Secured credit card

Secured credit card — a card issued against a deposit you park with the bank as collateral, sized to the limit. It’s the standard cold-start when you’re unbanked-for-credit: the bank takes no risk, you get a reporting trade line, and 6–12 months of perfect payments opens doors to unsecured products. A tool for building the file, not for borrowing — the deposit out-earns nothing while pledged, which is fine, because that’s not its job.

First used in: 3.2 · The PH credit machine