Does American Express Have a Secured Card?

Does American Express Have a Secured Credit Card?

No. American Express does not issue a secured credit card in the United States, and there is no American Express product that opens with a refundable security deposit. Every card in the American Express US personal lineup is an unsecured credit card or a charge card, so anyone searching for a “secured American Express” has to pick a different issuer or take the one secured card that runs on the American Express network, which is issued by USAA Federal Savings Bank.

That is the whole answer. The rest of this page is what to do about it.

How and when we checked

We pulled the American Express US personal card page at americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/all-cards/ on 11 September 2026 and searched the full page source. The string “secured” appears zero times and the string “security deposit” appears zero times. “Deposit” does appear, and every match is an American Express National Bank savings, checking or certificate of deposit product, not a card security deposit. On the US business card page the same day, the only “secured” match is a line about business loans being “secured by business assets,” and “security deposit” again appears zero times.

Every figure below came from the issuer’s own current product or terms page, pulled the same date.

What people are actually finding when they search “secured American Express”

Three real things sit behind this query, and none of them is a secured card from American Express.

1. Apply With Confidence, the American Express application flow. This is not a deposit product and not a pre-qualification tool. On the all-cards page, American Express breaks it into three steps: “Submit Application”, then “Get Decision”, where “we’ll let you know if you’re approved first, without any impact to your credit score”, then “Accept the Card”, where “the information we provide to the credit bureau(s) may impact your credit score” (americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/all-cards/, checked 11 September 2026). Separately, American Express runs Pre-Qualified Offers, which lets you “see if you’re Pre-Qualified for Card offers without impacting your credit score.” Neither one takes a security deposit.

2. American Express charge cards and the “no preset spending limit” confusion. The Federal Trade Commission defines a charge card this way: “With charge cards, you don’t pay interest and don’t have a pre-set spending limit. When you buy things with a charge card, you have to pay off the full balance when you get your statement.” No preset spending limit is not a deposit-backed limit. American Express charge cards take no security deposit, and the underwriting is not built for a thin or damaged file. If your score is the obstacle, read our American Express credit score requirements breakdown first.

3. The USAA Secured American Express Credit Card. This is the real thing people are half-remembering, and it still exists. It runs on the American Express network and is issued by USAA Federal Savings Bank. American Express is both a network and an issuer, and here it is only the network.

How we ranked these cards

We checked 11 secured cards and recorded 9 data points on each: minimum deposit, maximum credit line, annual fee, published purchase APR, bureaus reported to, graduation or deposit release path, credit line increase review timing, deposit funding restrictions, and eligibility gates.

Weights applied:

• Cost to open and carry (annual fee plus published purchase APR): 30%
• Deposit flexibility and credit line ceiling: 25%
• Graduation or deposit release path: 25%
• Three bureau reporting and free score access: 20%

Five cards made the list. Six were excluded, and here is exactly why. Bank of America’s BankAmericard Secured page returned “this card is unavailable” without a ZIP code. Applied Bank has no public secured card product page on appliedbank.com, only an account servicing page. OpenSky Secured Visa, OpenSky Plus, Chime Credit Builder and First Progress Platinum all returned bot blocks, so current terms could not be read at the source. We do not publish specs we did not read at the issuer.

Best secured card on the American Express network: USAA Secured American Express Credit Card

HIGHLIGHTS

• Deposit minimum: $250
• Deposit maximum: $5,000
• Annual fee: $0
• Purchase APR: 27.40% variable
• Bureaus: all three
• Graduation path: upgrade to an unsecured USAA Bank card with responsible use

Pros

• The only secured card that runs on the American Express network
• Deposit earns interest while USAA holds it, which most issuers do not offer
• $5,000 ceiling, tied for the highest here
• USAA states it is “an American Express credit card, not a prepaid or debit card”

Cons

• USAA membership is required, a separate eligibility gate
• Full deposit required, no $49 partial-deposit option
• No rewards program on the product listing

Why we chose it. If you searched for a secured American Express because you want the American Express logo in your wallet while you rebuild, this is the only card that delivers it. USAA’s build-credit page lists a credit limit “that could range from $250 to $5,000, backed by an interest-earning security deposit,” activity “reported to three main credit bureaus,” and a possible “upgrade to an unsecured USAA Bank credit card” with responsible use. The interest-earning deposit is unusual, since most issuers hold your money at zero. The rate is worth sourcing carefully, because third-party card sites still list stale numbers for this card: the USAA Credit Card Agreement Pricing Addendum (document 138910-0926) states “Secured credit cards, Regular APR is 27.40% (2.283 monthly periodic rate),” tied to the Prime Rate plus a margin of 20.65%. The catch is the gate: USAA’s own footnote reads “Membership eligibility and product restrictions apply and are subject to change.”

Best secured card for the smallest opening deposit: Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card

HIGHLIGHTS

• Deposit minimum: $49, $99 or $200 based on creditworthiness
• Deposit maximum: $1,000
• Annual fee: $0
• Purchase APR: 28.99% variable
• Bureaus: all three
• Graduation path: deposit refundable as a statement credit, plus upgrade to unsecured Platinum

Pros

• A $49 deposit can open a credit line of at least $200, a 4x multiple on your cash
• Credit line increase review “in as little as six months”
• Eligibility check runs in about 90 seconds with no credit score impact

Cons

• $1,000 ceiling is the lowest here
• Deposits must come by electronic transfer from a bank account, so cash, checks and money transfers are refused
• No rewards at all

Why we chose it. Nothing else here lets $49 of cash unlock $200 of credit line. Capital One states plainly that “a $49, $99, or $200 minimum deposit opens your account with an initial credit line of at least $200,” and that you can raise that line by depositing more, up to a $1,000 maximum. For someone who cannot free up $200 today, that is the difference between opening a tradeline this month and not opening one. Read the funding rule first: deposits must be at least $20, in whole dollar increments, by electronic transfer. Detail in our Capital One Platinum Secured review.

Best secured card for earning cash back while you rebuild: Discover it Secured Cash Back Credit Card

HIGHLIGHTS

• Deposit minimum: $49, $99 or $200 based on creditworthiness
• Deposit maximum: $1,000 to $3,000, assigned at approval
• Annual fee: $0
• Purchase APR: 28.24% variable
• Bureaus: all three
• Graduation path: deposit refundable as a statement credit with responsible use

Pros

• 5% cash back on rotating quarterly categories on activation, up to the quarterly maximum, plus 1% on everything else
• Unlimited Cashback Match on everything earned in the first 365 days
• “No credit score required to apply,” with Discover adding that “we may use credit scores if available”

Cons

• Your maximum limit is assigned at approval and you cannot exceed it
• To raise the starting line you must deposit more within 35 days of approval and before you activate the card
• The purchase APR is not printed in the page copy

Why we chose it. This is the only card here that pays you while it rebuilds your file. Discover’s own product data carries a 28.24% purchase APR that is not shown in the visible page copy, so this is a number most roundups do not have. The 35-day window is the trap: once you activate the card, the deposit locks at whatever you funded, so decide your limit before you activate. Our Discover it Secured review covers the Cashback Match mechanics.

Best secured card for the largest credit line: U.S. Bank Secured Visa Card

HIGHLIGHTS

• Deposit minimum: $300
• Deposit maximum: $5,000
• Annual fee: None
• Purchase APR: 27.49% variable, tied to the Prime Rate
• Bureaus: all three
• Graduation path: periodic review can release the secured savings account, after which the account is no longer secured

Pros

• Lowest published purchase APR of any card on this list at 27.49%
• $5,000 ceiling, tied for the highest here
• Deposit sits in a Secured Savings Account in your own name
• Free VantageScore from TransUnion through CreditView for U.S. Bank online and mobile customers

Cons

• $300 minimum is the highest entry cost on this list
• Cash advance APR is 30.49% and the foreign transaction fee is 3%
• After you close the account, funds can be held for the later of 60 days or two billing cycles

Why we chose it. The graduation language here is the most concrete of the five. The U.S. Bank Terms and Conditions, accurate as of 09/2026, state that on periodic review of your overall credit history you “may qualify to have the funds in the SSA released,” and once released “this Credit Card Account will no longer be a secured credit card account.” Same card number, same account age, converted. The pricing is also the cleanest here: 27.49% on purchases, no annual membership fee, a $1 minimum interest charge, late or returned payment fees up to $41. If you can fund $300 and want the biggest runway, this is the pick.

Best secured card for a free FICO Score: Citi Secured Mastercard

HIGHLIGHTS

• Deposit minimum: $200
• Deposit maximum: $2,500, in $100 increments
• Annual fee: $0
• Purchase APR: not published on the public product page
• Bureaus: all three, reported monthly
• Graduation path: none published on the product page

Pros

• Free FICO Score access, not a VantageScore
• Deposit selectable in $100 increments, so you set the limit precisely
• Citi promises “monthly reporting to all 3 major credit bureaus”
• $0 liability on unauthorized charges

Cons

• Citi’s public pricing box rendered the purchase APR as a bare percent sign with no number on 11 September 2026
• Citi says you must meet its “credit qualification criteria, which includes a review of your income and your debt”
• No published graduation or deposit-release path, and no rewards program

Why we chose it. Most free score products hand you a VantageScore. Citi gives you a FICO Score, the family of scores most lenders actually pull. The $100 increment structure is also the most precise here: if you want a $700 limit because $700 keeps your monthly spend under 30% utilization, fund exactly $700. The warning is that Citi does not show the APR publicly. We looked, and the pricing block is empty. You only see your rate at application, so treat this as a pay-in-full card until you have that number in writing.

Deposit, fee and interest cost compared

Every issuer publishes a deposit and an APR. Almost nobody does the arithmetic, so here it is. The last column is simple interest on a $300 balance carried for a full year at the published purchase APR. It does not compound, and it is money you avoid entirely by paying in full.

Card	Minimum deposit	Maximum credit line	Annual fee	Published purchase APR	Cost of carrying $300 for 12 months
USAA Secured American Express	$250	$5,000	$0	27.40%	$82.20
U.S. Bank Secured Visa	$300	$5,000	None	27.49%	$82.47
Discover it Secured Cash Back	$49	$1,000 to $3,000	$0	28.24%	$84.72
Capital One Platinum Secured	$49	$1,000	$0	28.99%	$86.97
Citi Secured Mastercard	$200	$2,500	$0	Not published	Cannot be calculated

All figures pulled from each issuer’s own product or terms page on 11 September 2026. U.S. Bank figures come from the U.S. Bank Secured Visa Card Terms and Conditions, stated as accurate as of 09/2026.

Two things fall out of that table. The APR spread between cheapest and most expensive is 1.59 percentage points, worth $4.77 a year on a $300 carried balance. The minimum deposit spread is $49 to $300, a 6x difference in the cash you need this month. Optimize the deposit, not the rate. The rate only bites if you carry a balance, and on a rebuild card you should not be carrying one.

What a secured card can and cannot do for your score

A secured card builds credit through the tradeline, not the deposit. The credit bureaus do not score “secured” as a category, so the account reports like any other revolving line: limit, balance, payment status, age.

That buys you payment history and utilization, both of which respond within one to two billing cycles. A realistic expectation for a thin or damaged file is roughly 30 to 60 points over several months of perfect payments, and it depends entirely on what else sits on your report. Under the Credit Repair Organizations Act, guaranteeing a specific score increase is illegal, so treat any promised number as a red flag.

What a secured card cannot do is remove accurate negative information. Under FCRA Section 605, most adverse items stay on your report for seven years and Chapter 7 bankruptcy for ten, whether or not you open a new card. Inaccurate information is different: FCRA Section 611 requires a credit reporting agency to reinvestigate a challenged item, generally within 30 days.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau describes the mechanic simply: you put in an amount of cash, you can spend up to that amount, and when you pay the bill you restore your spending amount. The FTC adds the warning worth repeating: “Secured credit cards generally (but not always) have higher annual percentage rates and higher annual fees than unsecured cards.” Four of the five above carry a $0 annual fee, so there is no reason to accept one that does not.

For the mechanics of getting your money back, see secured card deposit refund explained and secured card graduation explained. For the wider field, see best secured credit cards 2026.

The short version

• American Express issues no secured credit card in the US. The word “secured” appears zero times on the American Express all-cards page, checked 11 September 2026.
• One secured card runs on the American Express network: the USAA Secured American Express Credit Card, issued by USAA Federal Savings Bank. $250 to $5,000 deposit, $0 annual fee, 27.40% variable APR, USAA membership required.
• Cheapest way in: Capital One Platinum Secured or Discover it Secured Cash Back, both from a $49 deposit for a $200 line, both $0 annual fee.
• Biggest runway: U.S. Bank Secured Visa, $300 to $5,000, 27.49% APR, no annual fee.
• Free FICO Score: Citi Secured Mastercard, $200 to $2,500 in $100 increments, purchase APR not published.
• Optimize the deposit, not the APR. The APR spread here is 1.59 points. The deposit spread is 6x.
• Score movement is a range, never a promise. Roughly 30 to 60 points over several months is realistic.

Credit Booster AI does not issue cards. It reads all three bureau reports, works the errors it finds, and forecasts the likely score impact of a change before you make it, starting at $9.99 a month with a 7-day free trial on the Plus plan. If an error on your report is the real obstacle rather than a thin file, fix that part first.