Review of the Indigo® Platinum Mastercard®
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The Indigo® Platinum Mastercard® is designed for people with bad credit. If your FICO scores are below 600 and you’re having trouble getting approved for other cards, this card may be one way for you to build credit. However, we do not recommend this card, since we’ve received many complaints about it.
This card doesn’t offer any rewards, like points or cash back, but it does report activity to credit bureaus so you can use it to establish a record of on-time payments on your credit reports. After you spend some time using it responsibly, you’ll likely be able to use your good credit history to qualify for more rewarding credit cards with better benefits.
You can check to see if you’re pre-approved for this card without impacting your credit scores. This can give you a better idea of the likelihood you’ll be approved if you decide to actually apply.
Our Rating: 1 out of 5 Stars
We gave this card 1 out of 5 Stars because we’ve received a number of complaints about the customer service on this card and the turnaround time on payments being posted to accounts after they’re sent. See visitor reviews or leave your own here.
There aren’t any rewards on this card. This card’s only real purpose is to help people with bad credit build credit.
Read on to learn more.
Using This Card as Part of Your Credit Card Strategy
- Understand how to build credit with credit cards responsibly before you apply for this or any card.
- If you have good credit and haven’t been denied for other better cards, you should probably consider other credit cards before this card.
- Make sure you read, understand, and follow the terms of the card to avoid extra fees or negative items that could hinder your credit-building.
- Based on visitor reviews, make sure you plan ahead when sending payments to allow plenty of time for payments to post to your account.
- Once you have built up your credit enough to get other credit cards and don’t need this card any more, you’ll probably want to close it to avoid the annual fee. Learn how closing a card can impact your credit scores here.
The Rewards
There are no rewards for using this card, like points or cash back. Instead, it’s designed to give you a way to build good credit history, which can give you the opportunity to get better cards in the future.
The Benefits
There are only a few benefits that come with this card, and Celtic Bank (the issuer) doesn’t provide many details about them.
Shopping
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Extended Warranty Protection
Will double an eligible manufacturer’s warranty, up to a certain time period.
Travel
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MasterRental Coverage
Decline the car rental company’s own insurance to get coverage against collision damage and theft for eligible rental vehicles.
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Master RoadAssist Service
Call for help finding emergency services when driving, like tire changes, tow trucks, and fuel delivery.
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Travel Assistance Services
Provides pre-trip planning information, assistance with medical and legal referrals, and more.
Security
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Identity Theft Resolution Service
Provides help recovering if you become a victim of identity theft.
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Zero Fraud Liability
You won’t be held liable for unauthorized activity on your credit card (contact customer service immediately).
The Costs & Fees
| Annual Fee | Purchase APR | Balance Transfer APR | Cash Advance APR |
|---|---|---|---|
| See Terms | 24.9% Fixed | Not Available | See Terms |
| Balance Transfer Fee | Cash Advance Fee | Foreign Transaction Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Not Available | None | None |
| Penalty APR | Late Fee | Returned Payment Fee |
|---|---|---|
| None | Up to $39 | See Terms |
Take note that you’ll probably end up with an annual fee with this card. It will show up as part of your statement balance.
This card will probably cost you some money and your credit limit likely won’t be very high, but that’s because it’s designed for riskier borrowers. You should use it primarily to help you build up your credit, rather than to finance a purchase and pay it off over time.
What is the Credit Limit?
The credit limit of the Indigo Platinum Mastercard is $300.
The Bottom Line
The Indigo Platinum Mastercard may be an option if you want to a simple card to build or re-build your credit, but it has lots of customer complaints.
This card has one purpose only: to help you improve your credit by showing a record of responsible behavior. You’ll have to pay an annual fee, but if you can’t get approved for any other cards it’s a pretty small price to pay for the opportunity to build credit.
You can’t use this card for balance transfers.
Just be sure to pay your bill on time and in full every month to avoid late payments and build good history as a borrower. If you can keep up that positive activity you’ll eventually be able to be approved for a better rewards card with more useful benefits.
Applying for the Indigo Platinum Mastercard
Want to learn more or apply for this card? Just click the name below.
Qualifications and Requirements
- Must be pre-approved
- Must be 18
- Personal identifying information, including birth date, Social Security number, and phone number
- Total household income and source of income
- Monthly mortgage/rent payment
Alternatives to the Indigo Platinum Mastercard
The Indigo Platinum Mastercard has many bad reviews. Although it could provide a way into the world of credit for some, we recommend trying to qualify for other credit cards designed for bad or limited credit first, like the ones below.
- Deserve Classic Mastercard (Review): No annual fee; no foreign transaction fees; checks more factors to determine creditworthiness
- Discover it® Secured Credit Card (Review): No annual fee; security deposit of $200 to $2,500; 2% cash back at restaurants and gas stations; double cash back in the first year
- Capital One® Secured Mastercard® (Review): No annual fee; security deposit of $49 to $1,000
- Citi® Secured Mastercard® (Review): No annual fee; security deposit of $200 to $2,500
The Deserve Classic Mastercard (Review) is designed for people with limited or no credit history, who need a way to start establishing credit. If you have bad credit, with a record of late payments and other negative activity, you may not be approved for this card.
This is an unsecured card, like the Indigo Platinum.
Deserve, the card issuer, will check more than the typical factors when making its decision. In addition to the normal criteria like credit history and income, Deserve will also consider your education, future employability, and future earning potential. This gives people without an established credit history a better shot at approval.
Rewards
There are no rewards for using this card.
Benefits
Deserve provides a surprising number of benefits, although the rebates aren’t very useful unless you’ll happen to use those services. The Deserve Classic includes several shopping and travel protections that you’ll also get with the Indigo Platinum, although you’ll likely get more from the Deserve card.
- Lemonade Insurance Rebate: Get a one-time $10 statement credit after making three consecutive payments for Lemonade Renters and Home Insurance.
- Feather Furniture Rental Rebate: Receive a $100 discount on your first month’s rental from Feather by using promo code “DESERVE100”.
- Refer friends for statement credits: Earn a $30 statement credit for every friend who’s approved. Refer ten friends to get a $200 bonus, for a total of $500.
- Cell Phone Insurance: Pay your cell phone bill with the Deserve Classic to get up to $600 in coverage against damage and theft.
- Price Protection: If you buy an eligible item and find it being advertised for less, you can be reimbursed for the price difference.
- Other shopping and travel benefits: Including Extended Warranties, Travel Assistance Services, Roadside Assistance, and more.
Terms & Fees
The Deserve Classic Mastercard has no annual fee, which is a good find for an unsecured card designed for limited credit. The Indigo card will likely charge a $99 annual fee for most qualified applicants, because people with poor credit scores will get the higher end of the fee range, although it could be as low as $0.
Balance transfers and cash advances are not allowed with the Deserve Classic. There’s no fee on foreign transactions, compared to a possible foreign transaction fee with the Indigo Platinum Mastercard.
The Indigo card comes with a low credit limit of just $300, but the maximum possible credit limit of the Deserve Classic is $1,500. That gives you much more spending power before you need to pay off the card, and it makes it easier to keep your credit utilization low.
Read more in our Review of the Deserve Classic Mastercard
Write a ReviewThe Discover it® Secured Credit Card (Review) is our top pick when it comes to secured credit cards, because it includes a decent rewards program and has generally favorable terms.
Security Deposit
The Discover it Secured will require a refundable security deposit of $200 to $2,500 after being approved. The credit line you get will be equal to the deposit you make.
Discover will review your account activity every eight months. If it finds that you’ve been managing your credit responsibly, not just with this card but in general, it may refund your security deposit while letting you continue to use the account. There is no program to graduate to an unsecured card.
Rewards
| Spending Rewards |
|---|
|
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| Introductory Bonus Offer |
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Cash back rewards on a secured card are a rare find, usually coming in at just 1% back for all purchases. But this card provides 2% cash back at restaurants and gas stations, and during your first year Discover will double all the rewards you earn.
So you’ll be getting a cash back equivalent of 4% at restaurants and gas stations, which is relatively high even compared to typical reward credit cards. Other purchases will get an equivalent of 2% cash back, which is a great flat rate for non-category expenses (as good as the Citi® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer (Review)).
The additional cash back will be added to your account at the end of your first year with the card. After the first year the rewards drop to half their value, but you’ll still be getting an excellent deal when it comes to secured cards.
Benefits
Discover cards aren’t known for their luxurious benefits. You’ll only get a few with the Discover it Secured, which don’t include any of the shopping and travel protections that come with the Indigo card. But you will have a few useful perks, especially the ability to keep tabs on one of your FICO scores. This is particularly valuable for anyone trying to build or rebuild their credit.
- FICO Credit Scorecard: Check your FICO Score 8 for free whenever you’d like, based on your TransUnion credit report.
- Cash at Checkout: Get cash back when checking out at participating merchants, which will be counted as part of your purchase rather than as a cash advance.
- Social Security Number Alerts: Discover monitors thousands of risky websites, and will alert you if your SSN is found being used on any of them.
Terms & Fees
The Discover it Secured has no annual fee, and there are no foreign transaction fees.
The Indigo Platinum Mastercard doesn’t allow balance transfers, but you will get that feature with the Discover card. Not only that, balance transfers will get an intro APR of 10.99% Variable for 6 months, which is unusual to see on a secured card.
This isn’t as good as the 0% rate you can get with some unsecured balance transfer cards, but those cards are also harder to qualify for. If you’re carrying a balance on a different card with a higher interest rate, you could transfer it to the Discover it Secured and get some time to pay it off at a lower APR.
After that intro period ends, the regular rate for balance transfers will be 25.24% Variable.
Read more in our Review of the Discover it Secured Card
The Capital One® Secured Mastercard® (Review) is a simple secured card without many flashy features. Its main purpose is to help you build up your credit scores.
Security Deposit
This card’s refundable security deposit works a bit differently than most secured cards. Instead of simply making a deposit and getting a credit line equal to that deposit, cardholders will first be asked to pay one of three amounts: $49, $99, or $200. No matter which amount is required and paid, the starting credit limit will be $200.
People with better credit will be asked to pay less, while people with worse credit will need to pay the full $200. So, depending on your creditworthiness, you may need to pay just $49 to get a credit line of $200.
You can also choose to deposit more if you want a higher credit limit. Up to $1,000 can be deposited, to get a $1,000 credit line. Deposit payments can be made in partial installments, but the full deposit must be made within 80 days of approval.
Rewards
This card does not offer any rewards.
Benefits
The Capital One Secured Mastercard includes most or all of the same Platinum Mastercard benefits you’ll get with the Indigo card, like Extended Warranties and MasterRental Coverage.
There are also a few valuable extras, like an easy path to a higher, unsecured credit line, a credit monitoring service, and a price matching perk.
- Access a higher credit line: Make your first five monthly payments on time to be given access to a higher credit line, without needing to make another deposit.
- Capital One CreditWise: Cardholders can log in to CreditWise to monitor their VantageScore 3.0 credit scores, based on their TransUnion credit reports.
- Price Protection: Find an eligible item you bought being sold for less, and you can be reimbursed for the difference in price.
- 24-Hour Travel Assistance Services: Includes help finding emergency road services, travel information and advice, and medical or legal referrals.
- Other benefits: Such as Extended Warranties, $100,000 Travel Accident Insurance, and MasterRental Coverage (which provides auto rental collision damage waivers).
Terms & Fees
The Capital One Secured Mastercard is very inexpensive, with no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee, and no balance transfer fee.
You could potentially get a $200 credit limit with this card just by paying $49, depending on your creditworthiness. But most people will want a higher credit line so a larger deposit will be required. The Indigo Platinum’s maximum credit limit is quite small at just $300, although it’s an unsecured credit line that you don’t have to fund yourself.
Read more in our Review of the Capital One Secured Mastercard
The Citi® Secured Mastercard® (Review) is another basic secured card, very much like the Capital One card above but with some differences in the security deposit, benefits, and terms.
Security Deposit
The Citi Secured Mastercard has a fairly high potential credit limit, and requires a refundable security deposit of $200 to $2,500 when approved. Your credit limit will be equal to the amount you deposit.
You must decide how much you’d like to deposit when you’re approved for the card, in increments of $100. Some secured cards allow you to deposit more later on to get a higher limit, but the Citi card does not allow this.
After showing responsible behavior with this card, and with credit in general, Citi may offer you an upgrade to a different unsecured card. In the past we’ve heard that people have been upgraded to the Citi® Diamond Preferred® Card (Review).
Rewards
There are no rewards for using this card.
Benefits
Cardholders will get some standard shopping and travel protections with the Citi Secured Mastercard, along with access to one of their FICO credit scores. This is important for anyone trying to build up their credit, because it lets you track your progress and provides helpful tips to improve your scores. You’ll probably get more protections with this card than you will with the Indigo Platinum Mastercard.
- Free FICO Credit Score: Check your FICO Score 8 for free, based on your Equifax credit report.
- Purchase Protection: If an eligible item you buy is damaged or stolen, you can be reimbursed up to $1,000 per item, up to $50,000 per year.
- 24-Hour Travel Assistance Services: Call for help when traveling far from home, for pre-trip assistance, emergency aid, and more.
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver: Decline the rental company’s own insurance to get coverage against theft and collision damage for eligible rental vehicles.
- Extended Warranty: Eligible warranties of up to one year can be doubled, up to 24 additional months.
- Citi Identity Theft Solutions: Citi will help if you become a victim of identity theft, with assistance contacting credit bureaus and filing police reports.
Terms & Fees
The Citi Secured Mastercard has no annual fee, so unlike the Indigo card there isn’t a chance that you’ll have to pay to improve your credit (as long as you avoid interest and other fees, of course). Foreign transactions will be charged a fee of 3%.
Neither of these cards are very good for traveling outside the U.S.; if that’s what you’re planning to do, check out some credit cards without foreign transaction fees instead.
Read more in our Review of the Citi Secured Mastercard
Was this review helpful to you? Go ahead and share it with a friend! And if you use the Indigo Platinum Mastercard, how do you like it? Leave your own review of the card, we’d love to hear from you!
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