Discover it® Secured vs Capital One Platinum vs OpenSky® Secured
The three best secured cards for building credit from scratch. Discover and Capital One have no annual fee. OpenSky requires no credit check.
Feature
Discover it® Secured
Capital One Platinum Secured
OpenSky® Secured Visa®
Annual fee
$0
$0
$35
Minimum deposit
$200
$49, $99, or $200
$200
Credit check required
Yes (soft pull)
Yes (soft pull)
No
Cash back
2% gas & restaurants, 1% else
None
None
Upgrade review
Automatic at 7 months
After 6 months on-time
None
Reports to bureaus
All 3
All 3
All 3
Foreign transaction fee
None
None
None
APR
~28.24% variable
~29.99% variable
~24.39% variable
Credit monitoring
Free FICO score
Free CreditWise
None included
Discover it® Secured
Best if you want cash back and the fastest path to an unsecured card
- Earns 2% cash back at gas stations and restaurants
- Automatic upgrade review after 7 months
- No annual fee · No foreign transaction fees
Capital One Platinum Secured
Best if you need a low deposit — start with as little as $49
- Security deposit as low as $49
- Automatic credit line reviews after 6 months
- No annual fee · Free CreditWise monitoring
OpenSky® Secured Visa®
Best if you've been denied elsewhere — no credit check required
- No credit check to apply — approved based on deposit
- Reports to all 3 bureaus: Experian, Equifax, TransUnion
- $200 minimum deposit · $35/year annual fee
Our picks
The specific products we'd point a friend to. We link directly to each provider's own site and don't earn a commission from these links.
Capital One Platinum Secured
Capital One reviews the account for an upgrade to unsecured after about six months of on-time payments, and the deposit can start as low as $49, which makes it a common starting point for thin-file applicants.
- Deposit as low as $49, $99, or $200
- No annual fee
- Reports to all three bureaus
OpenSky Secured Visa
OpenSky approves applicants without a credit check, basing the decision on your security deposit instead, so it can be an option for people who have been declined for cards that require a hard pull.
- No credit check to apply
- $200 minimum deposit · $35 annual fee
- Reports to all three bureaus
What members say
“I started with no credit and a secured card. Twelve months of on-time payments later, I crossed 700.”
— Maria, CA
“Paying my balances below 10% moved my score faster than I expected, and the monthly plan kept me on track.”
— James, TX