Milestone® Mastercard® - $1,000 Credit Limit review: High fees and limited benefits for credit builders

The Milestone Mastercard and the Mission Lane Visa® Credit Card cater to consumers with low credit scores and offer standard features. However, several few key differences set the two cards apart.

Both cards have an annual fee, but the Mission Lane Visa charges a lower fee, which ranges from $0 to $59 based on your credit profile, even if your credit needs improvement. While an annual fee is not ideal for any card aimed at building credit, the Mission Lane Visa is considerably more affordable.

The most significant difference between the two cards is the ability to increase your credit limit. Both cards have a relatively low starting credit limit, but the Mission Lane card’s $300 minimum is lower than the Milestone card’s $1,000 minimum. However, Mission Lane may review your account for on-time payments and increase your credit limit within 12 months. The Milestone Mastercard’s terms don’t mention this feature at all, which could make your credit-building journey longer and more uncertain. Considering this feature and the annual fee, the Mission Lane Visa is likely a better option.

If you’re trying to minimize costs while rebuilding your credit, you may need to consider a secured option like the Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card. In addition to having no annual or foreign transaction fees, you could be eligible for a higher credit line in as little as 6 months (See Rates & Fees). If you qualify, you could get a starting credit limit of $200 with a deposit as low as $49 ($99 or $200 minimum deposit possible, depending on your credit score). You can also choose to deposit up to $1,000 for a higher credit limit, which matches the same starting limit offered by the Milestone Mastercard.

Plus, Capital One may increase your credit line and refund your deposit in as little as six months if you make timely payments and maintain a good standing account. This automatic account review timeframe is one of the shortest on the market, compared to an undefined timeline for the Milestone card.

The Milestone Mastercard available through Bankrate has a starting credit limit of $1,000. This credit line is decent compared to the average starter card limit of $100 to $500. However, you’ll need to be careful not to use too much of your available credit, especially since the annual and monthly fees cut into your limit.

The Bank of Missouri issues the Milestone Mastercard.

It’s worth noting that the Better Business Bureau (BBB) gave the Bank of Missouri an F-grade BBB Rating and revoked its BBB Accreditation on Dec. 5, 2022, since the bank failed to meet the required accreditation standards. 

No, the Bank of Missouri doesn’t have an app for its Milestone credit card. It’s also unclear whether you can manage the card within the issuer’s banking app. However, you can make payments and manage your account by logging into the Milestone cardholder portal.

Otherwise, you can only contact Milestone Mastercard by:

• Customer service phone: 1-800-305-0330
• Fax: 1-503-268-4711
• Physical mail correspondence: Concora Credit Card Services, PO Box 4477, Beaverton, OR 97076-4477

A student or credit-building card’s cost has a large influence on its overall score. 

Students already face a ton of expenses, so extra card costs are best avoided if possible, and people with limited or damaged credit tend often find the cards they can qualify for are 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 this 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 a card’s expected earnings from the sum of its fees. 

To get a sense of a 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 students and 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.

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.

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. 

Though high APRs are hard to avoid when you’re just starting out or working on your score, credit-builders 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, our rating system takes into account 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 also evaluate each card’s benefits based on how useful they are for students or someone looking to build a positive credit history and save money on everyday spending. 

We consider the inclusion of a rewards program, student-centric perks and 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 scoring rubric.