Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card Review

The Capital One Platinum Secured credit card isn’t your typical secured credit card. With this card, you get a $200 credit line after making either a $49, $99, or $200 refundable deposit.

The amount of your required security deposit is based on your creditworthiness. If your credit isn’t terrible, you’ll be able to borrow more than your security deposit, a better deal than most secured credit cards. Usually, secured cards require a security deposit that will equal your credit line — the security deposit usually isn’t less than the credit line.

The card’s main draw is that you can qualify for this card with poor credit, and with responsible use, this card can improve your credit so that you can qualify for a swankier card. Capital One will report your activity to the three main credit bureaus (the holy credit trinity of Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion), so you can boost your credit score just by making your payments on time.

Read our Capital One Platinum Secured credit card review and see whether the card makes sense as a credit-building strategy for you and your business.

Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card At A Glance

Eligibility

Capital One markets that applicants should be in a rebuilding credit phase to qualify for the Platinum Secured credit card. According to Capital One, applicants meet the rebuilding credit definition if they’ve:

• Defaulted on a loan more than once
• Been declined for a credit card in the past three months

While there’s no 1:1 translation, we consider those rebuilding their credit to have poor credit. Poor credit is generally defined as a score below 580 (although Capital One doesn’t market any specific credit scores for this card). Need to find out your credit score? Visit our favorite free credit-checking sites!

Rewards For Spending

This is a humble, salt-of-the-earth credit card. There are no reward points to earn with your spending and no cash back to accumulate. While this may be disappointing, a lack of rewards is par for the course when it comes to secured credit cards.

Ultimately, the reward for the Capital One Platinum Secured credit card is that you can build your credit with responsible use. Once you’ve used the card for a while and paid off your balance in full regularly, you may be able to apply for a better credit card with an actual rewards scheme.

Redeeming Rewards

Because there are no rewards available with this card, there are no redemption methods. This is standard for secured credit cards.

Card Benefits

While the Capital One Platinum Secured credit card doesn’t come with any rewards, it does feature a number of standard credit card benefits.

Account Management

Some of the card’s key account management features include account alerts via email or text, autopay, monthly recurring transactions, and the ability to add an authorized user to your account. Capital One also offers 24/7 customer service.

Security Protection & Digital Perks

Capital One’s security features include security alerts for suspicious activity, $0 fraud liability, and card lock. Additionally, if your credit card is lost or stolen, you’ll be able to request an emergency card replacement. You’ll also be able to access virtual numbers through Eno — Capital One’s virtual assistant — which could help prevent credit card fraud after making online transactions.

Capital One further offers a mobile app (available on iOS and Android) and credit monitoring via CreditWise.

Rates & Fees

On the fee side, the Capital One Platinum Secured credit card is quite reasonable. There are no hidden fees to worry about, and the security deposit is refundable.

Refundable Security Deposit

To use the Capital One Platinum Secured credit card, you’ll need to fork over a refundable deposit. Depending on the strength of your credit, you will need to pay a $49, $99, or $200 deposit to open your account. This deposit will grant you an initial $200 credit line.

Deposits are an integral part of secured credit cards. However, the Capital One Platinum Secured credit card is notable for having the option of a higher credit line than the deposit amount (if you qualify for the $49 or $99 deposit tiers, you’ll still receive the $200 credit line). Normally, a secured credit card’s credit line is equal to the amount of the deposit. This alone could make the Capital One Platinum Secured credit card appealing to the right type of user.

Additional security deposits can be made to increase your credit line. Do note that increasing your credit line this way works similar to other secured credit cards — each dollar you pay after the required deposit will increase your credit line by one dollar. You can increase your initial credit line up to $1,000 via extra deposits.

A High APR

Because the Capital One Platinum Secured credit card is targeted toward poor credit users, it’s no surprise that it features a higher-than-average APR. Lower interest rates are usually reserved for credit cards offered to those with good or excellent credit. At the time of publishing, the card’s APR sits at 26.49% (variable), which is a higher rate than some other credit cards on the market today. Of course, if you pay off your balance in full every month, the APR isn’t something you will need to worry about.

No Foreign Transaction Or Annual Fees

Despite paying a deposit and a high APR, you won’t have to worry about hidden fees with the Capital One Platinum Secured credit card. Most notably, there is no foreign transaction fees — a huge plus for frequent fliers. And there isn’t a pesky annual fee to boot.

Other Fees

Beyond the above-mentioned rate and security deposit, the Capital One Platinum Secured credit card comes bundled with a few standard credit card fees. These include balance transfer fees of 3% of the amount transferred at promotional APRs and either $10 or 3% of each cash advance (whichever is greater).

Is The Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card Right For You?

You might want to apply for the Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card if…

• You are rebuilding your credit
• You have a limited credit history
• You travel abroad frequently and want to avoid an annual fee

You might want to look for a different card if…

• You have good enough credit to qualify for a credit card with better rewards and no security deposit
• You can’t afford a security deposit
• You have a use case that falls outside the Capital One Platinum Secured credit card’s target area

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