Self - Credit Builder Account with Secured Visa® Credit Card: Review
Is the Self Credit Builder Secured Visa® Card worth it?
The Self – Credit Builder Account with Secured Visa Credit Card may be a good choice for individuals who want to take a holistic approach to building credit, as it can help you address factors including timely payments, credit mix and credit utilization.
You don’t need good credit to get this Secured Visa Credit Card — Self doesn’t even do a hard inquiry for approval. With this credit building credit card, you do have to start with the credit-building loan, however, and use the value you unlock with your loan payments to secure your credit limit for the card.
How does the Self Credit Builder Account + Secured Visa work?
The Self Secured Visa Credit Card is a unique credit card product, and your journey to it actually begins with a Self Credit Builder Loan. The lender uses this process to bypass hard inquiries on your credit report and the typical security deposits that other secured credit cards require.
The process works like this:
- You establish a Credit Builder Loan.
- You make at least three monthly payments on the Credit Builder Loan ensuring those payments are enough to reach at least $100 in savings associated with the loan.
- Choose the amount of that savings you want to use to secure a credit card.
- Order, receive and activate your Self Secured Visa Credit Card.
- Begin using the credit card and managing your account responsibly.
If you’re not familiar with the Self credit-building loan product, this may sound confusing.
Consider the hypothetical example below to better understand how the process works.
Self Credit Builder: Highlights
- $9 one-time administrative fee and $25 annual fee
- Having a loan + a credit card contributes to a greater credit mix which can more effectively build your credit score than a credit card alone
- No hard credit check is required for approval
- Doesn’t earn any rewards
Who is the Self Credit Card best for?
The Self Secured Visa Credit Card is a good option for individuals who want to build their credit and have plenty of time to do so. It’s especially helpful if you have poor credit and want to establish a better credit mix, as you can check the boxes for revolving and installment accounts concurrently.
Self Credit Builder with Secured Visa®: Rewards
The Self credit builder card doesn’t earn any rewards. Its primary purpose is to help users build their credit score, not earn rewards.
Self Credit Builder with Secured Visa®: Benefits
No security deposit required
You don’t need to come up with a cash security deposit, as your credit limit is secured by the amount you’ve already paid on your Self credit-building loan. You can choose your credit limit, starting at $100, depending on how much you’ve paid on your loan already.
No credit check required
Self doesn’t do a hard inquiry to pull your credit report, so it doesn’t matter what your credit history or score looks like. If you follow the process correctly and make your Self credit-building loan payments on time, you’re automatically approved for the credit card as long as you have income that lets you make your payments.
One reason that it’s so easy to get the Self Secured Visa card via this process is that there isn’t a lot of risk for the lender. If you run up a balance on your card and don’t pay it off, Self will simply use the balance you would have received back on your credit-building loan to pay your balance.
▶︎ See our picks: Best credit cards with no credit check
Reports to all three major credit bureaus
While Self doesn’t pull your credit report to approve you for the card, it does report your timely payments to all three major credit bureaus. That helps you build a more positive credit history. It also ensures your timely payments are reflected no matter which credit bureau a future lender might pull your report from.
Improve credit mix
Your credit mix — whether you have various types of credit on your report — accounts for around 10% of the overall factors that make up your credit score. Having only revolving credit accounts, like credit cards, or only installment accounts, like loans, can weaken your credit performance. When you have both a Self credit-building loan and the Self Secured Visa Credit Card, you have an installment and a revolving account. That improves your credit mix, therefore helping to raise your credit score.
CD account earns interest
The CD account that your loan funds are held in until you make all 24 payments earns interest. Although you won’t make money on this deal after you pay the fees and interest for the loan, you may end up better off than if you chose a credit-building loan where the funds are housed in a low-interest savings account.
No separate application
You don’t have to complete two applications. Once you apply for and are approved for the Self Credit-Building Loan, you simply have to make your payments on time. Once you meet the payment threshold to qualify for the Self Secured Visa Credit Card, you can order your card.
Visa benefits
The Self Secured Visa card comes with all the basic benefits any Visa credit card or debit card comes with. That means you can use it at any location where Visa is accepted in the United States — you can’t use this card internationally, however. You also get Visa’s zero liability protection, which means you don’t have to cover charges on your card that you didn’t approve or were fraudulent.
Self Credit Builder with Secured Visa®: The fine print
Fees
You’ll pay a $9 administrative fee to open your Credit Builder Account. That fee is related to the loan product and is a one-time-only fee.
Later, when you order your Self Secured Visa card, you’ll pay an annual fee of $25 for the card account. That’s typically charged to your credit card.
Other fees associated with the account and card include:
- Late fees up to $15 each time you pay your bill late
- Return fees up to $15 any time a payment is returned from your bank
- Expedited payment fees of $3.50 if you make a payment on your balance with a debit card
There are no foreign transaction fees with this card, as it can’t be used internationally.
Interest rates
The regular APR for purchases with the Self Secured Visa card is 29.24% variable. This card doesn’t offer balance transfers, so there’s no balance transfer APR. It also doesn’t come with an introductory APR offer for purchases.
Credit limit
You choose your credit limit on the Self Visa, but the minimum is $100. The amount you can select for your credit limit depends on how much value you have in your credit-building loan account. Over time, you may be able to increase your credit limit if you continue to manage the loan and credit card accounts responsibly and make timely payments.
How the Self Credit Builder with Secured Visa® Card compares
Self - Credit Builder Account with Secured Visa® Credit Card vs. Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card
Let’s compare the Self Secured Visa Credit Card with a competing product from Capital One to get an idea of how it stacks up.
The Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card is one of the few secured credit cards on the market that doesn’t have an annual fee, but its APR is slightly higher than the Self Secured Visa at 29.99% variable.
Unlike with the Self Secured Visa, you do have to pay a security deposit to get approved for this credit card, and the lender does pull your credit when you apply. The state of your credit history determines whether you’re approved for the card and whether you need to pay $49, $99 or $200 as a minimum security deposit.
Capital One reports to all three credit bureaus and provides an opportunity to increase your credit limit once you make six monthly payments on time. You can also work to earn your deposit back by making timely payments and managing your account well.
▶︎ Read more: Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card review
Self - Credit Builder Account with Secured Visa® Credit Card vs. Chime Credit Builder Secured Visa® Credit Card
Chime and Self both work a bit differently than a traditional credit card. While Self works as a credit card and a loan, Chime works similarly to a debit card.
Chime works like this:
- Open a Chime checking account.
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Receive at least one qualifying direct deposit of $200 or more from your employer, payroll provider, gig economy payer, or benefits payer by Automated Clearing House (ACH) deposit OR Original Credit Transaction (OCT).
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Fund your Credit Builder Account by transferring money from your Chime Checking Account to your Credit Builder Card (this can be done in the app). The amount you transfer becomes your initial spending limit. For example, if you transfer $2,000, you can spend up to $2,000 on your card.
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Spend the money you’ve transferred and transfer more at any time. If you run out of funds, your card will be declined until you add more.
Chime also has no annual fee or interest*, unlike Self, since you can’t carry a balance.
Both the Self Card and the Chime Card report payments to the three main credit bureaus, so on-time payments can improve your credit score.
▶︎ Read more: Chime Credit Card Review
*No Interest: Out-of-network ATM withdrawal and OTC advance fees may apply. View The Bancorp agreement or Stride agreement for details; see back of card for issuer.
The secured Chime Credit Builder Visa® Credit Card is issued by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used everywhere Visa credit cards are accepted. Please see the back of your card for its issuing bank.
Rewards
The Self Secured Visa card is not a rewards credit card. You won’t earn cash back, points or miles when you use this card to make purchases, and there isn’t any type of sign-up or welcome bonus.
This is fairly standard for secured credit cards. Most don’t offer any type of reward structure, but a couple of cards do offer cashback opportunities.
Fees, rates & limit
Understanding the cost of your credit — or the cost of building credit — is always important. When researching secured credit cards, pay attention to factors such as annual fees, maintenance fees and interest rates.
Fees
You’ll pay a $9 administrative fee to open your Credit Builder Account. That fee is related to the loan product and is a one-time-only fee.
Later, when you order your Self Secured Visa card, you’ll pay an annual fee of $25 for the card account. That’s typically charged to your credit card.
Other fees associated with the account and card include:
- Late fees up to $15 each time you pay your bill late
- Return fees up to $15 any time a payment is returned from your bank
- Expedited payment fees of $3.50 if you make a payment on your balance with a debit card
There are no foreign transaction fees with this card, as it can’t be used internationally.
Interest rates
The regular APR for purchases with the Self Secured Visa card is 29.24% variable. This card doesn’t offer balance transfers, so there’s no balance transfer APR. It also doesn’t come with an introductory APR offer for purchases.
Credit limit
You choose your credit limit on the Self Visa, but the minimum is $100. The amount you can select for your credit limit depends on how much value you have in your credit-building loan account. Over time, you may be able to increase your credit limit if you continue to manage the loan and credit card accounts responsibly and make timely payments.
Apply for the Self - Credit Builder Account with Secured Visa® Credit Card
While you don’t have to apply for the secured Visa credit card from Self, you do have to apply for the Credit Builder Account. You can learn more and apply for the Self Credit Builder Account online from the comfort of your own home.
You’ll need to provide your full name, a legal address, your Social Security or Tax ID number, and some basic information about your income to do so.
Once you’re approved for the Credit Builder Account, you’ll need to:
- Make at least three monthly payments on time and build at least $100 in savings progress
- Ensure your income and expense information is updated in your Self account
- Choose what you want your credit limit to be (based on your savings progress) and order your Self credit card
Once you get your card, you can activate it and start using it.
How to maximize the Credit Builder Account and Secured Visa Credit Card from Self
The main reason to opt for this product is the credit-building benefits. To maximize those benefits, ensure you:
- Choose a loan plan that works with your budget (selecting a payment you struggle to make negates the purpose of this product).
- Make every payment on time (that includes payments on the loan and credit card accounts).
- Don’t make payments on your Self Card with a debit card (you’ll pay a $3.50 expedited payment fee each time if you do, and that small expense can add up).