they gave me a $600 line of credit on a $200 bank deposit. It's a nice one, too. It says platinum and looks like one someone with very good credit has.

And no, they don't really work like a debit card, because they are reporting to the credit bureaus every month that you are paying, thereby building you a good credit history.

Nobody (especially as far as your credit score is concerned) will know that this is a secured or partially secured card except you and Bank of Marin.

A debit card does not get reported to bureaus or help your score in any way. - They're junk.

Another good thing is that $200 or whatever you give to their bank is in a savings account and draws interest. After a year or so, depending how you've checked out, they will re-credit that back to you in the form of payments to your card. You will then have a true credit credit card.

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