Secured Credit Cards With an ITIN Number
A secured card runs on your own money. You place a deposit, the bank holds it as collateral, and that deposit sets the credit line.
The numbers are published. Capital One opens a secured line at 200 dollars from a deposit of 49, 99 or 200. Bank of America takes 200 dollars minimum and up to 5,000.
What no issuer publishes is whether an application on an ITIN is accepted. Terms are published; the decision is not, and the difference matters more than any card list.
So the useful question is not which card says yes. It is what the deposit buys, and what has actually opened on an ITIN file.
What the deposit actually buys
Capital One publishes the shape plainly: a 49, 99 or 200 dollar minimum deposit opens the account with an initial credit line of at least 200 dollars.
You can push that line higher by depositing more than the minimum, up to a published ceiling of 1,000 dollars. The deposit is held as collateral against the line rather than spent.
Bank of America runs a wider band on its own secured card. The published minimum is 200 dollars and the maximum is 5,000, at a stated annual fee of zero.
There the limit is not the deposit alone. Their page says the maximum credit limit is determined by the deposit, your income and your ability to pay the line established.
Both figures were read on the issuers' own pages on 31 July 2026. Terms move, so the date is worth as much as the number.
The deposit figures are published. What your own file can open is not, and that is the call.
Book Your Assessment CallWhy a secured card is the standard first rung
A US credit file is built from what American lenders report about you. Nothing you hold in your own country reaches it, which is why a non-resident starts at zero rather than low.
The secured card exists to break that circle. Capital One states that card status is regularly reported to the three major credit bureaus, which is the whole mechanism: your own money, reported behaviour, a file that begins to exist.
The clock after that is not fast. The bureaus need roughly three to six months of reported activity before there is a score worth reading, which the full method walks end to end.
What the issuers publish, and what they leave to the application
One issuer publishes it directly. In Chase's own credit-card education library, read on 31 July 2026, an application asks for a Social Security number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, and with either you should be able to apply for most cards.
What none of them publishes is whether a given application is approved. Chase says so in the next sentence: credit history, income and other factors decide that.
That gap is the reason to be careful with every list that names cards as ITIN-friendly. Published terms and a published approval are different things, and only the first is ever written down.
So treat a deposit figure as a fact and an acceptance claim as somebody's experience. Both can be useful. Only one of them is checkable.
The same distinction runs through the main credit card guide, which shows the cards that have actually opened rather than the ones a page claims will.
What has actually opened on an ITIN file
In the client record First Class Citizen publish, one first American card was issued against a 5,000 dollar deposit held as collateral. Months later the same banks were extending unsecured limits.
First limits in that record sit between 1,000 and 2,500 dollars, sometimes against a deposit and sometimes not. The published approvals are on the results page.
That is the honest version of the answer people are searching for. A deposit is often the entry, the file is the asset, and the account that starts secured does not stay that way.
From a first secured line to unsecured limits: the call maps the order for your case.
Book Your Assessment CallHow the deposit comes back
Capital One publishes two routes. You can earn the deposit back as a statement credit by using the card responsibly, or it is refunded when you close the account and pay the balance in full.
They also publish the upgrade path: credit line increases may be earned on payment history and creditworthiness, with no additional deposit needed.
Bank of America is more conditional in writing. They periodically review the account, a customer may qualify to have the deposit returned, and their page states plainly that not all customers will qualify.
Once the file is real, the limit levers are the ones in the limit-increase guide, and they are worked rather than waited for.
Cards that landed on an ITIN file
Real client wins, straight from the Hall of Wins.
The US credit series
The rest of the picture
- Find your routeTell it what you are trying to do and it maps the guides to read in order.
- ITIN document checklistPick your situation, get the exact list the IRS accepts.
- What it costsPublished prices and timelines, service by service.
- US credit calculatorWhat your spend returns at the rates issuers publish today.
FAQ
Can I get a secured credit card with an ITIN number?
How much deposit does a secured card need?
Does a secured card actually build a US credit file?
Do I get the security deposit back?
Is a secured card the only way to start?
Find out what your file can open
The assessment call goes through where you stand, what a realistic first card looks like, and whether a deposit is part of it. Free, and you fill a short form first so it is about your situation rather than the rules.
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Founder & CEO, The First Class Citizen