Firstcard® Secured Credit Builder Card with Cashback review: Accessible entry into credit-building for students

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card is a consistently popular secured card thanks to its generous perks and benefits. It has a decided edge over the Firstcard for rewards, earning 2 percent cash back at gas stations and restaurants (up to $1,000 in combined purchases each quarter, then 1 percent) and 1 percent cash back on all other purchases. Discover will also match all cash back earned at the end of the first year, which has outsized earning potential.

However, the Discover it® Secured Credit Card has a minimum security deposit of $200 and a maximum limit of $2,500, while the Firstcard has no minimum or maximum limits, which can offer better spending flexibility. While both cards are light on fees, the Firstcard may be a slightly more forgiving choice due to having no APR and a more flexible credit limit.

The SuperCash™ Card is a hybrid between a secured card and a prepaid card that gives you similar flexibility in determining your credit line. It also doesn’t require a credit check, and you can load and withdraw your money through a variety of funding options. The card also has a similar lack of fees as the Firstcard, but it earns a baseline of 1 percent cash back on purchases.

The biggest drawback to the SuperCash Card is that it has several limits regarding funding, spending and withdrawals that might confuse you if you don’t carefully read the terms and conditions. The Firstcard has no credit limit and is simpler to follow with fewer limitations on the card. Choosing between these cards comes down to your preferences of having a prepaid card versus a secured card.

This card is ideal for students with no credit history to begin their credit journey. With no credit check needed, anyone can start building their credit while having the flexibility to manage their credit without tying up a hefty security deposit.

With no credit check or SSN needed, Firstcard is a great choice for people new to the United States who want to establish their credit history before being considered for other necessary life goals.

A student or credit-building card’s cost has a large influence on its overall score. 

Students already face a ton of expenses, so extra card costs are best avoided if possible, and people with limited or damaged credit tend often find the cards they can qualify for are much pricier than traditional credit cards designed for people with a good or better credit score. 

We compare a card’s total cost, including any annual fees, account activation fees, monthly fees and more against the total cost of other cards in this category and assign each card a score based on its affordability. We also factor rewards-earning potential into our assessment of a credit-building card’s total cost, subtracting a card’s expected earnings from the sum of its fees. 

To get a sense of a card’s rewards-earning potential, we estimate its average annual rewards rate and average annual earnings based on the most popular spending categories (as covered in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer spending report). 

However, we use a slightly lower spending assumption ($300 per month or $3,600 per year) to estimate average earnings, assuming students and credit-builders will start out with a lower credit limit, will want to keep credit utilization low and will focus primarily on small purchases they can easily pay off.

Given the many costs students face — from textbooks to laptops — the presence of an introductory APR on purchases or balance transfers also plays a role in a student card’s score.

A card’s APR is also a major factor in its credit-building score. Each card’s average APR is compared against the average APR of other cards in the category, and the cards with lower-than-average APRs receive a higher rating. 

Though high APRs are hard to avoid when you’re just starting out or working on your score, credit-builders should strive for as low an APR as possible since they’re likely to either be new to managing cards or trying to establish better financial habits and avoid falling into debt.

Along with a credit-building card’s cost, our rating system takes into account how easy the card makes it to build credit. To assess this, we evaluate its credit limit potential and minimum deposit requirement.

Unsecured cards with a high starting credit limit and secured cards that let you put down a large deposit and get a matching high credit limit will score the highest according to our “Ease of building credit” rubric and are more likely to appear on our list. 

This is because a high credit limit can make it much easier to keep your credit utilization low, a primary credit-building factor that makes up 30 percent of your FICO credit score. 

Secured cards have a slight advantage in this category since the maximum credit limit on a secured card tends to be much higher than the typical starting credit limit on an unsecured card that’s available with a bad or fair credit score. However, unsecured credit-building cards have the upper hand in another key aspect of building credit: accessibility. 

Cards that carry no or a low deposit requirement can also receive a high score according to our “Ease of building credit” rubric since these cards offer a lower barrier to entry than secured cards that require you to put up hundreds of dollars in an upfront deposit. 

Indeed, some users may prefer to pay a non-refundable $50 annual fee while they work on their credit score than tie up hundreds in a refundable security deposit.

We also evaluate each card’s benefits based on how useful they are for students or someone looking to build a positive credit history and save money on everyday spending. 

We consider the inclusion of a rewards program, student-centric perks and access to your credit score or a credit monitoring service of prime importance, along with the ability to prequalify for the card with only a soft credit pull and a clear path to increase your credit limit or graduate to an unsecured or full-fledged rewards card.

Cards that include these benefits are likely to score higher according to our credit-building card scoring rubric.

No. Firstcard doesn’t pull your credit report for your application, so there’s no hard credit inquiry.

Firstcard uses industry-standard encryption technology and is insured up to the standard maximum deposit insurance amount of $250,000 through Regent Bank (Member FDIC).

Yes, international students can apply for Firstcard. If you don’t have a Social Security number, you can use your passport. Firstcard reports account activity to all three credit bureaus, regardless of whether you have a Social Security number.