Neo Secured Mastercard®
Review

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  Neo Premium ($4.99/month)

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  Neo Travel Benefits ($4.99/month)

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  Neo Food Cashback boost ($1.99/month)

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  Neo Mind and Body Perks ($9.99/month)

The Neo secured credit card is Canada's Best Secured Credit Card, voted by the FinlyWealth Team. The card offers so much more than other secured credit cards, making it a no-brainer if you are looking for a secured credit card option.

The Rewards

One important thing about Neo Secured card is that it offers cashback rewards. If you compare the rewards to the other cards, you will find the reason this card has an excellent reward score.

Because other secured cards don't offer rewards on your purchases, this fact alone would make the card much better than the other cards already. 

The Neo reward system is a bit different than standard credit cards.

In summary, Neo will give you cashback when you purchase from its partners. The rate could differ from partner to partner, and the rate could be anywhere from 1% all the way up to 15%. 

If you buy at a Non-Neo partner and the merchant is a gas or grocery store, you will receive 1% cashback.

You will not earn any cashback on non-Neo partners (Except Gas and Groceries), but if your overall cashback rate on all your purchases (both Neo and Non-Neo partners) falls under 0.5%, then Neo will give you enough cashback so that you have at least a 0.5% Cashback Guarantee.

Even though the system is complicated, the reward rates are exceptionally good for a secured card because you will gain nothing with other Secured credit cards.

Approval

Because this is a secured card, Neo mentions that they instantly approve everyone. This is true for the majority of people, but there have been some rare cases reported that the approval was not instant, but that should not be of concern.

One other important note about Neo is that the deposit you can put in only starts with $50 whereas other secured cards require a much higher rate. This lower deposit requirement would help everyone get the secured card, without the need of locking a huge deposit.

2 Benefits of the Neo Secured Credit Card

1. No Annual Fee

Even though all secured credit cards already require a deposit, that does not mean that they don't have an annual fee. Most secured credit card options in Canada come with a yearly fee.

In cases that they don't require a yearly fee, they would at least require a bigger deposit.

And that's where Neo shines because it's the only exception. Neo is both free and requires a very small deposit, making it a better option than the other cards if you repay your card on time. 

2. Option to buy benefits and perks

Other no-annual fee-secured credit cards don't offer many benefits. The ones with annual fees have a few extra benefits, but the price paid to access them is usually not justifiable. 

One of the unique things about the Neo Secured Credit card is that it allows you to buy the perks that you think are the most useful to you for a monthly fee. The best part is that after you are done using a specific perk, you can cancel the subscription to that specific perk.

To give you a quick glance at the five perks, here is a summary:

Premium ($4.99/Month): 

Boosts cashback rate, get cashback on all non-Neo partners, Priority Support, Purchase protection and extended warranty, and group life insurance.

Travel ($4.99/Month): 

Lounge access pass, complimentary lounge access in case of a flight delay, boosted cashback on hotel and foreign transactions, and comprehensive travel insurance.

Food and Drink ($1.99/Month): 

Boosted cashback (1.25x) at partner restaurants, cafes and bars, and food delivery apps.

Mind and body ($9.99/Month): 

Boosted cashback (1.25x) on wellness services and products, free classes at Oxygen Yoga and Fitness, FitOn Pro, and Headspace Plus.

Mobile & Personal Protection ($9.99/Month): 

Damage and Theft protection for mobile, $1 million dollar coverage for fraud and identity theft.

1 Downside of the Neo Secured Card

Maybe the only and biggest downside Neo Secured Card has compared to the other secured cards is that Neo only reports to TransUnion and not Equifax. 

Suppose you are monitoring your credit score on Equifax. In that case, your credit score won't be updated as a result of your Neo secured card activity, and therefore, your credit score at Transunion could potentially be very different than what is at Equifax.

Also, many lenders pull from multiple bureaus, but in some cases, they might only pull from Equifax. In these cases, your Neo Secured card activity would not be reflected in your credit score. It is typical, however, for lenders to pull both Transunion and Equifax, so this should be less of an issue.

Final Verdict

If you are looking for a secured credit card, the Neo card should be your go-to option. 

The only exception would be if you really want your credit score to be reported to Equifax. In those cases, you have to think whether the rewards and advantages of Neo are worth giving up in favor of reporting or not.