KeyBank Creates 40K Better Borrowers Via Secured Cards

Cleveland-based KeyBank reported that more than 4,400 customers graduated from its secured credit card program in the first half of the year, bringing the total to more than 40,000 since the program’s launch in 2019.

The program, which helps people build financial stability to improve their credit scores, exemplifies how credit card issuers can help build a more responsible, and potentially more profitable, customer base through financial education.

Secured credit cards offer a low-risk way for issuers to teach newcomers the basics of credit card use. Customers who successfully complete programs like KeyBank’s are often more likely to move on to unsecured cards with higher credit limits.

They may also feel confident enough in their credit management skills to apply for a personal loan. 

Those products may yield higher profit for financial institutions, and they can help a previously unbanked customer become a long-term credit client for a company such as KeyBank. A recent FDIC report indicates that approximately 5.6 million households in the U.S. don’t have an account with a bank or credit union.

More than 5.5 million households in the U.S. lack an account with either a bank or credit union.

People who successfully complete the KeyBank secured card program receive an unsecured card from the institution. And the bank releases the funds that secured cardholders had placed into a KeyBank savings account as collateral.

Dan Brown, Director of Consumer Product Management at KeyBank, said in a press release announcing the 2025 graduates that the bank designed the secured card program to give its clients the tools they need to achieve financial success.

“Consumers need a strong foundation to help them build financial literacy and resiliency, particularly in times of economic volatility,” Brown added.

KeyBank’s data shows that participants who begin the secured card program with a FICO score typically see an average increase of 68 points by the time they graduate.

Customers who complete an educational program that improves their understanding of credit and helps raise their credit scores are less likely to default on future credit card and loan obligations.

Credit card issuers should consider adopting a program such as KeyBank’s because it may help them retain customers down the line. Just as college graduates feel a sense of pride toward their alma mater, graduates of a bank’s financial education program are likely to esteem the company that helped them on their journey to financial maturity.

That means those customers may be more willing to overlook an error the bank makes in the future. And program graduates may be more open to giving the bank a chance to meet their other financial needs before shopping for solutions at competing institutions.

A program such as KeyBank’s creates positive public relations opportunities for an issuer, and it may be just the ticket an issuer needs to help them stand out in an increasingly crowded card market.