Citi® Secured Mastercard® review: A bare-bones card for building credit

Quick highlights

• Rewards rate: N/A
• Welcome offer: N/A
• Annual fee: $0
• Purchase intro APR: N/A
• Balance transfer intro APR: N/A
• Regular APR: 27.49 percent variable

Welcome offer

The Citi Secured Mastercard doesn’t currently offer a welcome bonus, which is not uncommon for a secured credit card. If you want a secured card with a welcome offer, the Discover it® Secured Credit Card is a rare exception, giving cardholders the Cashback Match™ welcome offer found on Discover cards.

Rewards

Like many secured cards, the Citi Secured Mastercard doesn’t earn rewards. This isn’t a deal-breaker though, since cardholders should use secured cards as stepping stones to bigger and better rewards cards.

Unfortunately, this card doesn’t carry extra perks aside from basic account management features and the Citi Entertainment program, which is available to nearly all Citi cardholders. These features add up to a perfectly serviceable experience while you shore up your credit score but. Alternatively, a student credit card may carry a stronger roster of benefits for someone enrolled in college.

Account management features

Features like automatic account alerts, auto-pay, choice of payment due dates and identity theft protections are standard perks you should look for on any card. These standard perks are all present on the Citi Secured Mastercard and can help you keep your credit score journey on track. You can also monitor your progress online with free access to your FICO score at any time.

Digital wallet access and contactless pay

Your Citi Secured card can join your digital wallet for easy access on and offline. Plus, the physical card comes with a contactless payment chip-enabled for quick, safe transactions.

Citi Entertainment

With Citi Entertainment, you gain access to exclusive travel, dining and entertainment events. If you’re already planning excursions in the future, Citi Entertainment is a great way to snag presale concert tickets and more before the general public can.

Citi looks at areas of applicants’ finances like income and debt to determine credit limits. This bodes well for users who already practice good financial habits. For instance, a positive history of banking with Citibank could secure you a higher credit limit, which will make keeping your credit utilization low a lot easier.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a defined timeline for Citi’s card graduation process like you may find on other credit-building cards. However, the Citi Secured Mastercard terms state that Citi may upgrade your card by refunding your deposit at 18 months. Depending on where you are in your credit-building journey, a year and a half is plenty of time to demonstrate responsible use and boost your credit score through on-time payments and low credit utilization. However, you may have already built up enough credit by then to spring for a better card anyway.

Plus, because this is a secured card, your credit activity is reported to the three major credit bureaus. Making on time payments and exercising financial responsibility can lead to credit recovery or help new users build credit. If you’re currently using a prepaid or a debit card, a secured card like the Citi Mastercard could be a good option to start establishing credit history.

The main appeal of the Citi Secured Mastercard is its low-cost, no-frills approach to credit building. There is no annual fee, and the $200 minimum security deposit falls in line with many secured cards. As long as you can pay your balance in full each month, this is a solid credit builder card to have in your wallet. 

Like many cards, there are some fees to watch out for. Citi’s secured card isn’t the best to use abroad since it charges a 3 percent foreign transaction fee (after USD conversion). 

It also has a  late payment fee (see terms) and the potential for a penalty APR of up to 29.99 percent (variable), which could last indefinitely. While the late fee is common for most credit cards, that penalty APR and indefinite time period is a negative feature you won’t find with many cards, including Capital One and the Discover it® Secured Credit Card. 

The card carries a 27.49 percent variable APR. That is slightly lower than competing cards but is still well above the current average interest rate. 

Keeping your credit card paid off each month is the safest option to stay out of credit card debt. But if you can’t, a low interest credit card may be a safer choice than the Citi Secured. If you carried a $1,000 balance with the Citi Secured and could only make $200 payments each month, it would take you six months to pay off the card and cost $73 in interest. If you do that twice in a year, you’d lose $146 to interest. 

Even a secured card with an annual fee, like the First Progress Platinum Prestige Mastercard® Secured Credit Card could help reduce amount of money you lose to interest charges — especially if you carry a balance for a long time. But to be sure, use a credit card calculator to see for yourself. 

Though the Citi Secured Mastercard may be a good choice thanks to its bare-bones structure, some other secured credit cards carry fewer fees and more benefits — even rewards, in some cases.

Unless you’re already a loyal Citi customer, you might want to consider one of these alternatives.

Citi Secured Mastercard vs. Discover it® Secured Credit Card

If you must carry a balance from one month to the next, the Citi Secured barely edges out the Discover it® Secured Credit Card, making these two cards close contenders.

Where these two credit-building secured cards differ is in the perks. While the Citi Secured card has benefits standard for most secured credit cards, the Discover it® Secured Credit Card comes with cash back and a valuable welcome offer. Discover will match all the cash back you earn at the end of your first year with the account and you get one-time late payment forgiveness (no late payment fee the first time you pay late; after that, up to $41). The Citi Secured is the best card if you have no credit history, are loyal to Citibank and plan to use a secured credit card only for building credit instead of earning rewards.

If you want to earn modest cash back on the side while you build credit, the Discover it® Secured Credit Card outshines the Citi Secured Mastercard.

Citi Secured Mastercard vs. Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card

Again, the Citi Secured Mastercard is a middle-of-the-road secured credit card option, just like the Capital One Platinum Secured. Both cards have no annual fee, no rewards and no introductory APR benefits (Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card - (See Rates & Fees)). However, the Capital One Platinum Secured has a slightly higher variable APR, so if you’re someone who tends to carry a balance, the Citi Secured is the better option here.

That said, the Capital One Platinum Secured is more lenient with its credit limits. Applicants can put down a deposit as low as $49 (the security deposit could also be $99 or $200 based on your creditworthiness) to access a $200 credit limit with the opportunity for a credit limit increase after the six-month automatic account review. To serious credit-builders, this credit limit increase is a boon for keeping your credit utilization ratio under control without expensive deposits. For that reason, the Capital One Platinum Secured is a slightly better option, despite its slightly higher APR.

Best cards to pair with this card

Using more than one card when you’re building or rebuilding credit is generally not recommended. In this case, there is no best card to pair with the Citi Secured Mastercard. If you choose the Citi Secured card as your first credit card, you should pair it with a free credit-monitoring tool, like Experian, and connect your non-traditional accounts for reporting. Using Experian Boost or UltraFICO will link utility, subscription and certain rent payment accounts and report positive payments to aid you in improving your credit.

The Citi Secured Mastercard offers an opportunity to build credit at a low cost. Its rates and fees make it a decent choice for any credit-builder who can keep their balance paid in full each month. But the bare-bones Citi Secured is a few ranks shy of being crowned the top secured card. Its penalty APR and lack of credit-building features make cards like the Discover it® Secured Credit Card and the Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card better overall choices.

The information about the Citi® Secured Mastercard® has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.