Extra Debit Card is made to assist in building credit scores. It is effectively a charge card, where you cannot carry any balance. So the balance is paid in full every 30 days.

At the end of every month Extra reports your purchases to credit bureaus. The problem is that Extra reports to Equifax and Experian only. However, it doesn’t report to TransUnion. Reporting payments has a positive effect on your credit score within scores of these credit bureaus.

Extra doesn’t have APR. Since it is paid in full every month there is no balance on which to pay interest. That is pretty obvious.

You have to link an external bank account to Extra using Plaid. This is how they’ll get your money.

But Extra Debit Card is not a free meal. It charges you a monthly fee. It has two plans. First is Credit Building, that costs $8 per month with not many benefits. Second is Rewards + credit building costs $12 per month. You can earn 1% rewards on some purchases. Every time you purchase something, Extra pulls money out of your checking account.

Should you open Extra Debit Card?

To be honest, Extra card is a useless waste of money. On their website they go as far as misinform you on how secured credit cards work.

1. They claim that secured credit cards require a security deposit “1-2 times the credit limit”. In practice, none of the secured credit cards require you to deposit 2 times the credit limit.
2. They claim that secured credit cards have limited impact on your credit score because “credit bureaus know you’re lending money to yourself”. The truth is credit bureaus know nothing about it.
3. Unlike Extra Debit Card, secured credit cards usually report your payments to credit bureaus.

Good secured credit cards that have graduation are a cost efficient way to build your credit score. For example, US Bank Secured card has graduation.