Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Secured Card Review: Bonus Cash Back in a Category You Choose

The Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards Secured credit card lets you build credit and earn lots of cash back rewards along the way. There's no annual fee for this card, which also offers free credit score monitoring so you can watch your credit improve. Check out our Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards Secured credit card review to find out if it's the right option for you.

This credit card is a good fit for: Consumers who are new to credit cards or rebuilding credit and want to earn cash back while raising their credit score.

Top perks

You get several great benefits from this secured credit card.

Up to 3% back

This is one of the few cash back credit cards you can get with a poor credit score. It offers 3% back in your choice of the following categories:

• Gas and EV charging stations
• Online shopping, including cable, internet, phone plans, and streaming
• Dining
• Travel
• Drug stores and pharmacies
• Home improvement and furnishings

You'll also get 2% back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs. The 3% and 2% cash back rates apply to your first $2,500 in combined purchases per quarter. Other purchases earn 1% back.

No annual fee

Building your credit shouldn't be expensive. The Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards Secured credit card doesn't charge an annual fee, which is an important benefit with credit cards for bad credit.

SEE MORE: Best No Annual Fee Credit Cards

Flexible credit limit

Since this is a secured credit card, you must pay a security deposit upfront to open it. The minimum deposit amount is $200 and the maximum is $5,000. Your starting credit limit will be based on your deposit amount, your income, and other financial information.

This gives you some control over your card's credit limit. If you want more spending power, and you have some money saved, you can make a larger security deposit.

LEARN MORE: What Is a Secured Credit Card?

FICO® Score for free

As a cardholder, you can view your FICO® Score through your online account or the mobile app. Your FICO® Score is the type of credit score that's most widely used by lenders, so it's great to have access to this specific score.

This is a valuable tool when you're working on your credit. You can monitor your progress and find out the exact steps needed to increase your credit score.

Graduate to an unsecured card

Bank of America will periodically review your account to see if you qualify for graduation to an unsecured credit card. If so, you'll get a refund of your security deposit. You can improve your chances of this by always paying your credit card bill on time and keeping your balance low (aim to use no more than 20% of your credit limit).

This is a crucial feature for secured credit cards. When you graduate from a secured card, it means you get your deposit back and keep the credit card account open, which is good for your credit score.

What could be improved

Although there are no major problems with the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards Secured credit card, it does have a couple minor issues.

Minimum deposit amount

You need to deposit at least $200 to open the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards Secured credit card. That could be on the expensive side for some. While this is a normal minimum amount for secured cards, there are cards with lower minimums out there. If you need a more affordable deposit, check out credit card reviews for different secured cards.

Foreign transaction fee

This card charges a 3% foreign transaction fee. The fee applies to both transactions in foreign currencies and transactions that are made or processed outside the United States. If you decide to do any international traveling, you may want to look at other credit cards to save money.

LEARN MORE: What Are Foreign Transaction Fees?

There isn't a minimum credit score required for the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards Secured credit card. Because it's a secured card, you could get approved if you have no credit history yet or if you have a low credit score due to previous issues. That doesn't mean an approval is guaranteed, though. Bank of America will decide after evaluating your application.

During the application process, you'll need to choose a deposit amount and provide a bank account to fund it. If your application is approved, Bank of America will deduct the security deposit from that bank account.

MORE OPTIONS: Best Starter Credit Cards for No Credit

You're trying to increase your credit score and you can afford a deposit of $200 or more. In terms of value, the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards Secured credit card is tough to beat.

It offers enough cash back to compete with the top credit cards. It also gets you all the features needed in a secured card, including credit score monitoring and no pesky annual fee. You'll be able to make progress on your credit, earn lots of bonus cash back, and eventually get your deposit back.

Our credit card methodology

At The Motley Fool Ascent, we rate credit cards on a five-star scale (1 = poor, 5 = best). Our rating criteria includes rewards rates, welcome bonuses, fees, and perks like travel credits and 0% intro APR offers to evaluate our ratings.

We combine these factors with an evaluation of brand reputation and customer satisfaction to ensure you're getting the best card recommendations. Learn more about how The Ascent rates credit cards.