Americans' Credit Scores Rise With Help From KeyBank Secured Credit Card

More than 15,000 clients who graduated from KeyBank's Secured Credit Card program to date have found financial mobility

CLEVELAND, June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, KeyBank (NYSE: KEY) announced its May 2022 graduating class of the Secured Credit Card, which include 4,343 clients whose credit scores and financial stability have significantly risen as a result of participating in the program. Since it began in 2018, KeyBank has helped more than 15,000 clients improve their financial standing.

The Secured Credit Card improves financial wellness by providing eligible clients with simple access to credit, while also helping them develop good spending habits and an educational foundation for future credit cards. Cardholder accounts are reviewed twice each year to determine if the client meets the criteria to graduate to an unsecured credit card.

This year's graduates have made major steps in improving their financial well-being, such as:

• 69% received a KeyBank Secured Credit Card with no FICO score at origination
• 31% were designated as having low FICO scores at origination. A majority of which were designated as a low score.
• The average improvement in credit score for those in the low category was 81 points.

"Our graduates are in a greater financial position coming out of this program," said Mitch Kime, KeyBank Executive Vice President of Consumer Client Growth. "With their newly improved standing, they are better positioned in applying for loans, more banking opportunities, and in some cases, better insurance rates. All of it adds up substantially towards creating a financially healthy life for themselves."

For one young KeyBank client, the Secured Credit Card created a path towards obtaining a mortgage within two years, in part because of their credit score. That client wrote directly to the banker who assisted him. "You helped me get my first credit card at 18-years-old. (By 19,) you helped me with my mortgage and you helped me with my personal loan. My whole success in life I owe to you" wrote the client.

The longevity of the KeyBank Secured Credit Card program is beginning to show its impact. More than 40,000 clients have started or completed their journey through the program. 71% of the clients who graduated have done so within 12 months and 97% within 24 months.

As more graduates come out of the program, we have seen the true positive impact on FICO scores. For those who entered the program with no FICO score, the average score they show at graduation is 717. Throughout the program's history, those with a FICO score at origination have shown an average increase of 61 points when they graduate.

Additional Secured Credit Card features include:

• Unlike prepaid or debit cards, the Secured Credit Card reports clients' history to credit bureaus, allowing them to show progress.
• While clients build their credit*, their Secured Credit Card deposit must be kept in a Key Active Saver account, enabling users to build their credit and savings in tandem—all with a $0 annual fee¹.
• With Key's temporary lock security feature, cardholders can easily use online or mobile banking to lock and unlock a misplaced credit card, thus avoiding having to cancel it and open a new one—potentially harming their credit score.

For more information on Secured Credit Card, visit https://www.key.com/personal/credit-cards/key-secured-credit-card.jsp

To help people on their financial journey, KeyBank also offers Loan Assist, a unique Savings Secured Installment, designed to help individuals with limited credit or previous slow credit establish or reestablish good credit history, while building savings.  It can be a valuable tool for clients looking to build or repair their credit when clients make on-time payments to their loan.

*Use of the Key Secured Credit Card can help build credit when the minimum payment is made by the due date, each month.

¹ The Key Secured Card requires the card holder to have funds on deposit in a Key Active Saver® account in an amount greater than or equal to the assigned credit limit. The variable APR for purchases is 23.74%. There is a $0.50 minimum finance charge where interest is due. The annual fee is $0. Foreign Transaction fee: 3% of the amount of each foreign transaction after its conversion into U.S. Dollars. Transactions originating in Canada are excluded from this fee. The Key Secured Card requires the card holder to have funds on deposit in a Key Active Saver® account in an amount greater than or equal to the assigned credit limit. The monthly maintenance service charge on the Key Active Saver account will be waived for Key Secured Credit Card clients. The monthly maintenance service charge waiver is only valid as long as the Key Secured Credit Card remains open. If you are graduated to an unsecured card or close your Key Secured Credit Card account, the Key Active Saver monthly maintenance service charge of $4.00 may apply, unless you are the owner on a KeyBank consumer checking account (including KeyBank Hassle-Free Account® Rates, fees and other information contained within this disclosure are accurate as of 6/1/2022

About KeyCorp 

KeyCorp's roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $181.2 billion at March 31, 2022. 

Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC. Copyright © 2022 KeyCorp®. All Rights Reserved

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