5 Best Credit Cards With No Credit Check for 2023
If you have a spotty credit history — or even no credit history — then you may struggle to qualify for a credit card. The vast majority of credit card applications require a credit check, and most credit cards have minimum credit scores required for approval.
Luckily, some credit cards don’t require a credit check, meaning a poor credit score or a limited credit history doesn’t have to hold you back from qualifying. And once you open one of these credit cards, you can use it to boost your credit score and ultimately qualify for even better cards.
What Are the Best Credit Cards With No Credit Check?
If you’re on the lookout for a credit card that doesn’t require a credit check, here are five of the best options:
- Chime Credit Builder Secured Visa
- Tomo Card
- Grow Credit Mastercard
- OpenSky Secured Visa
- First Progress Select Secured Credit Card
Chime Credit Builder Secured Visa
- Best For: Chime customers
- Annual Fee: $0
- APR: N/A
- Security Deposit Required: Yes
- Rewards: None
The Chime Credit Builder Secured Visa® credit card1 is offered by the popular online fintech company Chime®. This card can help you build credit with no credit check or minimum security deposit2 and is best suited for existing Chime account holders or anyone who has considered opening a Chime account.
When you apply for this card, you won’t have to go through a credit check to qualify. Instead, you’ll simply open a Chime checking account and receive a qualifying direct deposit of at least $200 in order to be eligible to apply for this card. Once you open the card account, you can move money from your Chime checking account into your Chime Credit Builder secured account3.
The money in your Credit Builder account is what you can spend on your credit card. There’s no minimum deposit, meaning you can add as much or as little as you want. Then Chime will report your credit activity to the three credit bureaus.
This card has no annual fee. And since you pay your balance off each month, there’s no interest.
Tomo Card
- Best For: Borrowers with high bank account balances
- Annual Fee: $0
- APR: N/A
- Security Deposit Required: No
- Rewards: None
The Tomo credit card is designed to help those with poor or limited credit boost their credit scores. Issued by Community Federal Savings Bank, this card determines your creditworthiness using a proprietary algorithm that relies on your financial history and other sources.
The Tomo credit card has limits ranging from $100 to $10,000. Unlike many credit cards designed for poor-credit borrowers, the card doesn’t require a security deposit.
Tomo requires that you pay your balance in full each month. One of the reasons it doesn’t have to require a credit score or security deposit is that it links to your bank account.
Your spending power will be determined by your bank account balance and other factors. The more bank accounts you link or the more money you have in your bank account, the higher your credit limit.
Grow Credit Mastercard
- Best For: People with many monthly subscriptions
- Annual Fee: $0-$99.99
- APR: N/A
- Security Deposit Required: $17 security deposit for Build Secured plan; no security deposit required for Build, Grow or Accelerate plan
- Rewards: None
The Grow Credit Mastercard is designed to help you boost your credit score using your monthly bills and subscriptions.
Unlike other cards on this list, the Grow Credit Mastercard doesn’t have a credit limit that you can spend however you like. Instead, you use the card to pay certain recurring monthly bills. Grow reports those transactions to the credit bureaus, and your credit history improves.
Because of the limits on how you can spend with your card, the Grow Credit Mastercard is ideal for those who want to boost their credit with a credit card but who don’t necessarily trust themselves to use one responsibly.
It’s worth noting that certain memberships with this card do require a fee ranging from $2.99 to $9.99 per month or $29.99 to $99.99 per year, depending on your desired monthly spending limit and other account perks.
OpenSky Secured Visa
- Best For: Borrowers who want to work their way up to a traditional credit card
- Annual Fee: $35
- APR: 21.64%
- Security Deposit Required: Yes
- Rewards: None
The OpenSky Secured Visa is a secured credit card, meaning you pay a security deposit when you’re approved, and that security deposit acts as your credit limit.
When you open an OpenSky Secured Visa, you’ll have a credit limit — and, therefore, pay a security deposit — of $200. And while that may seem low, you’ll be eligible for a limit increase often as you use your card responsibly. And you won’t have to pay an additional security deposit to increase the limit.
Once you’ve shown OpenSky that you can truly use your credit limit responsibly — often in as little as six months — you’ll be invited to upgrade to the unsecured OpenSky Gold Visa. You’ll get your security deposit back, and you can enjoy the perks of an unsecured credit card.
First Progress Select Secured Credit Card
- Best For: People who want a rewards credit card
- Annual Fee: $39
- APR: 18.49%
- Security Deposit Required: Yes
- Rewards: 1% cash back on payments
Unfortunately, most credit cards that don’t require credit checks don’t allow you to earn rewards. The First Progress secured credit card is an exception. With this card, you’ll get 1% unlimited cash back on payments.
The First Progress secured card requires a refundable security deposit of at least $200 to establish your credit limit. However, if you make your monthly payments on time, First Progress may increase your credit limit without requiring an additional security deposit, for a maximum security deposit of $5,000.
The First Progress secured credit card doesn’t require any credit history to qualify. Additionally, it reports to all three credit bureaus, meaning it can help you boost your credit score.
FAQ
- Can you get a credit card without a credit inquiry?
- Yes, you can get a credit card without a credit inquiry. Unfortunately, most credit cards — even secured cards — require a credit check for approval. However, there are some exceptions, including the cards on this list.
- What is the easiest card to get approved for?
- None of the cards on this list require a credit check, meaning they're all relatively easy to apply for. Because all of the cards on this list should be easy to apply for, you can focus on choosing the card that best fits your spending needs.
- How do you get a credit card with no credit score?
- There are a couple of different ways to qualify for a credit card with no credit score. First, you can opt for one of the cards on this list that doesn't require a credit check. Additionally, you can apply for a secured credit card that requires a credit check but that has no minimum credit score for approval.
- Can I get a credit card with a 500 credit score?
- There are plenty of credit cards you can qualify for with a 500 credit score, including credit cards that don't require credit checks and secured credit cards.
Rates are subject to change; unless otherwise noted, rates are updated periodically. All other information on accounts is accurate as of Feb. 28, 2023.
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1 The Chime Credit Builder Visa® Card is issued by Stride Bank, N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used everywhere Visa credit cards are accepted.
2 Money added to Credit Builder will be held in a secured account as collateral for your Credit Builder Visa card, which means you can spend up to this amount on your card. This is money you can use to pay off your charges at the end of every month.
3 To apply for Credit Builder, you must have received a single qualifying direct deposit of $200 or more to your Checking Account. The qualifying direct deposit must be from your employer, payroll provider, gig economy payer or benefits payer by automated clearing house (ACH) deposit or Original Credit Transaction (OCT). Bank ACH transfers, Pay Anyone transfers, verification or trial deposits from financial institutions, peer-to-peer transfers from services such as PayPal, Cash App or Venmo, mobile check deposits, cash loads or deposits, one-time direct deposits, such as tax refunds and other similar transactions, and any deposit to which Chime deems to not be a qualifying direct deposit are not qualifying direct deposits.
