Top 12 Best Unsecured Credit Cards For Bad Credit In 2023

Unsecured credit cards for bad credit scores are the good choice for people with no or poor credit. Choose from mastercard, visa, platinum such as Credit One Bank and more without security deposit.

Top 12 Best Unsecured Credit Cards For Bad Credit In 2023

1. Credit One Bank® Platinum Visa® For Rebuilding Credit

Good for: money back

2. Petal 2 Visa® Credit Card

Good for: Alternative approval process

The Petal 2 Visa credit card, issued by WebBank, does not charge an annual fee and comes with a variable APR ranging from 15.99% to 29.99%.

You can be pre-approved online without a hard examination of your credit report, and you can even be approved without a credit score by linking your bank account to your application, so Petal can review your bill payment history to determine your eligibility

3. Capital One Platinum Credit Card

Good for: Building credit

The Capital One Platinum Credit Card is a no-nonsense card for building credit through responsible use of credit. The variable APR of 28.49% is high, but there are no annual fees and Capital One automatically assesses your account for credit limit increases from six months

4. Surge Mastercard® With Low Limit

The Surge Mastercard® gives you $0 fraud liability and other core benefits that come with all Mastercards. While the card’s initial limit is low, you may get a higher limit if you pay your bill on time for six straight months. You can manage the card online and via a mobile app to view balances and make timely payments, among other things.

For a fee, you can purchase credit protection for this card, which cancels your outstanding credit card debt when you die. You also get protection in the event of job loss, hospitalization or disability.

5. Reflex Mastercard®

With the Reflex Mastercard® you can pre-qualify in less than a minute without compromising your bad credit rating. This card offers a limited credit range that is larger than some competitors. It comes with an annual fee but offers a $0 fraud liability.

If you pay at least the minimum monthly amount due for six months, the Reflex Mastercard® may offer you a higher credit limit. Depending on your credit rating, you can avoid the monthly maintenance fee (which is always waived in the first year anyway). Other fees include an international transaction fee, add-on card fees, cash advance fees, late payment fees, and refund fees.

6.  Revvi Visa Cash Rewards Credit Card

The Revvi Card is the only card in this test that offers cashback rewards. It also comes with $0 fraud liability, an easy-to-use mobile app, and monthly reports to the credit bureaus.

The APR for purchase is high and there is an annual fee, a program fee, and fees for cash advances, foreign transactions, late payments, and repayments.

7. FIT Mastercard®

With the FIT Mastercard® you can boost your credit because it reports your transactions to all three credit bureaus. The card charges a one-time processing fee, an annual fee, and fees for cash advances, international transactions, late or returned payments, and add-on cards. In the first 12 months after opening an account, you do not pay a monthly account management fee.

Cardholders receive a $0 fraud liability and automatic assessment for a credit limit higher after six months of on-time payments. You can purchase optional credit protection against death, job loss, disability or hospitalization. The Bank of Missouri issues this card.

8. Indigo® Unsecured Mastercard®

The Indigo® Unsecured Mastercard® – Prior Bankruptcy is Okay – it might approve your application, even if you’ve previously had to file for bankruptcy. You can pre-qualify for the card without jeopardizing your low credit score, and then use the card to rebuild your credit since every major credit bureau gets your transaction details every month.

With the Indigo card, you can choose from a handful of different card designs. You also get Mastercard fraud protection. Established in 2001, Celtic Bank of Utah issues this card.

9. Milestone® Mastercard®

The Milestone® Mastercard® – Less Than Perfect Credit Considered from the Bank of Missouri will review your application despite your less than perfect history. You can pre-qualify for this card in a few steps, and the issuer can pre-qualify you for another bank’s card if they can’t match you to one of their own cards.

The card charges an annual fee and an overseas transaction fee, but no monthly maintenance fee. There are also fees for cash advances, overage transactions, and late or refunded payments. With the associated app, you can enjoy mobile access and the card automatically protects you if your card is lost or stolen.

10. Merrick Bank Double Your Line® Mastercard®

Fraud protection if your card is lost or stolen. Access your account 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Get help staying on track with available Auto Pay and account notifications.

Merrick Bank’s Double Your Line® Mastercard® helps you construct credit by paying your bills on time. After seven payments on time, you can reach a credit limit which is higher.

This APR is competitive and depending on your credit rating you may not have to pay an annual fee. You also have access to your free FICO Score each month.

11. First Access Visa® Card

The First Access Visa® Card is a full-featured card that routinely approves applications from non-credit consumers, although applicants must have a checking account to qualify. Decisions are quick – in fact, you should get a decision in about a minute. When applying for this card, you can choose from six different card designs.

This card comes with a high APR and numerous fees, including a one-time program fee, an annual fee, late/refunded fees, and two fees (for monthly maintenance and cash advances) that are waived in the first year. There are also fees for additional cards, credit limit increases, expedited shipping, and duplicate copies of a monthly statement credit.

12. First Progress Credit

Progress Credit works with two issuers to provide you with both an unsecured Visa credit card and a secured Mastercard despite your imperfect history. In fact, the best unsecured card for bad credit is among the easiest to obtain. The Bank of Missouri unsecured Visa card has nationwide acceptance and safeguards.

The unsecured card charges a one-time program fee if your application is approved. You cannot use the card at gas pumps, for gambling transactions or at foreign merchants.

In order to know how to get this card, watch below video:

An Unsecured Credit Card

What Is An Unsecured Credit Card?

Unsecured cards require no collateral to secure the credit line against which you can borrow.

It is probably what comes to mind when you think of a typical credit card. Unlike secured credit cards — which require a security deposit that acts as your credit line

When you’re approved for this kind of card, your credit limit is based on factors such as income, your history, and other debts you may have (for example, personal loans or other credit card debt).

The range from credit-building credit cards like the ones on this list to the most premium travel rewards credit cards. These cards can provide great buying power and even help you save money, but they also require responsible use to avoid high-interest debt.

Credit cards often have extremely high APRs, which start adding up on any balance you don’t pay in full when your balance is due each month.

Can An Unsecured Credit Card Help You Build Credit?

Yes. Practicing healthy credit habits with a credit card, secured or unsecured, is one of the most effective ways to build.

Your payment history is the most influential factor in your credit score, so it’s important to pay your credit card bill early or on time each month to build a strong positive payment history. And to avoid high-interest debt, only charge for purchases that you know you can pay in full by the time your statement is due.

Credit utilization ratio is the second most influential factor in your score and is heavily influenced by how you use your credit card. This ratio refers to the amount you owe relative to your credit limit and applies to both individual accounts and your total available credit.

Avoid spending more than 30% of your credit limit in any given month to maintain a healthy credit utilization rate. You may get even better results if you can keep your occupancy below 10%.

Other factors that determine your credit score include the length of your history, new and your credit mix, although they are not as influential on your score as payment history or usage.

Boost your credit by keeping your credit accounts in good shape for as long as possible – even when you’re not using them – and avoid opening or closing too many accounts in a short period of time.

Which Unsecured Credit Cards Give You Instant Approval?

Our top-rated unsecured card that offers instant approval to people with bad credit unsecured is the Surge Mastercard® . The card gives you free access to your Vantage 3.0 credit score from Experian (a FICO competitor) and offers 0% fraud liability. The publisher can pre-qualify you immediately and give you a final decision within a minute.

There’s nothing special about credit cards offer instant judgment when you sign up. That’s because you can pre-qualify with most credit cards.

Here’s how it works: The credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian) track your history and assign you a score so credit card issuers can decide whether to give you a card. When you want to pre-qualify for a card, you fill out a form that the issuer uses to perform a soft credit check. A soft check provides limited information to the issuer, but does not affect your credit score.

When you attempt to qualify for a credit subprime, the issuer will not perform a hard pull (ie, examination) of your credit report that would hurt your score.

If you do prequalify, you can have the issuer perform the hard credit check necessary to approve your application. The hard pull of your credit report can lower your credit score by a small amount. All of this only takes a few minutes, and while final approval is not guaranteed, the pre-qualification step will increase your chances.

Can I Get A Business Credit Card With Bad Credit?

Yes. Secure business credit cards make the most sense for business owners with bad or thin credit. These cards are available to almost anyone who can make the required cash deposit. You can use these cards to earn rewards for purchases made by you and your employees.

Our top recommendation for a secure business subprime credit card is the Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card. The card gives you the option of cash back or points rewards, a higher credit limit, $0 liability protection, and no annual fee. It is ideal for start-ups as you can get up to 10 employee cards for free.

Another highly secured business card is the BBVA Secured Visa® Business Credit Card, which is available in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas. You earn points on qualified purchases, free employee cards, free liability waiver, and various travel and purchase protection benefits.

If you prefer an unsecured business card, we recommend the Capital One® Spark® Classic for Business. The card charges no annual fees and gives you unlimited cash back rewards on all purchases. You also get a number of benefits for your business, including roadside assistance, no foreign transaction fees and various security/purchase protections.

If you need a business credit card despite bad credit, consider these four strategies:

Build your business credit: Even if your personal credit is bad, you may be able to build your business credit by meeting certain metrics that are important to the credit bureaus. These include your transaction volume, outstanding balances, demographics, and more.

• You must obtain an EIN (Employer Identification Number) from the IRS before you can open corporate bank accounts used to build your company’s credit. It is also helpful to establish credit lines with your business suppliers and vendors.
• After creating three lines of credit, you can get a Paydex credit score from Dun & Bradstreet. As always, make sure to pay your bills on time (or better yet, early) and keep a close eye on your balances.
• Another factor in building strong business credit is keeping clean public records – no late payments, adverse court decisions, or bankruptcies.

Use a co-signer: You can speed up the time it takes to build credit better by hiring a qualified co-signer. That’s someone with good credit who is willing to be responsible for your credit card balances. With a good co-signer, you may be able to get a top rated business credit card.

Buy a secured card: We’ve already seen how entrepreneurs with bad credit can get a secured card. You can get a credit card secured in the name of the company to build up the credit. The usefulness of a secured business credit card depends on the credit limit – some cards allow you to deposit as much as $25,000 or as little as $500.

As your business builds its credit, you may be able to replace your secured card with an unsecured one. This frees up your deposit for use elsewhere. Making sure you pay on time gives you the best chance of upgrading to an unsecured card in a reasonable amount of time.

Make use of bank relationships: As mentioned, you must have an EIN to create a business checking account. A good strategic decision is to use a local community bank or credit union where you have the opportunity to build a business relationship. The mutual loyalty of this relationship can help you arrange financing in exchange for your purchase of financial products from the institution, such as a credit building account.

Business credit cards with cash back rewards can reduce your net spending and keep more of your money. For a start-up or growing company, this is an important advantage that increases the chances of survival.

How Do I Choose The Right Card For Bad Credit?

You may have limited access to unsecured credit cards for bad credit if you have bad credit. With the rare exception, the cards you qualify for are bare-bones options with high costs and few benefits. So choosing the right card is an exercise in identifying the cards that are less bad than others.

This review is a good starting point to make your choice. All the cards we’ve reviewed allow you to pre-qualify. This gives you the opportunity to request multiple tickets in advance and eliminate the issuers who reject you while pursuing the cards for which you successfully prequalify.

While most of these cards have many similarities, there are a few factors to evaluate when choosing a card:

• Annual Fee: Some cards in this group do not charge an annual fee. However, none of these cards have an annual fee of more than $100.
• Processing Fees: These are one-time fees that are charged when you open the account. It is usually $89 more or less. This fee exists because the issuer is willing to approve the riskiest applicants. Avoid it if you can.
• Maintenance Fee: This is another nuisance fee that is charged monthly from the second year after the account is opened. It’s another fee that you should try to avoid.
• Credit limit increase fee: On the one hand, it is nice if the issuer is willing to increase your limit after you have shown that you can pay on time. But then some issuers ruin the party by charging a fee for the raise.
• Rewards: All but one of the rated cards provide no rewards for using the card. If you want rewards, you may need to raise your credit score first or check out a secured card which offers rewards, such as the Capital One Quicksilver Secured Cash Rewards Credit Card.

Should You Apply For An Unsecured Credit Card Now?

It depends on your situation, you may be able to skip a secured credit card that would require you to deposit money as collateral and opt for an unsecured one. Here are a few examples of when this might work for you.

They have no history at all. Not all cards require a history. For example, the Petal® 2 Visa® credit card uses information such as your bank details to determine if you qualify.

You are a student. There are several unsecured student credit cards that you can use to build credit — some even offer rewards.

You had bankruptcy. It’s possible to qualify for certain credit cards even if your credit reports have a bankruptcy.

While each of these credit cards is aimed at those with limited or bad credit, you are not guaranteed approval. Check where you stand on your credit score by taking a look at your history, and then carefully consider your options before deciding to your credit card apply.

Secure Cards Vs. Unsecured Cards

The main difference between a secured and unsecured card is the security deposit. When you open a secured credit card, you must secure your credit line with a deposit upfront. This works in the same way as a secured loan, which requires some form of collateral.

In most cases, the amount you deposit into your secured credit card is equal to your limit. For example, if you apply for the Discover it® Secured Credit Card and capture the $200 minimum deposit requirement, Discover will grant you a $200 limit.

Many secured cards allow you to deposit more money over time to increase your limit. And when you’re ready to close your credit card account, or qualify to upgrade to an unsecured card, you’ll get the deposit back in full.

Uncovered cards do not require a deposit as collateral. However, if you are approved for an unsecured card, you may be assigned a low limit. A low credit score or history can be an indicator of risk to issuers – the more evidence you can show that you are using credit and repaying it over time, the more likely an issuer will entrust you with a credit line increase.

Both secured and unsecured cards can be useful tools for building credit, as long as your issuer reports your credit movements, including timely monthly payments, to the credit bureaus regularly.

What Is A Bad Credit Score?

Your credit score determines your profile. About 90% of lenders and creditors in the United States use the FICO scoring system, which ranges from 300 (worst credit) to 850 (perfect credit).

A score below 580 is generally considered bad credit, while reasonable credit scores range from 580 to 669.

FICO Score Achieve

Some credit cards, including those discussed here, are particularly suitable for consumers with bad credit to fair credit. While secured bad credit cards are quite easy to come by, you can also get an unsecured card despite a bad score. These cards all have certain characteristics:

• They offer small credit limits, as low as $200.
• APRs are usually between 24% and 35%.
• The fees are many and can include registration fees, annual fees and fees for cash advances, foreign transactions and late payments.
• These cards usually offer no rewards and few benefits, although there are exceptions. For example, the Revvi card is a cash rewards credit card.
• Typically, these cards report your card activity to all three bureaus. This allows you to rebuild your credit score if you pay your bills on time and maintain a credit utilization ratio of less than 30%.
• Derogatory items such as missed payments, arrears, defaults, collections, foreclosures, and bankruptcies remain in your history for up to 10 years.

The cards in this review can help boost your credit score if you maintain good financial habits. The higher your score, the greater the limit, the lower the APR, and the greater the rewards and benefits.

What Is The Minimum Credit Score Required For Credit Cards?

We found that credit cards intended for consumers with poor credit generally consider FICO scores as low as 550. They can do this by showing you proof of income and having a checking account in your name. While there are no guarantees, these cards give you the best chance of getting an unsecured card.

Some credit cards don’t require a credit check, meaning they can approve applications from consumers with a score of only 300 or no score at all. A student can fall into this category, as can a secured card. We’ve seen reviews of credit cards that perform checking credit and are still willing to accept any score, but we can’t confirm these claims.

Unsecured cards that accept small credit scores should not be confused with the high-quality rewards cards you see advertised on TV. Low credit cards rarely offer rewards and usually come with high APRs, high (and many) fees, and low limits.

These cards are really aimed at consumers with credit so bad that their only other alternative is secured or prepaid credit cards .

Our best card for bad scores is the Surge Mastercard®. The card offers basic liability protection and the option for a higher credit limit after a period of on-time payments. However, the card comes with a lot of fees, a high APR, and a modest limit.

The Credit One Bank® Platinum Visa® for credit rebuilding is worth a try as it is the only card in this group that offers cash back rewards. You can try to prequalify for this card without hurting your credit score. The card has different costs, but offers a relatively low APR and several benefits, including choosing the expiration date of your payment.

My Words

These cards, with low fees, high limits, and generous rewards, can help you get back on track financially. You won’t be sorry if you choose one of these cards because they come with extra perks like travel insurance and purchase protection. So don’t put it off any longer. Begin rebuilding your credit score right away.

If you need more information, do not hesitate contact PowerPACPlus. We hope to share all useful knowledge to every one.

FAQs