Four credit cards will now let you graduate from a secured card to an unsecured card. Congratulations. You've unlocked the achievement of being trusted with money that isn't your own money being held hostage as collateral.
Secured cards require a cash deposit. You give the bank $500. They give you a $500 credit limit. This is not lending. This is babysitting your own money while you prove you won't light it on fire.
The upgrade path works like this: Pay your bills on time for six to twelve months. The bank checks to see if you've stopped being poor at decisions. If you pass, they release your deposit and give you an unsecured card. You are now a real boy.
These four cards offer this magical transformation. The article doesn't name them because financial journalism is written by people who get paid per headline, not per useful fact. But the premise stands. Use the training wheels long enough and they'll let you ride without them.
Here's what nobody mentions. The people who need secured cards are the same people who got into credit trouble in the first place. Impulse control issues don't vanish because you made twelve payments on a $47 monthly balance. But the banks don't care. They're not in the behavior modification business. They're in the interest rate business.
The upgrade is automatic with some issuers. Others make you apply. Either way, you're celebrating the privilege of owing money without putting up a deposit first. It's like being excited that the grocery store finally stopped making you pay before you eat the food.
The real joke is that secured cards charge the same interest rates as unsecured cards. Sometimes higher. You're paying 24% APR on your own f*cking money.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
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