Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit in 2026

You might not realize that credit cards for bad credit are even available. Typically, the cards advertised with amazing rewards and perks are within reach only if you have good credit. The good news is that having a bad or limited credit history doesn’t have to stop you from getting a credit card.

Owning a credit card makes shopping more convenient and gives you the opportunity to improve your credit score through responsible use. To that end, this article answers top questions about credit cards for consumers with poor credit.

FICO scores range from 300 to 850. A credit score of below 580 is considered bad, according to the FICO scale. Approximately 16% of Americans have bad credit.

Considering that 16% of consumers represent millions with bad credit, it’s no surprise that credit cards are offered to this significant market.

Consumers who fall into this group have experienced financial problems, including late or missed payments, collections, account write-offs, bankruptcies, and other negative events. When you have bad credit, loans are expensive and hard to access, and credit cards available to you offer basic features and low credit limits.

Thankfully, you can rebuild your credit by adopting creditworthy behavior, including:

• Making timely payments: You can’t improve your credit rating if you don’t pay your bills on time. Timely payments are recorded on your credit reports and should help your score rise within six to 12 months.
• Pay down existing credit card debt: Your credit utilization ratio (CUR), which is the sum of all your credit card balances divided by your total available credit, is an important factor in the calculation of your FICO credit score. CURs above 30% hurt your score, but you can improve your score by reducing your CUR below 20%.
• Fix your credit reports: Erroneous and incomplete information on your credit reports can hurt your credit score. You have the right to dispute and correct mistakes, either by yourself or with the help of a credit repair company. Your score should improve within a couple of months when inaccurate negative information is removed from your credit reports.

Even though major negative items remain on your credit reports for up to 10 years, the impact they have on your credit score diminishes after the first two to three years.

As highlighted above, certain credit cards are tailored specifically for individuals with bad credit. If you’re in this situation, you have three types of cards to choose from:

• Unsecured cards: These are traditional credit cards. An unsecured card does not require you to deposit any cash to open an account.
• Secured cards: These cards require you to deposit cash to secure your credit limit. Secured cards are available to virtually everyone, and can serve as a first step when rebuilding your credit.
• Prepaid cards: These are more like debit cards, except that they are backed by cash deposits rather than your checking account. Prepaid debit cards look like regular debit cards and are not subject to penalties for late payments or over-limit spending.

You can get an unsecured credit card despite a low credit rating if you meet certain criteria.

If you choose a secured card, you may be automatically considered for an unsecured card by making on-time payments for six or more months in a row. When you close a secured credit card account, the credit card company will refund your deposit (minus any outstanding balance and fees).

Unsecured credit cards for bad credit represent a risky proposition to issuers. A bad credit score indicates you’ve had financial problems in the past, giving issuers reason to worry you won’t pay your bills.

To reduce their risk, issuers of credit cards for bad credit implement certain unique features, including:

• High fees: By charging you high fees, issuers receive cash flows that can compensate them for some of their losses if you default on your card. These can include setup, annual, and maintenance fees.
• High APRs: Many of these cards have an interest rate in excess of 25%, sometimes as high as 35%. These high interest rates generate a cash cushion against default.
• Low credit limit: By keeping your initial credit limit low (often to $200 to $300), the issuer limits the amount it may have to write off if you default on your card payments. Eventually, you may be able to qualify for a higher credit line if you pay your bills on time.
• Scant rewards and benefits: These cards are usually bare-bones, lacking generous rewards and new cardmember promotions, such as signup bonuses or a 0% introductory APR period. By omitting expensive perks, the issuer can better afford to accept high-risk cardholders.
• No balance transfers: Many of these cards do not permit balance transfers, and virtually none offer a 0% introductory APR for a balance transfer.
• Expensive cash advance: Cards that permit a cash advance charge a high interest rate as well as a fee for each transaction.
• Expensive penalties: Expect to pay a penalty fee (often exceeding $30) each time your monthly payment is late or you spend more than your credit limit. You also may be assigned a high penalty APR for an indefinite period.
• Slow credit line increases: It may take over a year to earn a credit limit increase. Some cards in this group may completely prohibit credit limit increases.

These are the most straightforward cards in the credit card world. Typically, you’ll want to upgrade to better cards once you raise your credit score above 600.

Nowadays, most issuers let you prequalify for a credit card before applying. Prequalification is useful because:

• It immediately tells you whether you are eligible for the card. Prequalification doesn’t guarantee your application will be approved, but failing to prequalify rules out approval.
• You won’t incur a hard inquiry on your credit report. Hard inquiries can reduce your credit score by five to 10 points. The prequalification process usually involves a soft inquiry that has no impact on your score.

To prequalify for a card, compare the cards listed above and select the card that most closely matches your needs. Clicking on the link will transfer you to the credit card’s prequalification page, where you fill out an online request form with your basic identification, employment, and housing information.

Submit the application form after completing it and expect an immediate approval decision.

Before applying, read and understand all the rate and term disclosures that the card company must provide. Should you choose to apply and be approved, you can expect to receive your new credit card in the mail in seven to 10 days.

If your card has a setup fee and/or annual fee, your credit limit will be initially reduced by the total fee amount. After you pay these fees, you’ll revert to a higher credit line.

Secured credit cards and prepaid debit cards are easy to get, no matter how low your credit score. These cards are collateralized by cash and don’t involve the credit card company providing you with any unsecured credit. Since there is virtually no risk, issuers can afford to offer these cards to anyone who can deposit cash.

Unsecured cards can be tricky if your credit score is low (or nonexistent), but surprisingly, a few types of unsecured bad credit cards are fairly straightforward to secure.

A cobranded store credit card is also fairly easy to get, especially one that can only be used at the issuing store.

Prepaid cards, which resemble debit cards, are extremely easy to obtain because you don’t need a financial institution account to get them. Because these are not credit cards, there are no interest charges, no late fees, and no overdraft fees.

Several general-purpose unsecured credit cards are specifically designed for consumers with bad credit. These cards offer rapid prequalification that won’t impact your credit score.

A 500 credit score is clearly not good. Even though a 500 score creates some challenges, it does not necessarily disqualify you from getting an unsecured credit card.

But before you apply for one, we urge you to consider whether you’d be better served by a secured credit card. Relative to a secured credit card, an unsecured credit card for bad credit will:

• charge higher fees
• have more types of fees
• charge a higher APR
• offer meager or no rewards
• offer meager benefits
• have a low credit limit

Nonetheless, we recognize that many consumers can’t shell out a $200 or $300 deposit for a secured card, which is why they apply for unsecured credit cards instead.

However, if you have a 500 credit score and don’t want to apply for traditional credit, a prepaid card may be an alternative.

Your credit profile is reflected in the credit scores the three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) assign to you. The major ways you build your credit scores are by paying your bills on time and keeping your debt balances low.

Naturally, your creditworthy behavior won’t improve your credit if a major credit bureau doesn’t know about it.

Therefore, you want to choose credit cards that report your payments to all three of the credit bureaus. This is normal practice — most credit cards report activity to the three bureaus.

On the other hand, prepaid and debit cards do not send information to the credit bureaus, so don’t expect them to help boost your credit.

Credit card companies send your activity information to credit bureaus monthly, and it usually takes several months for your creditworthy behavior to be reflected in a higher score. In other words, paying your bills on time and keeping debt levels low will take time to help your credit score.

Here are some suggestions for faster results:

• Fix your credit reports: Negative information, such as delinquencies, collections, defaults, and bankruptcies, hurt your credit score. If any negative information on your reports is incorrect, you can improve your score by removing it, either by yourself or with the help of a credit repair company. Credit scores rebound quickly when inaccurate negative information is scrubbed from your credit reports.
• Become an authorized user: You become an authorized user when another person adds you to their credit card account. You get a copy of the card with your name on it, allowing you to make purchases. You aren’t legally obligated to make payments on the account (although you’ll likely ruin your relationship with the primary cardholder if you don’t pay your share). To become an authorized user, you don’t need to qualify for your own credit card, which means you can start rebuilding your credit before getting your own card. Therefore, becoming an authorized user can accelerate your credit recovery.
• Get a secured credit card: Many secured cards let you open accounts with a large security deposit, up to $5,000 in some cases. That kind of credit limit is unlikely on unsecured cards for consumers with bad credit. A higher limit allows for more activity to be reported each month while helping to reduce your credit utilization ratio by increasing your total authorized credit. A lower CUR (below 30%) will help your credit score, so the new secured card is an immediate positive — as long as you don’t rack up a large balance on it.
• Ask for a higher credit limit: This is another way to reduce your CUR. As such, it should help your credit score quickly, usually within a month or two. Be careful not to use any of the additional credit line, as that will once again raise your CUR. In general, you will benefit most if you can get your CUR below 20%.

Paying your bills on time accounts for 35% of your credit score, and maintaining a low debt level is responsible for another 30%. These two actions alone are more important than anything else you can do, so they deserve your primary attention as you work to increase your credit score.

Yes, many subprime credit cards offer rewards for consumers, primarily in the form of cash back. Some unsecured cards offer 1% cash back on every purchase, while a few secured cards pay higher rates of up to 5% in select purchase categories.

But other cards for consumers with bad credit offer no rewards and few benefits. Most offer $0 liability protection and some do not charge an annual fee, or if they do, they may waive the fee for the first year. Virtually all report your payments to all three credit bureaus so you can rebuild your credit score by paying your bills on time.

The only card accounts that require a deposit are secured credit cards and prepaid cards. The deposit works differently for these two card types:

• Secured cards: The deposit is placed into a collateral account maintained by the card issuer. Normally, the money simply sits in the account — in fact, it probably won’t even earn you any interest. However, the card issuer can tap into your collateral account if you miss a credit card payment or exceed the credit limit. For virtually all secured cards, the deposit amount is equal to the card’s credit limit. However, the Secured Mastercard® from Capital One gives you a $200 starting credit limit for as little as $49. The deposit, minus any outstanding balance, is refundable when you close a secured credit card account or graduate to an unsecured version of the card.
• Prepaid cards: Your deposit goes into the card account. This is the money you spend when you use a prepaid card. When that money is gone, your prepaid card won’t work — you have to add more money to the card account.

Ultimately, the best credit card for bad credit is one you can qualify for, afford, and use responsibly. By making on-time payments and keeping your balance low, the right card can help you build a stronger credit profile over time.