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Credit One Bank® Unsecured Visa® for Rebuilding Credit Review
If you have less-than-perfect credit and you’re shopping around for an unsecured card, the Credit One Bank® Unsecured Visa® for Rebuilding Credit is an excellent option that helps you to rebuild or establish credit while enjoying the privileges that come with the Visa network. Pre-qualification for this card takes less than a minute when you apply online, and it won’t impact your credit score.
Although there is an annual fee for most cardholders, Credit One Bank® Unsecured Visa® for Rebuilding Credit is one of the few unsecured credit cards for bad credit to offer what premium cards have — namely, a rewards program. According to the Credit One website, cardholders will receive 1% cashback on eligible gas, groceries, cable and satellite TV services, mobile phone service and internet. The reward comes in the form of a statement credit, which can help to make the annual fee more affordable. This is a great perk for people wanting to minimize the expense of credit card ownership.
What we like about the Credit One Bank® Unsecured Visa® for Rebuilding Credit
- The card reports to the three main credit bureaus, helping you rebuild your credit faster than ever
- You can track your credit journey online by checking out free Experian credit reports
- You get to participate in a cashback reward program that gives cardholders 1% back on eligible purchases
- You’ll enjoy zero fraud liability, which is great if your card gets stolen
- There are regular reviews for credit line increases
Things to consider
- There are different fee structures for this card, and you won’t know where you stand until you are approved
- The annual fee is applied immediately to your credit line, limiting the amount you can charge
- The initial credit line is only $300
- There is a hefty cash advance fee at all approved card levels
- Some cardholders will have no grace period on purchases made with the card, meaning that their purchases will immediately start accruing interest
Credit One Bank® Unsecured Visa® for Rebuilding Credit details
The Credit One Bank® Unsecured Visa® for Rebuilding Credit gives people with bad credit access to small credit lines — in this case, only $300. If your credit is poor but you want to rebuild credit, you may have to settle for the annual fee and interest rate that goes along with this unsecured card.
It’s important that you read the fine print once you are approved for this card to know what your annual fee is. It will be taken from the credit limit immediately before you make purchases, so it could be easy to go over the credit limit. You’ll also increase your credit utilization ratio, which you want to ideally keep lower than 30%. The key to building credit with this card is to pay down the balance consistently right after making purchases.
Fee details
There’s a major wild card with the Credit One Bank® Unsecured Visa® for Rebuilding Credit — you won’t know your fees until your application is approved (not pre-qualified). Some cardholders pay no annual fee, while others pay up to $99. The highest level of the annual fee will cut your credit line down by almost a third before you even make a single purchase, so it’s important to read your card details carefully.
In addition to the annual fee, the Credit One Bank® Unsecured Visa® for Rebuilding Credit charges either $5 or 8%, $10 or 3% or $10 or 5% (whichever is greater) on cash advances. However you look at this, the cash advance fees are high. The late fee and returned payment fees are both up to $39. You’ll also pay a 3% or $1 fee for each purchase on any foreign transactions.
How does it compare to other credit cards for rebuilding credit?
Most unsecured cards for rebuilding credit are vehicles to earning back trust with lenders. Milestone® Gold Mastercard® and Indigo® Platinum Mastercard® give cardholders some of the perks that come with the Mastercard network, but little else. Credit One Bank® Unsecured Visa® for Rebuilding Credit has comparable fees and APR rates, but it also lets cardholders earn cash back rewards in the form of a statement credit.
| Card | Ongoing Purchase APR | Annual Fee | Intro Bonus | Credit Needed | Key features |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credit One Bank® Unsecured Visa® for Rebuilding Credit | 17.99% to 23.99% Variable | $0 - $99 | Cardholders who qualify for the $99 annual fee will receive a slight rate reduction the first year | Poor |
|
| Milestone® Gold Mastercard® | 24.90% | $35-$99 | No cash advance fee for the first year | Poor |
|
| Indigo® Platinum Mastercard® | 24.90% | $0-$99 | None | Poor |
|
Too long, didn’t read?
Credit One Bank® Unsecured Visa® for Rebuilding Credit is one of the best unsecured cards for rebuilding credit. It offers a rewards program with 1% back in the form of a statement credit on eligible purchases. The fees can be high depending on your creditworthiness, so you need to read the fine print and commit to paying your balance either in full each month or immediately after making a purchase.
Editorial Note: Compensation does not influence our recommendations. However, we may earn a commission on sales from the companies featured in this post. To view our disclosures, click here. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by our advertisers. Reasonable efforts are made to present accurate info, however all information is presented without warranty. Consult our advertiser’s page for terms & conditions.
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Methodology
The SimpleScore is a proprietary scoring metric we use to objectively compare products and services at The Simple Dollar.
For every review, our editorial team:
- Identifies five measurable aspects to compare across each brand
- Determines the rating criteria for each aspect score
- Averages the five aspect scores to produce a single SimpleScore
Here’s a breakdown of the five aspect scores and their rating criteria for our review of the best credit monitoring services of 2020.
Why do some brands have different SimpleScores on different pages?
To ensure the SimpleScore is as helpful and accurate as possible, we developed unique criteria for every category we compare at The Simple Dollar. Since most brands offer a variety of financial solutions, their products and services will score differently depending on what we’re scoring on a given page.
However, it’s also possible for brands to have different SimpleScores across multiple pages on The Simple Dollar. For instance, if we compare Experian’s ID theft monitoring services using SimpleScore, it scores a 4 out of 5. However, if we apply our SimpleScore methodology for credit monitoring services, Experian scores a 4.4 out of 5. Each unique criteria results in separate SimpleScores for multiple brands based on what we’re comparing.
Questions about our methodology?
Email Hayley Armstrong at hayley@thesimpledollar.com.
Basic plan price
We award brands who have lower monthly costs for credit monitoring services with higher scores in our methodology.
Premium plan price
We award brands who have lower monthly costs for credit monitoring services with higher scores in our methodology.
Perks
Who doesn’t like a nice perk? We awarded brands with higher scores if they offered perks to customers, such as free trials, family plans, discounts for annual billing and more than two pricing tiers.
Customer support
The SimpleScore system rewards brands that have multiple channels of support so customers can contact representatives in a variety of way.
Mobile app rating
We compared brands based on their mobile app ratings as an average of Google Play and iOS App Store ratings.
