Navy Federal Credit Union nRewards® Secured Card review: An exceptional credit-building card for members only

The Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card is a top choice if you’re looking for an accessible secured credit card and you can’t join Navy Federal Credit Union or have a hard time affording the upfront $200 minimum deposit for the nRewards Secured card. 

Although the Platinum Secured card doesn’t earn rewards, you may only need to provide a deposit as low as $49 (Your minimum security deposit amount will be either $49, $99 or $200. Terms Apply).

Like the nRewards Secured card, the Platinum Secured also comes with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees (See Rates & Fees), also making it an option for service members who are stationed overseas. 

Although Capital One will also automatically review your account for a potential upgrade to an unsecured account after six months, the nRewards Secured could expedite the process a bit with its account review at three months for a possible credit limit increase. This isn’t a notable weakness on Capital One’s part, though, since its automatic account review process is one of the fastest you’ll find. The nRewards Secured account review process is simply exceptional.

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card is one of the best values on the market for credit builders thanks to its outstanding rewards rate and welcome offer — perks that few secured cards carry. The Discover it® Secured Credit Card provides slightly more ongoing rewards potential with its 2 percent cash back at gas stations and restaurants, but this is only on the first $1,000 in combined purchases each quarter before dipping to the same 1 percent back it earns on all other purchases. 

The extra rewards bump on gas and dining can give it an edge over the nRewards Secured, especially when combined with Discover’s Cashback Match on all the rewards you earn by the end of your first year. Only a few secured cards earn rewards, and the Discover it® Secured Credit Card is perhaps the only major secured card with a rewards welcome offer. These features on a secured credit card in the hands of those who are new to credit may lead to overspending if you’re not careful. However, if a secured card is your only option, you want to make sure you lean into the more responsible practices that come with having a credit card.

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card also has an automatic account review process to potentially upgrade your account and expedite your credit-building journey, but it kicks in after seven months. This probably won’t be a deal-breaker, though, since you won’t earn the Cashback Match rewards until the end of your first year anyway. Ultimately, the Discover it® Secured Credit Card is a top-tier card for building credit and can be a more lucrative rewards option if you’re looking to learn responsible rewards spending.

As Navy Federal Credit Union’s only secured card, it’s meant to provide members a convenient and rewarding option to build or rebuild credit. The card’s high maximum deposit and exceptionally early account review process make it a top-tier credit-building option for eligible applicants.

Few secured cards earn rewards, and, although the nRewards Secured doesn’t offer the strongest rates, its flat-rate rewards make it easy to learn the ropes without encouraging overspending.

Impressively low rates and fees make the card easy to maintain for cardholders who want a slight safety net while working on their credit score. There are also no foreign transaction fees, which makes the nRewards Secured a useful partner if you travel often or will be stationed overseas.

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.