A year ago my business hadn't established any meaningful credit, because it hadn't needed credit, and my personal credit was in re-build mode. So when I applied for business credit cards, I was declined. That led me to apply for the Wells Fargo Business Secured Mastercard with a $2,000 deposit and credit line. It also required that I open a business checking account as a condition of being approved for the secured card. I opened the checking account with a $1,000 deposit ($500 was required to avoid a monthly service charge for the checking account). I had no intention of using the checking account, as my business already had checking accounts with two other banks. So I tied up $3,000 to have a secured business credit card with a $2,000 limit, and 1.5% cash back.
I used the card for business purchases approaching the $2,000 limit every month, and paid the balance in full every month, for about 8 months, up until the time my business was approved for unsecured Visa cards, each with limits many times higher, from each of the other banks serving my business. Then I mostly stopped using the Wells Fargo secured card, instead rewarding the other banks for giving my business better credit, and I withdrew the excess funds from the Wells Fargo checking account that were over and above the amount needed to avoid a monthly service charge. Now it has been 4 months of minimal use of the Wells Fargo card.
Today I received a letter from Wells Fargo stating that the card is being converted to a non-secured card and the deposit will be refunded in June. It's good for Wells Fargo that they are doing that proactively, because I wasn't going to take a hard credit pull to request it. I was planning to simply threaten to close the account if they wouldn't change it to unsecured without a hard credit pull. Now I do not need to worry about that, and I will keep the card, though it will remain a minimal use card due to the much higher limits and equal cash back offered by the other cards.
For anyone looking for a business card to establish business credit, I would say I am overall happy with this offering by Wells Fargo, even though I despise having to keep a checking account that I don't need. It was an excellent credit builder, and it did convert for me after a year, with no hassle.
Congratulations on your graduation and sharing the data points!
Congratulations! Well done.
Thanks for the informative post, Pm. 
@Anonymous wrote:Yeah thanks for the DP's on this product, as there are almost none out there.
I too was considering this card earlier in my build, but once I had a couple Amex cards, and then a CitiBiz Visa this seemed less useful to my goal. Once you have unscured lines of credit I'm not certain if adding a secured line would be much help, especially if it's lower than unsecured lines. I too wouldn't want to tie up $3-4k just to get it when that Monay can be sitting in an interest bearing account.
Curious though, did the CL stay at $2K?
I tied up $3,000 (I could have tied up $2,500; the extra $500 was my choice so that just in case Wells Fargo sprung any unexpected fees or anythiong on me, there wouldn't be any risk of monthly fees from the balance falling below the minimum on the checking account). By the time I get my $2,000 back I will have used the card for an average of about $1,200 per month (including the recent months during which I have mostly not used it at all), and I will have earned about $250 cash back. $250 for tying up $3,000 for 14 months is the equivalent of about 8% interest, give or take. 8% for a short period of time isn't get rich return, but it is pretty good return for virtually no risk.
For now Wells Fargo is leaving the CL at $2,000. I can apply for an increase, which I do not plan to do unless they'll do it without a hard pull, or until a hard pull will not matter and there is no better way to invest a hard pull.
One note about the CL: When you apply for the account you can set the CL based on how much cash you have to deposit. I chose $2,000 because that was about what I would spend monthly on the card, and I had the money available to tie up. I optimized it for my business so that the cash back return would be reasonable for the amount of money tied up.
@Puppetmaster Thank you for sharing your experience and DP with your WF secured CC. I can't really explain my personal adversion to WF.
I'm looking at BOA as they too have a secured business CC option, should it come to that. The banker said they recommend apping for their unsecured product, and if they are interested(and if I have enough money deposited), they may counter with a secured CC.
In the interim, I'll continue to build my personal scores, and app for AMEX later this year. Thankfully, I didn't burn either of them.
Thank you for the data points. This is a card that I'm considering at the moment to help build my business credit.
Starting FICO 8s | 06/2018: EX 601 ✦ EQ 605 ✦ TU 590
