What does Setup Fee mean?

Pertaining to credit card related terminology, a setup fee is a one-time payable amount of money one has to pay when the credit card account is started. Now, if you have a bad credit scoring, you will generally want to start rebuilding your history, and you can do that by opting for a secured credit card (having as collateral a deposit in a banking account for example). But most of the times when you are about to open your credit card account, you will also be required to pay a setup fee; on the other hand, if you are eligible for an unsecured type of credit card (needs no collateral, because you have a good credit history), there will usually be no setup fee required from you.