Destiny Mastercard® review: A simple credit-building card saddled with too many fees for comfort

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card demonstrates that just because you’re using a credit-building card doesn’t mean your card needs to be completely featureless. It’s one of the few secured cards on the market to earn rewards, including Discover’s generous Cashback Match™ welcome offer. Discover will match all the cash back you've earned at the end of your first year, which is especially impressive for a credit-building card.

Discover is also lenient when it comes to opening the card. You’ll need to deposit at least $200 to open the account, but Discover may approve you for a maximum secured credit line of up to $2,500 depending on your deposit amount. While the low end is less than the Destiny Mastercard's maximum credit limit, the $200 deposit is still your money — meanwhile, you’ll be paying nearly $200 annually to use the Destiny Mastercard after your first year.

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card earns 2 percent back at gas stations and restaurants (on up to $1,000 in combined purchases per quarter, then 1 percent) and 1 percent back on all other purchases. The result is a secured card that not only helps you build credit, but gives some cash back to your coffers as you do so — a marked difference from the Destiny Mastercard.

The Capital One Platinum Secured Card lacks the bells and whistles of the Discover it® Secured Credit Card. However, it is still a friendlier credit-building option than the Destiny Mastercard. It charges no annual fee (See Rates & Fees) and requires a deposit of $49, $99 or $200, depending on your creditworthiness.

No other secured cards on the market offer the opportunity for a deposit as low as $49. And even if you qualify for the $49 deposit, Capital One may still grant you a $200 secured line of credit based on your creditworthiness.

After six months, Capital One will automatically review your account for a possible credit limit increase. The Destiny Mastercard offers no such promise, even though cardholders need to pay an annual and monthly fee to use the card.

The high APR, expensive fees and numerous better options available means the Destiny Mastercard best serves those who have exhausted other credit-building options first. 

A credit-building card’s cost has a large influence on its overall score and our decision to include it in our best cards list. This is because cards in this category tend to be much pricier than traditional credit cards designed for people with a good or better credit score. 

We compare a card’s total cost, including any annual fees, account activation fees, monthly fees and more against the total cost of other cards in the credit-building category and assign each card a score based on its affordability. We also factor rewards-earning potential into our assessment of a credit-building card’s total cost, subtracting expected earnings from the sum of its fees. 

To get a sense of a credit-building card’s rewards-earning potential, we estimate its average annual rewards rate and average annual earnings based on the most popular spending categories (as covered in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer spending report). 

However, we use a slightly lower spending assumption ($300 per month or $3,600 per year) to estimate average earnings, assuming credit-builders will start out with a lower credit limit, will want to keep credit utilization low and will focus primarily on small purchases they can easily pay off.

While low-cost credit-building cards will always be at a major advantage in our scoring system and will likely earn a higher spot on our best cards list, no-annual-fee credit-building cards can be hard to come by, especially if you’re looking for an unsecured card. With this in mind, we may include unsecured cards with high fees in our list if they offer other benefits for credit-builders, like a high starting credit limit or useful perks.

A card’s APR is also a major factor in its credit-building score. Each card’s average APR is compared against the average APR of other cards in the category, and the cards with lower-than-average APRs receive a higher rating. 

Given the many costs students face — from textbooks to laptops — the presence of an introductory APR on purchases or balance transfers also plays a role in a student card’s score and its inclusion on our list. 

Though high APRs are hard to avoid when you’re just starting out or working on your score, credit-builders and students should strive for as low an APR as possible since they’re likely to either be new to managing cards or trying to establish better financial habits and avoid falling into debt.

Along with a credit-building card’s cost, we consider how easy the card makes it to build credit. To assess this, we evaluate its credit limit potential and minimum deposit requirement.

Unsecured cards with a high starting credit limit and secured cards that let you put down a large deposit and get a matching high credit limit will score the highest according to our “Ease of building credit” rubric and are more likely to appear on our list. 

This is because a high credit limit can make it much easier to keep your credit utilization low, a primary credit-building factor that makes up 30 percent of your FICO credit score. 

Secured cards have a slight advantage in this category since the maximum credit limit on a secured card tends to be much higher than the typical starting credit limit on an unsecured card that’s available with a bad or fair credit score. However, unsecured credit-building cards have the upper hand in another key aspect of building credit: accessibility. 

Cards that carry no or a low deposit requirement can also receive a high score according to our “Ease of building credit” rubric since these cards offer a lower barrier to entry than secured cards that require you to put up hundreds of dollars in an upfront deposit. 

Indeed, some users may prefer to pay a non-refundable $50 annual fee while they work on their credit score than tie up hundreds in a refundable security deposit.

We evaluate a student or credit-building card’s benefits based on how useful they are for someone looking to build a positive credit history or save money on everyday spending. 

We consider the inclusion of a rewards program, student-centric perks, access to your credit score or a credit monitoring service of prime importance, along with the ability to prequalify for the card with only a soft credit pull and a clear path to increase your credit limit or graduate to an unsecured or full-fledged rewards card.

Cards that include these benefits are likely to score higher according to our credit-building card and student card scoring rubrics and are more likely to earn a place in our list.

You can qualify for the Destiny Mastercard with a bad to fair credit score (300-669). The Destiny Mastercard allows you to prequalify to see whether you’re eligible for the card. 

The Destiny Mastercard’s maximum credit limit is $700. Your starting credit limit is determined by your credit history.