Establishing credit is a good idea for most people. It can help for future large ticket purchases like cars and a house. It can also go along way to support even things like a future career move since many companies check your credit when applying for a job.
It can be a mistake to assume even young adults have "good" credit because they have not had credit on their own. A lack of credit doesn't always help them as it can mean they are actually not a good credit risk for most lenders. This is a big reason to secure that first credit card and establish a good solid credit history. Below we explore ten of the best starter credit card options to jump start good credit.
Quick Navigation
How We Reviewed The Best Starter Credit Cards
Overall Price Range Of This Product
What We Reviewed
Capital One® Secured Mastercard®
Capital One® Platinum Credit Card
Discover it® Student Cash Back
Capital One® QuicksilverOne® Cash Rewards Credit Card
Discover it® Secured
Green Dot primor® Visa® Gold Secured Credit Card
OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card
First Progress Platinum Prestige MasterCard® Secured Credit Card
USAA® Secured Card American Express® Card
First Progress Platinum Elite MasterCard® Secured Credit Card
The Verdict
Product FAQ’s
What is a Credit Card?
A credit card is a small plastic card issued by a bank or other company that allows the cardholder to make purchases on credit. Each card is unique and tied the account holder.
What Does it Do?
Credit cards contain electronic information about the account they link to that can be accessed each time it is swiped through a credit card machine or put into a cash machine.
How Does it Work?
To get a credit card, the customer agrees to a certain set of parameters like the interest rate for the loan, payment structure, and credit limit. When the customer presents the card for merchandise, they sign for the sale. This also means they agree to the payback terms of the card.
Where Can You Get Credit Cards?
You can apply for credit cards at a bank, at many department stores and even directly through credit card companies.
Price Range
It usually measures the "price" of credit cards in the interest rate each card comes with. They start as low as zero percent for an introductory time period. There are also sometimes annual fees tied to credit cards.
How We Reviewed The Best Starter Credit Cards
We reviewed the list of the best starter credit cards on the following parameters: Features, Pros & Cons, Price (including fees), Where to Apply and Credit Reporting. There was also special mention of unique features like no credit check or a low deposit for a secured card. All these factors combine in the card program's overall ranking.
Overall Price Range Of This Product
Annual fees from these cards ranged from zero to $49. There was also a big range of deposits required or not. Some cards required zero deposit but came with a large interest rate to counter-balance. The interest charged ranged from 9.99 to 24.75%.
What We Reviewed
Capital One® Secured Mastercard®
Flickr,Mighty Travels
Features
There is no annual fee for this card. It is secured by a deposit. They set the initial credit limit at $200 with customers needing to make either a $49, $99 or $200 initial deposit. This is a good card for those with no credit or bad credit they are looking to rebuild. While the limit is low, with the first five payments being made on time, there is a bump of $200 more.
Pros
- No annual fee
- Fast increase of credit
- after the first five
- months
- May not need a full
- $200 line of credit
Cons
- Variable up to 24.99% interest rate
- Some customers
- require $200 deposit
Price
- No annual fee, up to 24.99% interest
Where to Apply?
Credit Reporting
- Reports to all three major credit bureaus
Capital One® Platinum Credit Card
https://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/platinum/
Features
This card is not secured, which means there is no deposit required. You need to have at least minimal credit and nothing bad on your credit report. There is also no annual fee for this card. Having a card without a deposit is a major bonus for those looking for the best starter credit card.
Pros
- No deposit required
- No annual fee
- Credit limit increase
- after five months of
- on-time payments
Cons
- Requires at least
- some credit
- Variable up to 24.99% interest
- No cash back rewards
Price
- No annual fee, up to 24.99% interest
Where to Apply?
Credit Reporting
- Reports to all three major credit bureaus
Discover it® Student Cash Back
https://www.discover.com/
Features
There is no annual fee for this card, and it comes with 0% interest for the first six months. After that, the rate can run from 14.74 to 23.74%. This is a student only card that requires minimal credit and no deposit. You can also earn 5% cash back on certain types of purchase it matches that for the first year. They even give students a small reward for good grades.
Pros
- No annual fee
- No deposit
- 5% cash back on
- certain types of
- purchases that is
- matched dollar to
- dollar for the first year
Cons
- Must be a college
- student to qualify
- Zero percent interest
- for the first six
- months and then
- jumps up to between
- 14.74 and 23.74%
- Cash back rewards
- are difficult to
- understand
Price
- No annual fee, first six months no interest, after that between 14.74 and 24.99% interest
Where to Apply?
Credit Reporting
- Reports to all three major credit bureaus
Capital One® QuicksilverOne® Cash Rewards Credit Card
https://www.capitalone.com
Features
This card comes with a $39 annual fee and a simple 1.5% cash back on all purchases. There is no need to sign up for rotating categories for the reward. No deposit required but customers have to have at least some credit to apply.
Pros
- 1.5% cash back on all purchases
- No deposits required
- Does not use a
- complicated reward
- system
Cons
- $39 annual fee
- Interest rate up to
- 24.99% interest
- No offers for new
- cards like zero interest
Price
- $39 annual fee, up to 24.99% interest
Where to Apply?
Credit Reporting
- Reports to all three major credit bureaus
Discover it® Secured
Features
This card comes with a deposit requirement that starts at $200. Interest rate goes up to 24.74% with no annual fee. This fall into the category of being one of the best starter credit cards because even though they require a deposit, they also offer a rewards program. They give 1-2% cash back,
Pros
- No annual fee
- 1-2% cash back
- reward
- Takes applicants with
- bad or no credit
Cons
- Deposit starts at $200
- Interest rate goes up
- to 24.74%
- Rewards do not off
- set deposit
Price
- No annual fee, minimum $200 deposit, up to 24.99% interest
Where to Apply?
Credit Reporting
- Reports to all three major credit bureaus
Green Dot primor® Visa® Gold Secured Credit Card
https://www.creditkarma.com
Features
There is an annual fee of $49 for this card. There is also a minimum deposit of $200 to get the line of credit. They fix the interest rate at 9.99%. This is one of the best starter credit card offers because that will work with anyone regardless of bad credit or a lack of credit.
Pros
- Fixed interest rate of
- 9.99%
- Will work with bad
- credit or a lack of
- credit
- Can get a line of
- credit up to $5000
Cons
- Minimum deposit
- of $200
- Annual fee of $49
- Takes longer than
- some other cards
- to get an increase
- in the credit line
Price
- $49 annual fee, fixed 9.99% interest
Where to Apply?
Credit Reporting
- Reports to all three major credit bureaus
OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card
Features
This is the go-to card for anyone trying to move beyond really bad credit and get a fresh start. They secure this card so there is a minimum deposit of $200. There is no credit check though. The annual fee is $35 and the interest rate is at the mid-range.
Pros
- No credit check
- Best started credit
- card for a fresh start
- Interest rate hits right
- at the mid-range
- for this card
Cons
- $35 annual fee
- Minimum deposit
- of $200
Price
- $35 annual fee, mid-range interest rate
Where to Apply?
Credit Reporting
- Reports to all three major credit bureaus
First Progress Platinum Prestige MasterCard® Secured Credit Card
https://www.creditkarma.com/
Features
This card comes with a hefty annual fee right at $49. It is also 100% secured with a starting deposit of at least $200. An odd side note about this card is that they don't allow users to freely deposit more money to increase your credit limit. Most secured cards allow users to do this.
Pros
- Easy to get credit
- They return the
- deposit if they do
- not extend credit
- One of the best
- starter credit cards
- for young adults
- since they can not
- increase the credit
- limit
Cons
- Not available in
- New York, Wisconsin,
- Iowa or Arkansas
- $49 annual fee
- 100% secured credit
- limit
Price
- $49 annual fee, fixed 9.99% interest rate
Where to Apply?
Credit Reporting
- Reports to all three major credit bureaus
USAA® Secured Card American Express® Card
https://www.usaa.com/
Features
Fully secured card with a starting deposit of at least $250. There is an annual fee of $35. They put the deposit into an interest-earning CD to secure account. The interest rate varies from 11.65 to 24.75%
Pros
- Low interest rate
- Customer can choose
- the credit limit and
- increase with further
- deposits
- They place the deposit in interest-earning CD
Cons
- Only available for
- those who qualify
- to be USAA members
- $250 minimum
- deposit
- $35 annual fee
Price
- $35 annual fee, $250 deposit, interest between 11.65 and 24.75%
Where to Apply?
Credit Reporting
- Reports to all three major credit bureaus
First Progress Platinum Elite MasterCard® Secured Credit Card
https://www.creditcards.com/
Features
This is another one of the best starter credit card programs for those needing a clean start. They can work with bad credit or a lack of credit. There is a minimum of $200 deposit to secure the account. The annual fee is $49, which is among the highest on this list.
Pros
- Can work with bad
- or lack of credit
- $200 minimum
- deposit is lower
- than some
- Available in all 50
- states
Cons
- $49 annual fee is
- steep for market
- 100% secured credit
- line
- Slow process to raise
- the credit limit
Price
- $49 annual fee, interest rate up to 24.99%
Where to Apply?
Credit Reporting
- Reports to all three major credit bureaus
The Verdict
For someone just starting out to find the best-started credit card program, finding cards with the lowest start-up costs is often a key part of the hunt. There are two cards on this list that offer the perfect combination of no annual fee and no deposit. They are the Capital One® Platinum Credit Card and the
Discover it® Student Cash Back card. Because these cards offer the best of both worlds, they may not be as easy to get as some other listed cards. The Discover card is only for current students.
Secured cards are often a good choice for those who are trying to get credit for the first time or looking to start over. Many of the listed cards require a full deposit, meaning for a $250 credit limit the customer would need to deposit $250. This is not the case with the Capital One® Secured Mastercard®. Some applicants can access up to a $200 credit limit with only a $49 deposit.
Even with a deposit most of the listed cards require a credit check. This is not the case with the OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card. They require no credit check but require a full deposit of at least $200.The fact thatthey also have an annual fee of $35 and the interest rate is the mid-range offsets the benefit of not needing a credit check.
All the listed cards report directly to the three major credit bureaus. This is important as they report on-time payments and any increase in credit limits.
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