$700 Limit Milestone® Mastercard® Credit Card Version
REVIEW

Does $700 Credit Limit Make it Worth It?

Milestone credit card (marketed by Concora Credit Incl) usually have $300 credit limit. However, they now have a $700 credit limit issue and and in this review, we will be looking at this particular version. With a $700 credit limit, you can put more spending on your card without worrying as much about either hitting your credit limit or any self-imposed spending limit if you are watching your credit utilization ratio like a hawk. From a credit limit perspective, it is definitely a big leap and improvement over their previous versions. Let's get into the nitty gritty.

$700 Limit Card Details

The table below summarizes all versions.

Card	Annual Fee	Monthly Fee	Credit Limit
Milestone $700	$175 1st Year Then $49	$0 for 1st year Then $12.50/month	$700

Fees

As you can see from the table above, the Milestone credit card has a $175 annual fee for the first year, then it becomes $49 from the second year onwards. But from the second year onwards, they also charge a $12.50/month monthly fee.

The credit limit is $700 and this will not increase.

Requirements: Credit Score and Others

Before we proceed with our detailed analysis of this card, let's first go through their requirements for you to get approved for this card.

Credit Score Requirements - The minimum credit score you need to apply for this card is 510 though. However, credit scores may not be important as the next factor.

No Delinquent Accounts - Milestone is very strict about this. That means that you should not have any charge offs on your credit report that are not PAID or SETTLED. If you have a few charge offs on your account that you are still delinquent on, you will NOT be approved for the card. In fact, it is very difficult to get approved for unsecured credit cards with bad credit if you have unsettled charge offs and collections in your credit report unless you are reaching your statutes of limitation and the amounts owed are very small. Aside from settling or paying off your charge offs or collections, you should have made on-time payments for at least a year as well.

Can be approved with discharged bankruptcy - Milestone will approve those of you with discharged bankruptcy (especially chapter 7 BKs). The reason is because your debts have been wiped clean and you are starting afresh. You are a much less risky consumer despite the fact that your credit scores may be low.

No more than 2 hard inquiries during last 6 months - Milestone does not want to see too many hard inquiries on your credit report. Max is 2 for the last 6 months. So please do not apply for this card if you have just been on an app spree.

Preferably 2 tradelines - This is not a hard and fast rule. For example, many folks who have just been discharged from their bankruptcy (especially chapter 7 bankruptcy) have gotten Milestone as their first rebuilder credit cards. But you should ideally have one or two tradelines on your credit report when you apply. Have Driver's License and Utility Bills Handy - When you apply for Milestone or any credit card for that matter, you might be asked for documents to verify your identity and address. Having a picture of your DL and utility bills in your computer harddrive and/or mobile phone will come in handy should you be asked for these.

Analysis of Milestone Mastercard $700

Before we begin, I just want to introduce a measurement we use here at askmrcreditcard.com as part of our analysis of subprime credit cards. And we use a ratio called the Total Fee to Credit Limit ratio. We calculate this ratio by adding up all the fees that you have to pay for a credit card and divide it by it's credit limit. This number gives us a sense of how much fees we are paying relative to the credit limit we are getting for the card. A ratio of up to 30% is number I am comfortable with. Though the ideal is the always have a credit card with no fees, rebuilders will know that you rebuilder credit cards tend to come with fees and we have to accept them. But this measure gives us a way to compare different cards with different fees and credit limits.

During the first year, you will be charged an annual fee of $175. There is no monthly fee charged during the first year. Hence, the Total Fees to Credit Limit Ratio for the first year is $175/$700 = 25%. That means that the fees you are paying are a quarter of the credit limit you are getting. From the second year onwards, the the annual fee is reduced to $49 but a monthly fee kicks in at $12.50 a month which works out to $150 a year. Hence, from the second year onwards, the Total Fee to Credit Limit Ratio is ($49 + $150)/$700 = 28.4%. (see table below)

Now that we have got the number crunching out of the way, there are still a couple of qualitative factors that we have to mention before we do actual comparisons. Firstly, Milestone does not have a mobile app and they do not allow you to pay via debit card. Other than that, the thing that Milestone has a great reputation for is that they report to credit bureaus on time and they allow you to set up autopay from their online portal. Most payments clear in within 48 hours and will be reflected in your credit limit once payment is processed.

Now that we have gotten this out of the way, let's do some competition analysis.

Competition

Below is a table showing this ratio for the Milestone credit card with $700 credit limit and it's competitors. In terms of competition, we have chosen credit cards that either have $700 credit limits or cards that charge both annual fee and monthly as Milestone have both these characteristics.

Card	Annual Fee	Monthly Fee	Credit Limit	Fees/Credit Limit Ratio
Milestone AF + MF $700 Limit	Y1=$175, then $49	Y1=$0, then $12.50/m or $150/y	$700	Y1=$175/$700 = 25% Y2=$199/$700 = 28.4%
Destiny CashBack 1.5% CashBack	$175 Y1, then $49	Y1=$0, then $12.50/m or $150/y	$700	Y1=($175 - $126)/$700 = 7% Y2=($199 - $126)/$700 = 10.4%
Destiny $700 Limit	Y1=$75, then $49	Y1=$0, then $12.50/m or $150/y	$700	Y1=$175/$700 = 25% Y2=$199/$700 = 28.4%
First Premier $700 Limit	$79 Y1, then $49	Y1=$8/m or $96/year, then $10.40/m or $124.80/y	$55	$700	Y1 = ($55+$79+$96)/$700 = 32.9% Year 2 ($49 + $124.80)/$700 = 24.8%
Total Visa	$75 Y1, then $49	Y1=$0, then $8.25/m or $99/y	$89	$300	Y1 = ($75+$89)/$300 = 56% Year 2 ($99 + $48)/$300 = 49%
Reflex Mastercard $750 limit	$125	$0	$750	$125/$750 = 16.6%

Compared to other Concora Credit Inc Credit Cards

Milestone is marketed by Concora Credit and they have two other brand of credit cards, Destiny and Indigo. The card that most resembles the Milestone Mastercard is the Destiny Mastercard with $700 credit limit. In fact, they have the same exact fees and credit limit. The main difference is that Destiny may offer you a cash back program where you can earn 1.5% cash back on all your purchases. Earning these cash back will go a long way towards offsetting the fees you pay on this card. From this perspective, it is better than Milestone.

Compared to cards with annual fee and monthly fee

There are many subprime credit cards that have both annual fee and monthly fee. But I am just going to compare it with a couple as they are quite representative for the rest.

The first of these cards that I want to compare the Milestone Gold Mastercard with is the Total Visa Credit Card. Total Visa a card marketed by Vervent (who also markets other similar credit cards). As you can see from the comparison table above, Total Visa charges an annual fee, monthly fee and also a program fee. The credit limit for Total Visa is $300 (which is common for unsecured credit cards for people with bad credit). The Total Fee to Credit Limit ratio is 56% during the first year and 49% during the second year. This is depite having a lower annual fee and monthly fee than Milestone. In other words, you are paying about half of your credit limit in the form of fees every year. From a fee perspective, Milestone is the much better card from a fee perspective.

Another card that we are going to compare with is the First Premier Mastercard. When you apply for the First Premier Mastercard, you may get credit limits ranging from $300 to $700. We are going to compare the Milestone with the $700 credit limit version since we would be at least be comparing apples and apples. If you look at the comparison table above, you will notice that aside First Premier not only charges both an annual fee and a monthly fee, they also charge a program fee. Furthermore, they charge a monthly fee during the first year whereas Milestone and most other credit cards do not charge any monthly fee during the first year at all but rather start charging them from the second year onwards. The Total Fee to Credit Limit ratio is 32.9% and 24.8% for the first and second year respectively. This ratio is quite similar to Milestone.

Compared to other $700 credit limit credit cards

The last card that I want to compare the Milestone Mastercard $700 credit limit version is the Reflex Mastercard from Continental Finance. In fact, when you apply for the Reflex Mastercard, you may get either a $300, $500, $750 or $1,000 starting credit limit. After 6 months of paying on time, your credit limit will automatically double. That means that if you get the $750 initial starting credit limit with Reflex, it will double to $1,500 after six months of on-time payments. Reflex also charges an annual fee only (no monthly fee for the $750 or $1,000 limit version) so the Total Fee to Credit Limit ratio looks very good (see table above). Reflex also has a mobile app and provides a free credit score which Milestone does not. Reflex also allows you to go through a pre-approval process first (with no impact on your credit score) whereas with Milestone, you are applying immediately and will result in a hard inquiry.

Pros

• Decent Starting Credit Limit - $700 is a decent starting credit limit for a subprime credit card. This is an improvement from the $300 limits that previous Milestone credit cards has. A $700 credit limit allows a rebuilder to put more of their monthly spending on the card while rebuilding with a $300 credit card usually just involves putting your netflix on autopay and that's it!


• Reports consistently to credit bureaus - Milestone has a reputation of reporting consistently and on time to the three major credit bureaus


• Relatively Quick Credit Availability after payment - One of the biggest issues people have with subprime credit cards is that credit limit may take a few days to be available after your payment has been processed. For the milestone credit card, credit limit is normally available 24-48 hours after payment has been processed.


• Can Set Up Autopay - Milestone allows you to set up autopay from your online account. While autopay is a standard feature with mainstream issuers, not every subprime credit card issuer has it.


• Can Pay with MoneyGram and PayNearMe - Milestone allows you to pay with both MoneyGram and PayNearMe

Cons

• No Mobile App - Not obly does Milestone not have a mobile app, but their web portal is not mobile friendly at all.


• Credit Limit does not increase - All Milestone credit cards do not increase your credit limit. In this case, you are stuck with a $700 limit forever (though $700 is a decent limit if you have bad credit).


• No Free Credit Scores - Unlike many credit cards, Milestone does not provide cardholers with free credit scores to help them monitor their rebuilding progress.


• Cannot use Debit Card for payments - Milestone does not allow you to use your debit card to make your bill payments.

Our Take: To Get or Not?

One of the biggest issues many people have with Milestone credit card was that their $300 credit limit was too low. And to be honest, many other subprime credit cards give you similar starting credit limits. But the new Milestone Mastercard has upped their credit limit to $700 and that will please many of you. Though the $700 credit limit will not increase, it will be enough for most of you to use the card without having to check if you are about to exceed your credit limit all the time.

What rebuilders will like about this card is that they report to the three credit bureaus consistently and payment holds typically do not exceed 48 hours. Furthermore, Milestone allows you to set up autopay from your online portal so you will never be late on your payment.

There are a couple of things that you should be aware of. Firstly, they do not have a mobile app (YET). For some of you, this might be a deal breaker but I urge you not to let this bother you too much. And the reason is that most mobile app of subprime credit issuers are not perfect and there seems to be more glitches whenever there is a version update. Unlike mega banks who have more IT resources to dedicate to their mobile apps, subprimes issuers are smaller and tend to have less resources in this area.

The other thing you have to be aware of is that you cannot use your debit card to pay your bills. If you do end up with this card, I suggest you enroll in autopay anyway.

If you are a rebuilder and are looking for an unsecured credit card, the Milestone Mastercard with $700 credit limit is one of the few options you have to get a credit limit that is higher than the usual $300 to $500 that other issuers typically offer. Though it charges both an annual fee and monthly fee, the higher credit limit makes up for it. You might also want to consider the Destiny Mastercard with $700 credit limit also as it has the same identical fees and credit limit, but you may be offered a cash back program where you can earn up to 1.5% cash back on all purchases (which would go a long way to offset the fees). You might also want to consider getting pre-approved for the Reflex Mastercard, which has lower fees.

Based on our evaluation and review of the Milestone Mastercard with $700 credit limit, we have decided to give it a 4 star out of 5 for it's good credit limit, consistent credit bureau reporting, very short payment hold on credit lines and the ability to set up autopay. It's lack of mobile app and it's policy of never increasing credit limit prevents us from giving it a higher rating.