Discussion Paper
Top of the Class Assessing the Credit Performance of Graduates from Secured Credit Card Programs
Psathas, Peter (2024-11-26)
Secured credit cards, whose limit is fully or partially collateralized by a bank deposit, serve as viable options for consumers seeking to build new credit or to repair a damaged credit history. Demonstrated repayment behavior over time can qualify secured cardholders for “graduation” to a standard unsecured credit card. This paper uses anonymized account-level data to examine how secured card borrowers perform after graduation by matching samples of graduates with similar groups of borrowers who open new unsecured cards without having graduated from a secured card program. Using a ...
Consumer Finance Institute discussion papers , Paper DP24-02

Discussion Paper
Moving into the Mainstream: Who Graduates from Secured Credit Card Programs?
Santucci, Larry (2019-07-02)
Secured credit cards--credit cards whose limit is fully or partially collateralized by a bank deposit--are considered a gateway product to mainstream credit access. As consumers demonstrate good usage and repayment behavior, they may be offered the opportunity to graduate to an unsecured credit card. This paper uses anonymized account-level data to examine the prevalence of account graduation in the secured credit card market since 2012. Using a fixed effects regression model, we identify a set of usage and repayment behaviors that are correlated with account graduation.
Consumer Finance Institute discussion papers , Paper 19-2