Pros
- Qualify with bad credit
- Does not require security deposit
Cons
- $89 one-time program fee
- $75 annual fee for the first year
- $147 in fees starting year two
- High APR
Total Visa® Card
- Earn 1% cash back rewards on payments made to your Total Credit Card
- See Total Card Visa Rewards Programs Terms & Conditions for details
Rewards Details
- Earn 1% cash back rewards on payments made to your Total Credit Card
- See Total Card Visa Rewards Programs Terms & Conditions for details
Additional Info
- Checking Account Required
- $300 credit limit (subject to available credit)
- No security deposit, simply pay a one-time $95 program fee to open your account.*
- User friendly Mobile App.
- Offer not guaranteed; response provided in seconds.
- *See Rates, Fees, Costs & Limitations for complete offer details
- More Details & Reviews About Total Visa® Card
Is the Total Visa Card Worth It?
The Total Visa® Card is worth it for people with bad credit who want to borrow a small amount of money without placing a security deposit. The card is easy to qualify for and even offers rewards, giving 1% cash back, but the tradeoff is that it’s extremely expensive.
Newly approved applicants have to pay a $95 program fee just to open an account, and then there is a $75 membership fee the first year. From year two onward, the annual fee is $48, but you also have to pay monthly fees that bring the total even higher than the first year’s annual fee.
What You Need to Do to Make the Total Visa Card Worthwhile
To make the Total Visa Card worthwhile, you should avoid carrying a balance from month to month. If you do carry a balance, interest will accrue at a ridiculously high 35.99% (V) APR, one of the highest rates on the market.
If you want to cancel out the cost of the card using rewards, you’re going to have to spend a lot and pay in full monthly. Earning 1% cash back, you’ll have to spend $17,000 during the first year to cover the one-time fee and annual fee, and $14,700 during any subsequent years.
Before you apply for this card, you may want to look at alternatives among the best credit cards for bad credit. If you do get it, though, you’ll only want to keep it open as long as it takes you to build good enough credit to qualify for a better card.
Total Visa Credit Card Highlights
Offers Credit-(Re)building Capabilities
No matter how bad your credit is, you might be able to get approved for the Total Visa® Card, provided that you can afford its $95 up-front cost. This buys you a way to add new information to your credit reports on a monthly basis, which will help rebuild your credit if it reflects on-time payments and no maxed out spending limit.
Total Visa Credit Card Lowlights
$170 In Initial Fees
The fees begin rolling in before things even really get started, with a $95 program fee that must be paid prior to account opening. It’s rare for a credit card to have such a fee, so either the Total Visa® Card is gouging folks or pretty much every other issuer is offering a steep discount. That’s only the beginning, too, unfortunately. If you decide to pay up and open an account, you’ll get hit with a $75 annual fee the first month your account is open. Altogether, that amounts to $170 in fixed fees before your first account anniversary. And things don’t get much better after that.
$147 In Fees Each Subsequent Year
The Total VISA® Card’s annual fee drops down to $48 beginning in the second year, which may lead you to believe it will be less expensive to use. However, that annual fee is supplemented by a $8.25 “monthly servicing” fee, which pushes the yearly tab to $147. In contrast, many other offers, secured or unsecured, do not charge monthly fees.
$225 In Unsecured Initial Spending Power
The bit of borrowing potential provided by unsecured credit cards for people with bad credit supposedly is among their biggest draws. Emergency expenses can’t always be handled with cash on hand, after all. Yet Total VISA® will give you a grand total of just $225 in funds that you can’t cover yourself to start out with. That’s what you’re left with after subtracting the $75 first-year annual fee from your $300 initial credit line. And while that paltry sum might help you pay a small bill or two, it certainly won’t go very far.
Very High Regular APR
If you have bad credit, it’s wise to get in the habit of paying your bill in full simply because funds are probably tight and you don’t want to waste your money on interest. That’s true no matter what type of credit card you’re using but especially one with an APR as high as the Total VISA® Card’s, 35.99%, which is among the highest on the market in general. At nearly 36%, it’s way higher than the 22.83% average for secured credit cards, according to WalletHub’s latest Credit Card Landscape Report.
Can’t Be Used At Gas Stations Or Abroad
In order to reduce risk, the issuer of the Total VISA®, prohibits use of the card at automated fuel pumps (which places a hold on your credit line and often are a first stop for card thieves) as well as purchases processed internationally. If you or an authorized user on your account uses the card for any such transactions, you’ll have to compensate the issuer for any expenses they incur as a result, though it’s unclear from the card’s Terms & Conditions exactly what those expenses include. This Visa, as a result, is not everywhere you want to be.
Other Things to Consider About the Total Visa Card
Checking Account Required
The Total VISA® Card’s terms don’t provide much information about this particular requirement, but it appears that you do need a checking account in order to qualify. You’re going to need a deposit account to make credit-card payments anyway, but this somewhat arbitrarily prevents prepaid cards, savings accounts, money orders and other non-checking means of payment from filling that role.
$29 Annual Additional-Card Fee
If you want to add an authorized user to your account — not recommended unless the other person is someone you can trust to use the card responsibly — you’ll have to pay an additional $29 per year for the privilege. This doesn’t make much sense, however, as the account offers no rewards for spending, and an authorized user won’t earn you a higher credit limit. Bear in mind that other issuers charge a much lower fee or none at all for adding authorized users.
Up To $40 Late- & Returned-Payment Fees
These fees aren’t terribly high relative to the rest of the credit card market — the average is $33.97 — but they’re nevertheless important to avoid in the interest of not inflating already high costs. So make sure to pay your bill on time — by establishing automatic payments, for example — and keep enough cash in your checking account to easily cover the cost in case of a blunder.
Other Assorted Fees
You’ll also have to pay a $3 copying fee for every page of each duplicate account statement or other document you request, $35 for express card delivery and more.
Total Visa Credit Card vs. The Competition
To help put the Total Visa® Card into context, we compared it to some of the strongest competition, both secured and unsecured. We did so in terms of seven key categories that collectively speak to each card’s overall value. You can find the results in the following table
minimum depositNo Deposit Needed | minimum depositNo Deposit Needed | minimum depositNo Deposit Needed | minimum deposit$49, $99 or $200 |
one time fees $95 | one time fees $0 | one time fees $0 | one time fees $0 |
annual fee $75 1st yr, $48 after | annual fee $75 intro 1st yr, $99 after | annual fee $175 1st yr; $49 after | annual fee $0 |
monthly fee $0 1st year, $8.25 after | monthly fee $0 | monthly fee $0 1st yr, $12.50 after | monthly fee $0 |
Regular APR35.99% | Regular APR29.74% (V) | Regular APR35.9% | Regular APR29.99% (V) |
rewards rate
| rewards rate
| rewards rate N/A | rewards rate N/A |
SponsoredApply Now | SponsoredApply Now | SponsoredApply Now | SponsoredApply Now |
Total Visa® Card Review Methodology
This Total Visa® Card review is based on WalletHub’s proprietary 100-point credit card rating system. By using a consistent methodology to evaluate the Total Visa® Card and all other cards, WalletHub’s credit card experts make it easy for people to compare their options and find the best credit cards for their needs.
The WalletHub rating system uses 16 key metrics grouped into seven categories: Fees, Rewards, Two-year Cost, Interest Rates, Approval Requirements, Special Features, and Reviews. Each metric has a maximum number of points allocated to it, based on the metric’s importance as determined by our editors. The points are added up to create an overall rating for the Total Visa® Card out of a maximum of 100 points, which is then converted to a 5-point scale.
Ratings for each category reflect how close Total Visa is to WalletHub’s definition of a 5-star credit card, which is based on market conditions and what we believe are reasonable terms. We compare Total Visa to that standard to give a numerical approximation of how reasonable and competitive its terms are compared to other cards.
To learn more about how WalletHub rates credit card offers, check out our full credit card review methodology.
Expert Thoughts on The Total Visa® Credit Card Review
To help people learn more about The Total Visa® Credit Card, WalletHub's editors posed the following questions to a panel of experts. You can meet our panelists and read their responses below.
1. When does it make sense to consider a credit card like the Total Visa?
2. What advice do you have for someone with bad credit who needs to borrow for an emergency expense?
WalletHub experts are widely quoted. Contact our media team to schedule an interview.