Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit in May 2024

A bad credit score — a FICO score under 579 or a VantageScore under 600 — can happen for many reasons and negatively affect your finances. Defaulting on loans, missing credit card payments or even opening too many credit lines can negatively impact your credit score. This all could impact your ability to get new lines of credit, get good terms on loans, purchase a house or rent an apartment.

People who have made these credit mistakes in the past may find it a bit difficult to qualify for a more typical, unsecured credit card or credit cards that come with a lot of perks and rewards. Credit cards designed for people with bad credit often have low barriers of entry for approval in terms of credit scores. Choose a standout card in the category, focus on using it responsibly (via on-time payments and low credit utilization) and, ultimately, you should be able to “graduate” to a better credit card.

Causes and effects of bad credit

Having bad credit can make many financial products less favorable or inaccessible, which can make it harder to increase your score. Often the cause is:

• Missed payments: Since your payment history is the largest influence on your score, missing payments on your cards or loans will have a significant impact.
• High credit utilization: If you’re using the majority of your available credit, creating a high credit utilization ratio, it might signal to lenders that you’re relying too heavily on credit and could be at a heightened risk of default.
• Low credit age: Any time you apply for new credit, you reduce your credit age, which could lower your credit score. If you close a credit card, you could reduce your average credit account age and cause an increase in your credit utilization.
• No credit mix: Relying too heavily on one type of credit may have negative impacts on your score. Having a balanced mix of different credit products shows lenders you know how to manage multiple types of credit. 

Here are the main ways bad credit can affect you:

The two types of credit cards most commonly available to people with bad credit are secured cards and unsecured cards. Both of these options have notable advantages and disadvantages, primarily surrounding affordability, and deciding which one is best for you may come down to a few key differences.

Using a credit card for bad credit is an opportunity to improve your credit profile, but it’s important to know what to look for in this kind of credit card. Here are some key factors to consider:

• Cost: The typical minimum deposit for a secured credit card is $200, but some secured cards have even lower deposit requirements. But an upfront and refundable security deposit could even be more cost-effective than an unsecured credit card for bad credit with an annual fee.
• Plan to upgrade: The best credit cards for bad credit offer chances to graduate or upgrade to a better card with better terms. If you practice good credit habits, your card issuer may refund your security deposit on a secured card or increase your credit limit.
• Consider rewards: If you can get a card for bad credit that offers rewards, only spend within those bonus categories to maximize your earnings and keep your spending manageable. Then plan to pay off those purchases immediately.

What people say about credit cards for bad credit

Having bad credit can be a burden and seem like a hopeless situation.

People with bad credit turn to communities like r/PersonalFinance and r/PovertyFinance on Reddit and MyFICO Forums to find solutions, which isn’t a bad idea. Crowd-sourcing encouragement and advice may help you find the strategy you need to get your credit back on track.

And while it’s not impossible to improve your score, it just takes patience and being realistic about the root cause of your credit. “It takes awhile, usually best case scenario about a full year to get your score solidly in a higher bracket [sic],” one user commented in the r/PovertyFinance subreddit.*

And Bankrate expert Nouri Zarrugh agrees — this is the same advice he gives friends when they ask how to raise their credit scores.

“Bad credit is just a starting point,” he says. “Whenever friends ask me for advice on improving their score, my go-to advice is ‘slow and steady wins the race.’”

Depending on what’s affecting your score, it can take three months to more than six years for derogatory marks to fall off your reports and stop bringing down your score. But don’t lose hope. One regular contributor on MyFICOForums recently shared their story of how online communities helped them improve their score from the mid-500s to mid-800s over 12 years.

“I didn’t have hope for a long time but found solace reading about other’s situations and learning tremendously from them and the collective knowledge here. I found addressing issues instead of ignoring them is imperative. Cutting spending and being honest about the situation is critical. Sucking up your pride and doing things you may not want to … dramatically improves your future.”

— MTSN, MyFICO Forum user*

If you’ve determined a credit card is your next best step for fixing your credit, users also suggest taking advantage of prequalification and preapproval tools to help you identify which issuers will accept your bad credit.

“Start with a low-cost card, only use it for small purchases and pay it off on time and in full, every time,” Zarrugh says. “Just stick to that, and you can see your score rise considerably.”

*The quotes and citations included on this page have been verified by our editorial team and are accurate as of the posting date. Be sure to check the issuer's website/terms and conditions for all up to date content. Outlinked content may contain views and opinions that do not reflect the views and opinions of Bankrate.

Looking for a particular type of credit card for bad credit?

Still unsure if a credit card is right for you even if you have bad credit? Check out our Credit Card Spender Type Tool, where you can get personalized credit card recommendations based on your credit score, spending habits and daily needs.

Have more questions for our credit cards editors? Feel free to send us an email, find us on Facebook, or Tweet us @Bankrate.

For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply. 

*The information about the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Secured Credit Card has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.

How we assess the best credit cards for people with bad credit

When evaluating the best cards for building credit, we consider a mix of factors, including how cards score in our proprietary card rating system and whether cards offer features that make it easy to build credit history while minimizing costs.

We analyzed over 50 of the most popular cards designed for people with no credit history, bad credit or a fair credit score and rated each based on its cost, APR, credit-building features and more to determine whether it belonged in this month’s roundup.

Here are some of the key factors that we considered and how they’re factored into our card ratings: