Neo should offer a way to automatically upgrade your card from a secured to an unsecured card, such as with a history of responsible borrowing behaviour such as good credit utilization and on-time payments, just like other issuers such as Capital One. Because closing your old secured card and opening a new unsecured card impacts your credit score, as it eliminates that source of credit history and age, and triggers a new hard inquiry.
I received an offer for a credit increase, making my secured card a semi-unsecured card. So they do offer it.
I agree, this would be great! I have a secured card now and can’t even decrease the credit limit to get back a part of my security funds. It’s close the account to get it all back, or keep the account open.
I mean like an upgrade to a fully unsecured card where they return your security deposit.
I agree, a feature to decrease the security funds would be good as well. Other secured card issuers like Capital One allow you to do this.
I think conversion between card types should be an option, including “downgrades” (e.g. from World Elite to World).
It’s a must have. At least there must be a request form for it.
I agree I was able to get a unsecured increase on the card, but on a trip to Montreal my card wasn’t accepted at a rental agency because it was a secured card they let me try it on the machine but it would work even with more then enough funds.
Yes, one common problem with secured cards is that they’re often not accepted for security deposits such as rental cars and hotel incidentals.
I was thinking the same thing!! I support this!
The security deposit is actually refunded by capital one and it transitions into an unsecured traditional card without the secured label!
I even tried to “upgrade to a world card” and it still wanted my security deposit. It won’t let me cancel that application either.
This shouldn’t hit your credit as a hard hit either. I agree with your statements and assessments!
I agree. But I could swear I read it somewhere that you could transition to an unsecured card and receive your security funds back. But it was something you would have to request, not automatic. But of course, I don’t remember where I saw that reference. 
Hi, do you know why this happened? What agency was? Secure cards are supposed to work as a normal card with rental agency cars and hotels for their
I believe it was Enterprise at the Montreal airport, and the second he saw the NEO name on the card was told it wouldn’t work and it did not what I put it in. They didn’t really give an explanation as to why.
I wonder if anyone from NEO can explain this, why does this happens?
Honestly, I’ve never heard of secured cards failing for car rentals. Situations I have dealt with:
- Trying to use the Neo prepaid card for car rental generally doesn’t work. Merchants who see this pattern a few times sometimes think it’s an “All Neo card” problem.
- Some merchants (like car rentals) will ask for a significant pre-authorization. Secured cardholders generally have limits that are lower and even though they might be sufficient for the best-case scenario, they fail the much higher pre-authorization that the merchant is actually asking for.
The declined transaction should appear in the transaction history for the card. It probably won’t say why it was declined, but it should show you how much they were trying to pre-authorize. If that amount was larger than the available credit at the time, then that’s probably why it was declined.
I’ve been able to use my secured Neo at Enterprise.
I also agree that we should be offered to move from secured to unsecured so that we don’t have to close our secured accounts and take an inquiry hit for the unsecured card.
Thank you for taking the time and explaining this.