Netspend® Visa® Prepaid Card review: A last resort prepaid card

The The Card with No Credit Check - The Secured Self Visa® Credit Card* can help you build credit quickly by offering a diverse credit mix, a key scoring factor that can help you increase your credit score. You’ll pay an annual fee of $25, lower than paying the Netspend Visa Prepaid’s monthly fee for a year. There are some caveats to getting started with Self, but this card could help you build a foundation for your credit building by giving you a credit-builder loan and a credit card account, two accounts that Self will report to the three credit bureaus.

This card also doesn’t require a security deposit, like most secured credit cards. You do need to have at least $100 deposited into your credit-builder loan account before you’re eligible for the card, but this is lower than most security deposits. Plus, the amount you deposit (as payments into a certificate of deposit account) will be reported as payment activity and will reflect positively on your credit report.

Netspend is convenient for making payments and earning interest on an optional savings account, but it could ultimately be the more costly option with minimal benefits. But if you’re ready to get serious about credit building, Self can help you establish a nuanced credit history and provide a convenient fee-free payment method. 

*Credit Builder Accounts & Certificates of Deposit made/held by Lead Bank, Sunrise Banks, N.A., First Century Bank, N.A., each Member FDIC. Subject to credit approval. The secured Self Visa® Credit Card is issued by Lead Bank or First Century Bank, N.A., each Member FDIC."

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card is one of the best secured cards available because it offers a generous rewards rate on common purchases and is available whether you have bad credit or no credit. 

You’ll need to deposit at least $200 to get started with a $200 credit limit to match, but this initial refundable deposit will help you get started with a credit history and put you on track to qualify for better cards later on in your credit journey. Discover will report your card activity to the the major credit bureaus, so you have an opportunity to build credit and receive a positive credit report. 

If you’ve never held a credit card, don't have a bank account or you’re recovering from past financial missteps, the Netspend Visa could be a good fit. You’ll gain access to a payment method other than cash and you can take advantage of Netspend's optional savings account.

If you’re down on your luck or are in between jobs but still need to access a payment method, the Netspend Visa can be a good stand-in while you continue your job search and keep card costs low. If your income is strained, you’re likely not making many purchases, so you can opt for the pay-as-you-go plan to keep monthly costs low as you get back on your feet.

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.

With a prepaid card, you can only spend the money you load onto the card. Paying with prepaid cards is a safer and more convenient alternative than using cash and can be used wherever major payment networks such as Visa or Mastercard are accepted.

If you are planning to get a Netspend Visa Prepaid Card, the best way to do it is through their mobile app or website, as the application is free. Purchasing a Netspend card from any retail location will cost you up to $9.95.

No, it doesn’t help you build credit. Having a prepaid card does not involve extended credit, so it is unaffected by the cardholder's credit score since it utilizes funds the cardholder already possesses.