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The Milestone Mastercard® is a credit-building card designed to help consumers with fair/poor credit scores.
This is an unsecured card, meaning the issuer doesn’t require a security deposit that will serve as your credit line. Secured cards are also designed to help build or rebuild credit scores, but do require the applicant to come up with typically a $200 deposit in order to open the card.
While the Milestone Mastercard® may be appealing due to its lack of a security deposit, know that its interest rate is high at 24.9%, so this isn’t a card you’ll want to revolve a balance on.
The Milestone Mastercard® also charges an annual fee that can range from $35-$99, depending on creditworthiness*.
If you’re interested to see if you can qualify for the Milestone Mastercard®, there is a pre-qualification tool that allows you to see if your chances of approval are good without generating a hard inquiry of your credit reports.
Intro Purchase APR
N/A
Regular Purchase APR
24.9%
Intro BT APR
N/A
Regular BT APR
N/A
Annual Fee
$35-$99, depending on creditworthiness*
Cash Advance Fee
$0 during the first year; after the first year, either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater (not to exceed $100)
Foreign Transaction Fee
1% of each transaction
Balance Transfer Fee
N/A
No security deposit required
Unlike many credit-building cards, the Milestone Mastercard® does not require a security deposit.
Credit-building card
The Milestone Mastercard® is designed for consumers with fair/poor credit looking for a card to help them build or rebuild their credit scores. The issuer also reports account and payment activity to all three credit bureaus.
Pre-qualification tool
The Milestone Mastercard® offers a tool to help you determine if you’re likely to be approved for the card. This can help protect against a hard inquiry when the issuer checks your credit reports when you formally apply. Hard inquiries can knock your credit score down a few points for a year.
High APR
The APR on the Milestone Mastercard® is quite high, at 24.9%. However, it is a fixed APR, meaning it won’t rise or fall with prime rate changes. That said, if you carry a balance on this card, expect interest charges to inflate what you owe.
Multiple fees
The Milestone Mastercard® comes with an annual fee of Milestone Mastercard®, as well as an account opening fee and a monthly fee (which is waived the first year). Some of these fees will be assessed before you start using your card and will reduce your initial $300 credit limit until paid.
Low credit limit
The Milestone Mastercard® comes with a $300 credit limit, which can make it difficult to use the card for anything but small purchases. Plus, to build a solid credit score, you need to keep your credit utilization low (how much you charge compared to your credit limit), so our advice if you choose to get this card is to use it for a small recurring purchase that you pay off every month.
If you add up all the fees associated with the Milestone Mastercard®, you may be better off with a secured card with minimal fees, such as the OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card.
You’ll have to come up with $200 as a security deposit, but you’ll get that back once your credit score is in better shape and you can close the card for a better card. Whereas you won’t get back the setup and annual fees assessed by the Milestone Mastercard®.
Some key highlights of the OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card include:
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| Milestone Mastercard® | OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card | Petal® 2 Cash Back, No Fees Visa® Credit Card | Discover it® Secured Credit Card |
|---|---|---|---|
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Apply Now on Genesis FS Card Services's secure site
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Apply Now on OpenSky's secure site
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Apply Now on Petal's secure site
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Apply Now on Discover's secure site
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| Annual Fee | |||
| $35-$99, depending on creditworthiness* | $35 | $0 | $0 |
| Regular APR | |||
| 24.9% | 21.64% (variable) | Variable APR between 17.24% - 31.24% | 27.24% Variable APR |
| Welcome Offer | |||
| No bonus | N/A | N/A | Discover will match all the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year. |
| Rewards Rate | |||
| Non-rewards card | None | Earn 1% cash back on eligible purchases right away, and 2% to 10% cash back at select merchants | 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 |
| Recommended Credit | |||
| Fair/Poor | Poor/Limited | N/A | Poor/Limited |
| Card Details | |||
| Milestone Mastercard® | OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card | Petal® 2 Cash Back, No Fees Visa® Credit Card | Discover it® Secured Credit Card |
Given the number of fees assessed by the Milestone Mastercard®, you may be better off looking at secured cards that require a minimum $200 security deposit. At least with a secured card, you can get most, if not all, of your security deposit back once you close the card. When you close the Milestone Mastercard®, that setup fee, annual fee or monthly fee, is not refundable.
That said, the Milestone Mastercard® is pretty standard for an unsecured card for consumers looking for a credit-building card. The credit limit is low, so in order to keep your credit utilization in check (to boost your credit score), try not to charge more than $90 in a given month. And, with such a high interest rate, it would be smart to not use the card for purchases that you won’t be able to pay off in full when the statement comes due.
