Visa Secured Credit Cards Online

by Mack Bartlett

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Let’s practice a little free-association for a minute. You know what I mean, I’ll throw out a word, you say the very first thing that comes into your head. Here we go: cat. Did you say dog? I did. Car. Did you say truck? That’s what popped into my head.

What about credit card? I’d be willing to bet the first thing that jumped to your mind was Visa. You know why? Probably because Visa is the original credit card company. The granddaddy of them all.

A common theme lately has been secured credit cards. Today we’re talking about them again, except we’re talking specifically about Visa secured credit cards online.

Why online? Well Visa was basically the pioneer when it comes to allowing people to carry out transactions via telephone, mail order, and eventually the internet. Here’s a little history:

In 1968 a man named Dee Hock led a group of banks in forming a centralized electronic payment system allowed banks to speak the same ‘language’ while still competing for their own profits. They decided to name the system Visa because it was simple to pronounce and would sound the same in any language.

Over the years, Visa evolved. The standard piece of plastic was still useful, but consumes were making purchases through new and different channels like mail order catalogues. Not that the catalogs were new, but people wanted to use their cards to make purchases through those catalogs.

In the mid-eighties Visa hooked up with a national ATM network, and debit cards became more and more prevalent. It was only a matter of time until the internet took off along with ecommerce, and the use of credit cards online became part of everyday life.

And here we are today, so back to the current theme. Visa offers several secured credit cards online. Let’s look at one example.

Millenium Black Diamond Visa

Pros:

• Guaranteed approval.
• No credit check.
• Credit lines up to $10,000.
• Reports your good behavior to all three credit bureaus.

Cons:

• Purchase APR is a little high compared to others (19.5%).
• ‘Set-up Fee’ of $99.95 (huh?)
• Annual fee of $59. (On its own, not terrible. But along with the hundred bucks to set up the account? It’s a little much.)
• No grace period at all. (Most cards offer at least some grace period.)