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Best Western Secured MasterCard
Consumer Reviews, Credit Score and Income Needed, Credit Limits

Picture of Best Western Secured MasterCard
11 Reviews
Consumer Rating:
star ratingstar ratingstar ratingstar ratinghalf star rating

Apply Here apply here 4.5
Lowest:
530
Average Score:
571
Highest:
615
Card Details
Card Details

Annual Fee: $40
APR: 21.24%
Balance Transfer APR: 21.24%
Balance Transfer Fee: greater of $10 or 5% of transfer
Rewards
Rewards

  • 5,000 points after first purchase
  • 13X on Best Western stays (10 points as Best Western member, 3 as card member)
  • 1X on other purchases

Pros and Cons
Pros and Cons

  • Can graduate in 11 months
  • Can do balance transfer

Our Take
Our Take

Because this secured credit card is affiliated with a hotel, you get typical hotel reward card benefits that are common in hotel credit cards but are not common in regular secured credit cards. This card will appeal to those who travel and stay at Best Western and yet does not have a good enough credit to get their regular unsecured Best Western credit card.

There are a couple of features on this card that will appeal to some folks. The first is that you can do a balance transfer on this card. The rate is rather high at 21.24% but if you have balances on another card that has even higher interest, then it might be worth doing a balance transfer. The card also allows you to graduate to the unsecured Best Western version as earlier as 11 months if your credit improves.
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Credit Score: 615 Credit Limit: 800 Age: 25-34
Posted 02/11 2017
Overall Rating: star ratingstar ratingstar ratingstar ratingno star rating
I am really surprised that nobody really talks about this card. Ok - so best western is not as popular as say the Marriott but there are many of us who stay with them. And I think this is the only hotel that has a secured credit card offering. When I looked at their website, the terms were pretty good. Annual fee is quite low. You get free fico score. But most importantly, after 7 months, they might give you a credit limit increase and after 11 months, they might upgrade you to an unsecured card.

I got both this card and the Capital One secured. Both have been good and my experiences have been similar with both cards. After 7 months, cap one gave me a credit limit increase from $200 to $500. After 9 months, Best Western gave me a $300 increase to $1100. After about 14 months, I graduated to unsecured for both.
 
Credit Score: 590 Credit Limit: 600 Age: 25-34
Posted 12/15 2016
Overall Rating: star ratingstar ratingstar ratingstar ratingno star rating
A couple of years ago, I applied for the best western premier and was denied. I just recently got an email from FNBO with this offer - the secured version. I decided that it might be the back door to the regular BW premier card since the website said that they will consider you for an unsecured version after 11 months. So far my experience has been great. The website is quite user friendly. My FICO score (according to the Best Western free version) was 590 when I started. It is now 655 after 8 months. I put $600 as deposit (which seems a lot) so I always had enough to reserve a BW room.
 
Credit Score: 540 Credit Limit: 300 Age: 25-34
Posted 11/11 2016
Overall Rating: star ratingstar ratingstar ratingstar ratingno star rating
After doing lots of research on secured cards, I narrowed down to Cap One, Discover and Best Western (since I have a reward program account with them). I applied for all three and was approved. All three are pretty good and they all offer some sort of credit score. My understanding that the Best Western and Discover are true FICO scores while the Cap One creditwise is not a true fico (but a vantage score). The Best Western and Discover score was nearly identical 545 and 540. But Cap One was like 605? I still have all three but am making sure I pay in full every month and keeping my utilization ratio to like 25% max. I hope to graduate from all three cards. Keeping my fingers crossed.
 
Credit Score: 573 Credit Limit: 300 Age: 35-44
Posted 04/23 2016
Overall Rating: star ratingstar ratingstar ratingstar ratingno star rating
I got this card because my job requires travel and I stay at Best Western quite a bit. Love the card and the fact that I can go to bwrcarddiscount.com and 10% off room rates. I also earn an extra 10 points per dollar at Best Western (on top of the 3 pts/$). However, I have recently changed jobs and it looks like I would not be traveling as much and I will probably close this card soon.
 
Credit Score: 582 Credit Limit: 500 Age: 35-44
Posted 02/19 2016
Overall Rating: star ratingstar ratingstar ratingstar ratingno star rating
I just got approved for the card and deposited $500. So far, everything is going smoothly. About a month into the card, I check my credit reports and can confirm that they have reported to all three.