Sara Rathner is a NerdWallet travel and credit cards expert. She has appeared on the “Today” show and CNBC’s “Nightly Business Report,” and has been quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, Time, Reuters, NBC News, Business Insider and MarketWatch. Before joining NerdWallet, Sara worked at The Motley Fool for nearly 10 years. She also worked as a freelance personal finance writer and paraplanner and has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern University.
Assigning Editor Erica Corbin
Assigning Editor
Erica Corbin is a former assigning editor at NerdWallet. Erica joined NerdWallet in 2020 as an assistant assigning editor at large. In 2023, she was promoted to assigning editor and helped lead the credit cards vertical at NerdWallet Canada. She previously wrote and edited content at companies such as GOBankingRates and Nasdaq. Her work has been syndicated to USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN and more.
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As of fall 2021, the Wells Fargo Secured Credit Card was not accepting new applications. See our best secured credit cards for other options.
If you have bad credit or no credit at all, the Wells Fargo Secured Credit Card is a potential path to building your credit history.
However, you’ll need to look into other secured credit card options if you don’t already have this card, as it isn't available any longer. If you already carry the Wells Fargo Secured Credit Card, though, here are five things to know about it.
The Wells Fargo Secured Credit Card stopped accepting applications as of December 2019. According to a Wells Fargo representative, there are no plans to reopen the card to new applicants or offer a new Wells Fargo secured credit card.
Currently, the only Wells Fargo-issued credit card geared toward those who are looking to build their credit is the Wells Fargo Cash Back College Card . That card is designed for students who have a source of income, however.
Secured cards don’t typically pack on the perks, but the Wells Fargo Secured Credit Card comes with Visa benefits, which include rental car collision coverage, travel accident insurance and emergency assistance, and cell phone protection ($600 per claim on up to $1,200 per year). To get cell phone coverage, you must use your Wells Fargo Secured Credit Card to pay your cell phone bill.
With the Wells Fargo Secured Credit Card, you can see your FICO credit score for free without impacting your credit score. The score is updated monthly, so you can track your progress.
Note that this FICO score is for educational purposes. It can be helpful to get a sense of where you are as you make financial decisions. But if you apply for a loan or other credit card, the lender may use other credit scoring models when evaluating your application. That means the credit score it sees may be different, which can affect your eligibility for a loan.
With secured credit cards, you make an initial deposit that becomes your credit limit. If you ever close the card or upgrade to an unsecured card, you’ll get that deposit back.
The Wells Fargo Secured Credit Card requires a deposit of $300 to $10,000. You can request credit limit increases and decreases in $100 increments. If your credit limit is decreased, you’ll get a refund for the difference within 30 days. You can’t have a credit limit lower than $300.
To qualify for a credit line increase, you can’t just overpay your balance — any money you pay over the amount due will count toward your next month’s bill. You have to apply, get approved and make an additional deposit to fund a credit line increase.
Wells Fargo evaluates secured card accounts periodically to see if the cardholder would be eligible for an upgrade to a more traditional unsecured card. Actions like making on-time bill payments and spending less than your credit limit can help make your case for an eventual upgrade. There’s no specific timeline for this decision.
As you monitor your credit score over time, it may reach a level where you’d potentially qualify for a wider variety of unsecured cards. You can bypass Wells Fargo’s schedule and shop around for a new card on your own. A FICO score of 630 or higher can increase your options.
The information related to the Wells Fargo Secured Credit Card and Wells Fargo Cash Back College Card have been collected by NerdWallet and have not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of this product or service.
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Sara is a NerdWallet travel and credit cards expert. She has appeared on the “Today” show, Nasdaq and CNBC’s “Nightly Business Report.” See full bio.
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