to Discover’s determination of your creditworthiness. After the seven-month mark, Discover’s credit analysts will periodically review both your account and your overall credit history to see whether it’s appropriate to refund your security deposit, thus graduating you to an unsecured card. But there are some steps you can take to improve your odds.

Here’s how to become a Discover Secured Card graduate:

1. Pay on time. This is probably the most important part of the process. If you don’t pay your Discover it Secured bills by the due date, you won’t even be considered for graduation.

2. Use your card responsibly. Maintaining low credit utilization will indicate to Discover that you can handle an unsecured card. So aim to use only 30% or less of your “it” Card’s limit.

3. Improve your other finances. Adding to your income and paying down debt will improve your creditworthiness as a whole, making you a better candidate for an unsecured card.

If you do graduate, you’ll receive your full deposit back. But that could take as long as two billing cycles to happen, so don’t get worried if you don’t get it right away. You can call Discover customer service at 1-800-347-2683 to be sure, if the two-cycle period elapses without a check being sent.

And lastly, if it’s been over a year and you’ve always paid on time but haven’t heard from Discover, you should give them a call to inquire about graduating. Even if they say no, it doesn’t hurt to ask.