I find these secured credit cards never want to give you back your deposit after a year or more. I have a friend that was told by capital one that the only way you get your money back, is if you close the account. If you do that it will hurt your credit score.

good to know..
I caution people that it's good to get a new credit card before you close an old one for continuity purposes.

Also... it's too bad that HorizonPlus has that monthly fee. It's really important to keep your credit cards and use them over time , if you're building your credit back up.

Example: If you have a credit card for 5-10 years, it will show better on your credit report than if you have had one for a year and then close it. It shows better continuity to the creditors.

As a routine follow-up to my original post I've since closed my HorizonPlus account simply because I've acquired no-fee rewards cards and was no longer happy paying $5.95 a month and earning 2% on my $500 deposit.

The folks at HorizonPlus were extremely helpful and polite when I called to close my account. They advised that a 45 day waiting period was standard (to ensure no further pre-authorized transactions were lurking around the corner) and after that they would mail me my cheque.

Cheque was received (with the interest they promised) well within the timeline they described.

The only downside to this kind of secured card is that it CANNOT be converted to a non-secured card and you either have to pay their fees and leave your deposit with them forever (not a great option) OR cancel the card (and kill off one of my oldest credit lines taking the accompanying credit score hit).

For strategic planners out there I would go with a secured card from Citizens Bank if I had to do it again, as they (provided you use the card responsibly) refund your deposit and convert the card to a normal credit card after approximately 1 year.

(Best of both worlds, you get your deposit back and you keep the credit line active).

For those shopping around for this sort of thing, Horizon Plus offers a secured Mastercard with a minimum deposit of $500, and a $5.95/mo membership fee (Yep, that's $70/year).

I've personally had one of these cards for just shy of a year now, and it's been extremely useful in rebuilding my credit.

Over the last few months they've added online statements and account maintenance (with a few nice features like automated optional notifications for "payment posting", "balance exceeding a user defined point" and "payment due"), a feature that was seriously lacking prior to this.

http://www.horizonplus.ca/index.html
http://www.horizonpluscc.com