Secured Credit Cards That Report To The Credit Bureaus

If you have a poor credit record then using a secured credit card is a good strategy to rebuild your credit. One of the key factors that are taken into consideration when banks calculate your credit score is your length of credit history. Therefore, the longer you can hold on to a secured credit card the better.

With a bad credit history you will find it a challenge obtaining approval from many of the mainstream credit card providers as they will need to check your credit report during the application process. However, with a secured credit card it is easier as you have to use your own capital to create the deposit.

When building your credit with a secured credit card you will want a card where the provider will report your payment history to each of the credit bureaus. The only problem is that not all secured card providers report this to the monitoring bureaus. If you already hold a card then you can find this out by checking your credit report to see if any transactions on the card have been recorded.

If the provider of the secured card does not then, you miss out on a huge benefit when it comes to building your credit history. Before applying for a new card ask the issuer if they will report your credit history to the bureaus. A good sign that your payment history is being reported is if you start receiving marketing mailers through the post shortly after you have applied for the card.

However, more banks and card issuers are realizing that as more people experience debt problems there is a greater need for more secured credit cards that report to the credit bureau to help people rebuild their credit.  Below is a list of secured cards that do:

3  Best Secured Credit Cards That Report To The Credit Bureaus

Platinum Zero® Secured Visa® Credit Card from Applied Bank®

This probably the best secured card on the market because it does not look or act like any other secured card. The key difference is the fee and charges. With the Platinum there are hardly any! Apart from a monthly maintenance charge there is no annual fee and APR is 0%

• No Fixed APR.
• No application fees.
• Free personal identity theft protection.
• Credit limit from $500 to $5000.
• Credit bureau reporting.

1. Citi ®Secured Mastercard®

This particular card has been designed specifically to help people improve their credit history. Citi will report all transactions related to the account to the collection bureaus.

The variable APR on this card is pretty good at only 18.24%. Most secured cards providers have a bad reputation of charging extortionate interest rates.

As with most secured and prepaid cards there is an annual fee. The Citi Secured Card's fee is $29 per year.

The minimum deposit is $200 and the maximum is $5000. The amount in your deposit becomes equal to your certificate of deposit. Which basically means the amount you put in is the amount you can spend.

After 18 months of responsible usage you will be eligible for the Citi Select Platinum unsecured card.

2. Capital One® Secured MasterCard®

• Reports to all three collection bureaus.
• Variable APR of 22.99%.
• Credit limit of $3000.
• There are no processing or application fees.
• Annual Fee of $29.

This can be used like a normal MasterCard®  in any shops and stores.

3. OPEN SKY Secured First Visa(R) Card By Public Savings Bank

This low interest credit card will be attractive to people with poor credit records because they offer one of the lowest APR's on the market although their annual fee is a little steep.

• Automatic reporting to all bureaus
• Does not require a credit check
• Credit limit $200 to $3000
• APR 14.25 %
• Annual fee $50

Tips On How To Use Your New Secured Credit Card Wisely

The whole idea of a secured card is to rebuild your credit history as quickly as possible. However, for it to work you have to use the card responsibly. Using the same habits that got you in trouble before will put you back to square one again.

The following tips will help you keep on track:

Make sure your credit rebuilding gets noticed

The best way to do this is ensure you use a card issuer that reports your transactions to the credit bureaus. Issuers will normally indicate this during the application process. If in doubt contact the issuer directly to make sure.

Pay On Time

You need to lose the habits that got you into debt in the first place. Late payments can seriously damage your score therefore, you will need to become focused on paying off the outstanding balances on your card before they are due.

Keep Well Within Your Credit Limits

Although, it is good for your score to have as large a credit limit as possible it is not a good idea to use all up. Many think that just keeping within the limit is not a problem however, with certain lenders this can work against you. Aim to keep within 30% of your limit. For example, if your limit is $3000 then do not exceed $900.

Spread The Balances Out

It is not a good idea to build up too much debt on one card. Therefore, if you can use balance transfer cards then you can spread your outstanding balances more evenly.

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