Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card Review

The Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card may be a good choice for someone who already has Chime checking and savings accounts and wants to start building credit history or repair damaged credit.

There are a couple things to be aware of. First, Chime itself is not a bank. It’s a financial technology company that helps consumers build savings by rounding up transactions made with your debit card and transferring the extra change from your checking to your savings account. Banking services are provided by The Bancorp Bank or Stride Bank, N.A., Members FDIC. And second, the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card is unique in how your credit limit and payments will work. We’ll go over this in detail below.

But on the plus side, the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card offers a chance to build credit history with all three credit bureaus, charges a $0 annual fee and doesn’t require a credit check to apply.

• No credit check required

  If your credit history isn’t great and you’re worried a credit check could prevent you from getting approved, you’ll like the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card. Unlike most credit cards, it doesn’t require a credit check and is aimed at consumers in the Limited / Poor / Fair brackets.

• Builds credit with all three bureaus

  When you’re focused on building credit, you want a card that reports to the three major consumer credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

  The Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card reports your payment history to all three, meaning if you use the card responsibly and always pay on time, you can build a positive credit history.

• Doesn't have a minimum deposit amount

  Chime has positioned the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card as an alternative to traditional secured credit cards, which are often recommended to people with poor or limited credit as a way to work toward a good credit score. With most secured cards, you must submit a security deposit to the issuer in the amount of your desired credit limit. This protects the issuer in case you don’t pay back what you owe. Generally, the minimum deposit amount ranges from $200 to $500.

  With the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card, there’s no minimum deposit.

  First, you must set your available credit by depositing the amount you choose into your Credit Builder account. Then, you can spend up to that much on your Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card. When it comes time to pay, you’ll have the option of using your deposit to pay off the card. If you do that, note that you’ll have to make additional deposits to boost what you have available to spend.

  Note that you can choose to either pay the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card off manually each month or set up automatic payments using your deposit via the Safer Credit Building feature. If you miss a payment, your Credit Builder account will be disabled, and after 30 days Chime will report you as late to the credit bureaus, and late payments can hurt your credit score significantly.

• No annual fee or foreign transaction fee

  The Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card lets you build credit for a $0 annual fee. And if you end up traveling abroad, you can have peace of mind that the foreign transaction fee is $0 too.

• Doesn't charge interest

  Since you don’t carry a balance with the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card in the same way you might with another credit card, you won’t have to pay interest. That’s a good thing, because interest charges can be expensive.

  With a traditional credit card, you borrow money every time you use the card, and you pay it off as you go. (This is known as revolving credit.) If you don’t pay off your credit card in full each month, but instead choose to roll a balance over from month to month, you’ll be charged interest (unless you’re in a 0% introductory APR period).

  With the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card, you fund the spending limit by moving money into your Credit Builder account, and you can spend up to the amount you’ve put in. You can pay off what you’ve charged to the card with what you’ve deposited to the Credit Builder account, though you’ll have to deposit more to raise your spending power back to where it was initially.

• Chime account and direct deposit required

  To be eligible for the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card, you must have a Chime checking account and qualifying direct deposits of $200 or more. If you already use Chime, this might not be a huge barrier.

  But, if you aren’t a current Chime customer and aren’t interested in opening a Chime account, you may be better of with a credit-building card that doesn’t require you to open a new checking account.

• Doesn't prepare you for how credit cards work

  In many ways, the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card doesn’t operate like a traditional credit card. Maybe that’s a plus — some consumers may find Chime’s features help them manage their money more responsibly. But if you’re hoping to eventually get a card with top-notch rewards or benefits, a regular secured card might be a better stepping stone.

• Can't graduate to an unsecured credit card

  Some issuers of secured credit cards let you graduate to an unsecured card and get your deposit back after you’ve demonstrated responsible payment and spending history. But the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card doesn’t come with an option to graduate or upgrade.

• Doesn't earn rewards

  Earning rewards shouldn’t be your main focus if your credit is limited or bad — working toward a good credit score should be. So it’s not a major downside that the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card is a non-rewards card. Still, it must be noted that some secured cards do come with rewards programs, like the Discover it^® Secured Credit Card.

 

The Discover it^® Secured Credit Card is consistently one of our top picks for people with Limited / Poor credit. It reports to all three credit bureaus and charges a $0 annual fee. It does require a $200 minimum security deposit. However, after you have the Discover it^® Secured Credit Card for seven months, the issuer will begin conducting monthly reviews to see if you qualify to get your deposit back and graduate to an unsecured credit card.

It also operates the way that credit cards typically do, meaning you borrow money and pay as you go, rather than funding your account and then spending up to the amount you’ve funded. If you’re aiming to build credit and eventually open credit cards with top-of-the-line rewards programs or benefits, the Discover it^® Secured Credit Card is a better option for learning how to manage a credit card.

The Discover it^® Secured Credit Card also earns cash back: 2% cash back at Gas Stations and Restaurants on up to $1,000 in combined purchases each quarter. 1% unlimited cash back on all other purchases - automatically And Discover will match all the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year.

A couple downsides: Discover is not as widely accepted in some countries as Visa and Mastercard. Also, there will be a credit check if you apply for the Discover it^® Secured Credit Card.

If you want a $0-annual-fee card that doesn’t require a credit check and that builds credit by reporting payment history to the three bureaus, the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card might be right for you.

However, you have to open a Chime checking account if you don’t already have one. And you have to understand that the Secured Chime Credit Builder Visa^® Credit Card works a bit differently than traditional credit cards in funding your deposit and paying off what you owe. That could be seen as a positive or a negative.

If you’re interested in a more traditional secured card, consider the Discover it^® Secured Credit Card.