First Access Visa® Card review: Costly credit for little payoff

Both the First Access Visa and the Capital One Platinum Secured card are options designed for people with poor credit scores. You can even qualify for the Capital One Platinum Secured card with no credit history. But the key difference between the two cards is their fees.

As a secured credit card, the Capital One Platinum Secured requires an initial security deposit. However, this deposit could be as low as $49, which is much cheaper than a lot of required security deposits on the market. You’ll still get access to at least a $200 credit limit with a deposit that low, and you’ll also get the security deposit refunded once you close your account in good standing. It’s important to note that the Capital One Platinum Secured does not charge an annual fee (See Rates & Fees), already putting it well ahead of the First Access Visa in terms of affordability, and Capital One will automatically review your account after six months to see if you qualify for a higher credit limit. Unlike the First Access Visa, Capital One will not charge you a fee for this credit limit reevaluation. 

In total, your ongoing costs with the Capital One Platinum Secured card could be as low as the $49 initial deposit (given that you don’t carry any balances). The First Access Visa in comparison could cost you almost $300 in maintenance fees alone after your first year with the card.

Both of these cards lack a rewards program and have fairly high ongoing APRs. The Capital One Platinum Secured has a small edge here, as its ongoing APR of 29.99% (Variable) (See Rates & Fees), is fairly standard for even the best secured credit cards. The First Access Visa’s 35.99 percent ongoing APR borders on predatory, especially paired with the card’s excess hidden fees. 

The Credit One Bank Platinum Visa for Rebuilding Credit serves as an interesting middle ground in these card comparisons. Its ongoing APR is high, but not nearly as high as the First Access Visa. Similar to the First Access Visa, the Credit One Bank Platinum Visa for Rebuilding Credit charges an annual fee just to hold the card. And the $8.25 monthly maintenance fee, just like the First Access Visa, will cost you about $99 a year.

A key difference between the Credit One Bank Platinum Visa for Rebuilding Credit and the First Access Visa is the rewards program. You’ll earn 1 percent cash back rewards on eligible gas, grocery purchases and mobile phone service, internet, cable and satellite TV services (terms apply) with the Credit One Bank Platinum Visa for Rebuilding Credit, which could make the card a bit more valuable depending on your spending habits and desire to earn rewards. Both the First Access Visa and the Capital One Platinum Secured do not have a rewards program.

Picking the best card for you depend on what you value most, whether that be rewards, affordability or a singular focus on credit building. If you value overall affordability, you may find your match in the Capital One Platinum Secured card. If you’ve exhausted your other options you may give the First Access a look, but there are many more affordable options to tap into first.

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card is the ideal credit card companion to the First Access Visa. As one of the best secured credit cards on the market, it offers cardholders the opportunity to rebuild their credit without the burden of an annual fee. It is also one of the few cards for those with poor credit that offers rewards on qualifying spending. While there is a refundable security deposit required (starting at $200), the card can boost your credit if used correctly.

By using the First Access Visa Card responsibly and making timely payments, cardholders can demonstrate their creditworthiness and improve their credit score over time. This can open up opportunities for better financing terms on future loans, mortgages and other financial products.

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.