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.

• 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.

Compare it to the OpenSky^® Secured Visa^® Credit Card

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OpenSky^® Secured Visa^® Credit Card

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OpenSky^® Secured Visa^® Credit Card

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Intro Purchase APR N/A

Regular Purchase APR 19.64% (variable)

Annual Fee $35

Rewards Rate None

Highlights

• No credit check to apply and find out instantly if you are approved.
• OpenSky gives everyone an opportunity to improve their credit with an 85% average approval rate for the past 5 years
• Get considered for a credit line increase after 6 months, with no additional deposit required
• You could be eligible for the OpenSky Gold Unsecured Card after as few as 6 months
• Reports to all 3 major credit bureaus monthly, unlike a prepaid or debit card
• View your FICO® Score through your OpenSky account, an easy way to stay on top of your credit
• Nearly half of OpenSky cardholders who make on-time payments improve their FICO score 30+ points in the first 3 months
• Your refundable* deposit, as low as $200, becomes your OpenSky Visa credit limit
• Easy application, apply in less than 5 minutes right from your mobile device
• Offer flexible payment due dates which allow you to choose any available due date that fits your payment schedule
• *View the cardholder agreement

Typical Credit Needed

300 599

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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:

• Low annual fee of $35
• Reasonable APR of 19.64% (variable)
• No credit check when you apply
• Reports to all three credit bureaus
• Initial credit limit up to $3,000 (dependent on the amount of your security deposit.

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.