Two of the best secured credit cards on today’s market for consumers with bad credit are Gold and Platinum HSBC secured credit cards. Notable highlights of the secured Visa cards include,
- no minimum income required
- annual fee waived on Platinum card
- international recognition
- long lasting rewards
Pity, because both secured cards are only available in Singapore and HSBC Asia Pacific region. If you have bad credit and live there, either card will be quite good to rebuild credit.

The HSBC Secured Visa card does not even require a minimum income to qualify. If you are 21 or older, simply open an HSBC Time Deposit account with a minimum of $10,000 SGD for Secured Gold Visa card or $20,000 SGD for Secured Platinum Visa card. Which are actually quite substantial sums in US dollars, $7,139 and $14,279 in today’s conversion rates, respectively. But if you have some cash to spare and time to rebuild credit, these secured credit cards are very sound. And for selected customers, HSBC will grant a credit limit of up to 100% of the approved deposit amount.

Now the annual fee part. It is waived for the first year. To get the second year annual fee waiver, you must make at least three transactions per month with your HSBC Platinum credit card between the second and fourth month of the card issued. You also must spend $12,500 SGD at the very minimum on your HSBC Secured Platinum credit card account.

For North American consumer, HSBC is currently offering four credit cards for consumers with bad credit, including Orchard Bank Classic Cards and Orchard Bank Secured MasterCard. Each is an excellent secured credit card to build credit anew. Below are the basic rates and other terms. The Classic Cards require no security deposit while Secured MasterCard asks for much lower initial security deposit compared to those of HSBC secured credit cards, available in Asia Pacific region. Well, with bad credit, you take what you can.