Milestone credit card review: A bad choice for a credit-building card

16.08.2024 - 14:55 / thepointsguy.com

Building credit can be a challenge. The Bank of Missouri's Milestone Mastercard® is one of many credit-building cards available on the market. The card doesn't require a security deposit and has a solid minimum credit limit for a beginner card, but its first-year annual fee is outrageous for a card of its type. Card rating*: ⭐

*Card rating is based on the opinion of TPG's editors and is not influenced by the card issuer.

At first glance, some of the Milestone Mastercard's credit-building perks may seem appealing. However, this card quickly drops to the bottom of the list once you factor in the $175 first-year annual fee.

While the Milestone Mastercard's annual fee does drop to $49 in subsequent years, this doesn't mean you'll save any money. Starting in the second cardholder year, you'll need to pay an additional $12.50 monthly maintenance fee. Combining the two costs means you'll pay a whopping $199 per year to hold this card.

With fees like that, this card must have some fantastic benefits to be even remotely worth considering. Still, one significant benefit is that no minimum credit score is required to get approved.

Let's examine this card more closely to see if it offers anything in exchange for these exorbitant fees.

The information for the Milestone Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

The Milestone Mastercard doesn't have any kind of welcome offer. This isn't unusual for a credit-building card, but it is uncommon for a card with such a high annual fee.

The card has two noteworthy benefits: No security deposit is required, and there's a minimum $700 starting credit limit.

Many credit-building cards require a security deposit to get approved and use the deposit as your starting credit line. Since the Milestone Mastercard doesn't require a deposit, you don't need to have any money ready upfront when you apply (aside from the $175 for the annual fee).

This card's $700 credit line isn't great, but it's better than the initial credit limits on many starter cards, which are sometimes as low as $200.

Depending on your financial situation, the Milestone Mastercard may offer an even higher starting line. Additionally, this card reports to all three credit bureaus and comes with fraud protection and the ability to use the card wherever Mastercard is accepted.

While these are decent benefits for a credit-building card, they're incredibly lackluster for a card that charges as much as the Milestone Mastercard.

Related: Best secured credit cards

The Milestone Mastercard doesn't earn any rewards, so you won't get any points, miles or cash back from your spending. We generally expect this from