Credit Cards Balance Transfer Cards

Secured Visa Credit Card Review

overall rating
2.7
Verified by Katrina Munichiello
Updated April 05, 2023

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The Secured Visa Credit Card from First National Bank of Omaha provides a low ongoing APR, but it is available only to residents of select states.

Secured Visa® Credit Card

Overall Rating
2.7
Secured Visa® Credit Card
Next Steps
On FNBO's Secured Site.
Recommended Credit
Score Our recommended ranges are based off of the FICO® Score 8 credit-scoring model. Credit score is one of the many factors lenders review in considering your application.
350 579
580 669
670 739
740 799
800 850
Poor - Excellent
Regular APR (%) 24.74% variable
Annual Fee $0
Minimum Deposit to Activate $0
Pay deposit in installments No
Allows upgrade to unsecured card No
Rewards Earning Rate This card does not offer a rewards program.
how this card stacks up
When compared among all secured cards in our database:
Secured Features
Security/Customer Experience
Low Interest
Rewards
Benefits
worst best
Read our full methodology.

The Secured Visa Credit Card is not one of our top-rated balance transfer credit cards. You can review our list of the best balance transfer credit cards for what we think are better options.

Full Review of Secured Visa Credit Card

table of contents
Pros

  • Low ongoing APR

Cons

  • No interest-free period for purchases

Pros Explained

  • Low Ongoing APR: The ongoing APR on this card is low compared to other balance transfer cards. You'll be charged up to 24.74%, depending on creditworthiness. If your credit is solid enough to qualify for the low end of that range, you'll have one of the lowest APRs on purchases available.

Cons Explained

  • No Interest-Free Period for Purchases: Even though the Secured Visa Credit Card has a low ongoing APR for purchases, its lack of an interest-free period puts this card at a disadvantage. Several cards on the market offer a 0% introductory period for purchases in, some even offer it in addition to balance transfers.

Who This Card Is Best For

The Secured Visa Credit Card card is suited to those who aren't concerned with earning cash back or points, since it doesn’t offer rewards.

Secured Visa Credit Card One-Time Offer

The Secured Visa Credit Card does not offer a welcome bonus at this time, which is not uncommon for secured credit cards.

Several nonsecured cards on the market have more lucrative bonus offers, albeit with higher spending requirements. If you need a secured card, however, the Discover it Secured card doubles the cash back you've earned at the end of your first year. It also features a 10.99% APR on balance transfers for the first six months after opening your account.

Standard Benefits

  • Fraud protection
  • Free FICO score
  • Zero liability for fraudulent charges
  • Chip-enabled technology

Cardholder Experience

First National Bank of Omaha ranked among the best banks in the Lower Midwest in J.D. Power's 2022 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study. Its score of 682 was third overall in the region and 32 points better than the Region average.

Cardholders can get in touch with the customer service department by calling 888-530-3626, visiting a local branch, or sending a secure email through their account. Customers can also Tweet questions and comments to @FNBO on Twitter.

Security Features

This card has several built-in security features standard in the industry. Cardholders get 24/7 fraud protection, fraud alerts, chip-enhanced technology, and zero-fraud liability. It also provides a free FICO score each month.

Fees to Watch Out For

This card has a balance transfer fee of $10 or 5% of the amount of each transfer. Balance transfer fees are typical, but this card’s fee is higher than others. All other fees on this card are in line with industry standards.

Final Verdict

If you won't qualify for this card because of where you live, you may want to consider a card with broader availability. The Capital One Platinum Secured card, for example, offers the flexibility of paying the deposit in installments. It also offers automatic credit line increases in as little as six months, and the credit line sometimes can be higher than the required security deposit.

Next Steps
For Secured Visa® Credit Card
on FNBO's Secured Site.
Compare This Card
See how this card compares to similar cards
CURRENT CARD
Secured Visa® Credit Card
overall rating
2.7
Secured Visa® Credit Card
Next Steps
Recommended Credit
Score Our recommended ranges are based off of the FICO® Score 8 credit-scoring model. Credit score is one of the many factors lenders review in considering your application.
350 579
580 669
670 739
740 799
800 850
Poor - Excellent
Regular APR (%) 24.74% variable
Annual Fee $0
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    580 669
    670 739
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    580 669
    670 739
    740 799
    800 850
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    580 669
    670 739
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    350 579
    580 669
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    580 669
    670 739
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    670 739
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    800 850
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Investopedia Credit Card Rating Methodology
Investopedia is committed to delivering the best credit card recommendations in the industry. We’ll tell you when a card is good, we’ll tell you when a card is bad, and we’ll only call a card the best if we would recommend it to our friends or family members.
Overall Star Rating Explained
To rate credit cards we objectively assess, score and weight nearly 100 individual card features which roll up into five major feature sets: fees, interest, rewards, benefits and security/customer service. Here’s how we weighted those feature sets for the overall star rating of a card:
We have applied our proprietary rating methodology to every generally-accepted credit card in the U.S. domestic market to allow consumers to make fully informed choices. It’s important to note that for our overall score that we make a number of assumptions about how you would be using your credit card:
  1. While we make no assumption as to whether balances are carried on a given card we do assign varying weights to all credit cards’ introductory APR (if present) in addition to the regular, long term purchase and balance transfer interest rates.
  2. We utilize BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) income and average category spending data to calculate annual earnings rates for rewards cards that offer cash back, points or miles rewards at a set rate on all spending or in consideration of bonus rewards for certain spending categories, like gasoline, groceries, restaurants or travel.
  3. We determine the maximum points value of rewards cards by dividing the points, cash back or miles required to exchange for the retail price of the most valuable redemption option (for example, in the case of a card that offers a domestic roundtrip airline ticket as a redemption option vs. another redemption option of lesser value that requires the same amount of points or miles to acquire, we would base the rewards value on the airline ticket).
  • Cards that are selected best overall in their respective categories generally feature most if not all of the following attributes:
  • Low or Reasonable Fees Credit card fees come in many forms but the primary ones involve those for annual card membership and balance transfer. There are a myriad of reward and non-reward card options that charge no annual fee but for the many that do assess an annual fee the cost is often justified by their lucrative ongoing rewards and initial signup bonuses. Balance transfer fees are occasionally waived during introductory periods with certain cards, a factor which is heavily and positively weighted in our scoring model for cards offering this benefit. When charged, balance transfer fees range between 3% - 5%, which we grade accordingly. Other standard fees can generally be avoided, such as those for paying late or taking cash advances but we rate those relative to other cards in the market for reference, though with less weight assigned
  • Competitive Interest Many cards offer 0% introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers for varying lengths and then revert to a permanent or regular APR (based on a variable rate tied to the prime rate) that applies to any balances not paid in full. We rate both introductory APR percentage and length (in months) along with the midpoint of the variable regular APR interest rate range.
  • Valuable Rewards Credit card reward programs can be based on cash back, points or travel rewards (which can be generic or travel partner-specific, as with airline and hotel co-brand card programs). For cards that offer rewards we determine the value per dollar spent along with average redemption values and assign more favorable ratings to cards that offer superior consumer value. We also assign value to sign-up bonus offers and their initial spending requirements, when present.
  • Excellent Benefits Credit card benefits cover a range of offerings like concierge service, TSA Pre-check, auto rental coverage, travel accident insurance, lost luggage assistance and free credit scores. We rate cards on the number and level of over a dozen standard and upscale benefits and provide extra weighting emphasis for those travel-related perks that apply to premium travel cards when present.
  • Solid Security/Customer Service Security and customer service features like lost or stolen card replacement, being able to lock one’s card from an issuer app and 24 hour customer support are becoming more standard across the card market and we provide a significant amount of weighting to features in this area.
  • You can also read the full version of our methodology for a more in-depth look at how we assess cards and award them the best in various categories.