Discover has offered a secured card for almost two years now, the problem has been that it’s not been possible to apply for the card directly. You had to apply for the original Discover it card and if you were denied, you might receive an offer for the secured product. Yesterday Discover officially launched the Discover it Secured card and it’s now available for direct applications at: https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/secured/.
They have made one negative change to the card though, in the past the secured card was a carbon copy of Discover it card but Discover have made some negative changes to the rewards structure. The new Discover it Secured card earns at the following rates:
- 2% cash back at restaurants or gas stations on up to $1,000 in combined purchases each quarter
- 1% cash back on all other purchases
As you can see, this card has no rotating 5% cash back categories. On the bright side cardholders will earn double cash back for their first year (hopefully after a year the card will graduate to a non-secured card and you’ll be able to apply for prime credit cards as well). I still think Discover offers the best secured card on the market currently. 2% cash back on all purchases for the first year is exceptional, especially when you consider most secured cards have a hefty annual fee (and sometimes application fee) and no rewards program what so ever. I just wish they’d kept the rotating categories and scrapped the 2% categories and kept it as the original 5% rotating categories. Some additional information about the Discover it Secured card:
- Free FICO Score
- Can graduate to an unsecured card
- Can increase the credit limit by adding to your security deposit
- Reports as a secured card
- No annual fee
Our reviews of other Discover cards:
I’ve also contacted Discover to see what will happen to existing cardholders (e.g will they keep the 5% rotating categories or will be switched to the 2% in gas/groceries).
View Comments (7)
One other negative change (well, not that bad really) is that it reports as a secured card now instead of an unsecured card.
Can anyone tell me which score they pull for secured and regular credit cards?
it's a real credit card, why wouldn't it be a hard pull?
If you apply for one, will there be a Hard or Soft pull, any idea?
Hard pull
Nice! And it's about time..
It has the same rewards structure as the Discover it Chrome.
https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/cash-back/chrome.html