Regions bank has just launched a new secured Visa credit card called ‘Explore’. Let’s take a look at it in this quick review.
Contents
Card Basics
- Card is secured by funds in your Explore Card Savings account. Your credit limit is equal to the funds found in this account
- $29 annual fee
- No foreign transaction fees
- APR of 23.74%
- No rewards program
- Reports to three nationwide credit bureaus
Our Verdict
At this stage it’s not clear if it’s possible for this card to graduate to an unsecured card or not. It is interesting that there are no foreign transaction fees and looks like you can add funds to the savings account to increase the credit limit. Not the worst secured credit card available but people with bad credit can do so much better. For example the Discover it Secured card has no annual fee and offers a rewards program. You can view the best secured credit cards by clicking here.
Whatever you deposit into your savings account will be your credit limit. $250 minimum. I set this up to help establish credit for one of my family members. Their bank representative told us that it doesn’t graduate to an unsecured card, but once you establish enough credit to open up another credit account, you can close this card down and get your deposit back. Even though you can transfer $$ from your Regions checking account to make payments on your credit card, they don’t get in any hurry to transfer that money right away. I would advise paying off any charges immediately, or at least making your payments early enough to clear within one or two business days before the due date, to avoid any potential problems later on. No point it using this card to establish good credit if any of your payments end up being reported as late.
As for them running a credit check, the only bureau they pulled a hard inquiry for was from TransUnion.
How do you know if you’re approved? I opened the savings, and after they pulled Transunion, it said the available balance for the Explore Savings was $0 with a posted balance of $300 (initial deposit).
Do they check you credit for a secured credit card? However, I am aware that they report to all three credit bureaus.
Interesting this made the cut for blog content. But, thanks, because it informed me that when I asked my Regions rep if there was a way for my disabled sister to open an unsecured CC account to start giving her a credit score (since I am the one called upon to be the co-signer on leases, etc.), I was told that a secured CC was to be available in the future.
Guess the future is here. Gotta start somewhere.
Thanks again, DOC. 🙂
No problem. It’s not the most interesting blog content but the hope is people research cards like this and our page shows up in google and then they learn about the better options out there.
Is there some internet slang for YouGottaBeKidding?
Oh, right. I just looked it up: RB!