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Credit scores, credit reports, disputes, monitoring, and building or repairing credit. Know what moves your score and raise it before you need to borrow.
Get the Eagle Ascend™ Credit Card if you’re a USAA member building credit and want cash back with no annual fee or deposit. It pays 2% on your top eligible category each month. If your credit is already solid, apply for the Eagle Adapt, which pays 3% on the same categories up to $3,000 a quarter.
Get the Current Build Card if you’re rebuilding credit and already bank with Current or will move a paycheck there. Applying takes no credit check, there’s no annual fee or interest, and Current reports each payment to all three credit bureaus. If you’d rather not open a Current account, pick a secured card backed by a refundable deposit.
Get The secured Self Visa® Credit Card if you want a card that doesn’t check your credit and can put down a $100 deposit, at once or over time. Its $25 annual fee starts in the second year. With $200 to spare, choose a no-fee secured card whose application doesn’t affect your score.
Get the opensky® Plus Secured Visa® Credit Card if no major issuer will approve you and you can spare a $300 refundable deposit. It skips the credit check and has no annual fee, unlike the regular opensky card, which charges $35 a year. If a major issuer approves you, take its no-fee secured card instead.
Get the Varo Visa® Believe Credit Card to rebuild credit if your paycheck already lands at Varo or you’re willing to move it there. It skips the credit check, charges no annual fee or interest, and reports your payments to all three credit bureaus, but it spends only money you move in from your Varo Bank Account.
Good credit in your home country can still count in the U.S. If home is the United Kingdom or Canada, Chase can use your credit history there. If you’ve held a card from American Express itself abroad for at least three months, Amex can use that account. Check both before you settle for a card that needs a deposit.
Get the Tilt Motion VISA® Credit Card if you have little or no credit history and will pay your balance in full every month. It charges no annual fee or deposit and can approve you without a credit score. Skip it if you’d carry a balance, since its interest rate runs 29.49% to 34.49%.
Skip the Revvi Card if you can spare a refundable deposit for a no-fee secured card. Its fees cost $145 to $220 in the first year, and its 1% cash back on payments won’t come close to covering them. Apply only if every secured card has turned you down.
Get the First Access Visa Card only if you need a card now and have been turned down for every secured card, the kind backed by a refundable deposit. Its required fees come to $145 to $220 the first year, with $95 due before the account opens. If you can spare the deposit, open a no-fee secured card instead.
Skip the Total Visa® Card unless secured card issuers have turned you down. Its $95 program fee and its first-year annual fee of $50 to $125 are charged before you buy anything. Open a no-fee secured card instead, since its deposit comes back to you.
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