How can I estimate my Chase Sapphire Reserve approval odds?

The easiest unsecured card to get approved for is the Fingerhut Credit Account. But it won’t suit everyone’s needs. Fingerhut is an online marketplace, and its card can only be used to make purchases on the site. So, while it will give you an unsecured line of credit, it won’t really help you cover emergency expenses.… read full answer

If you’re looking for a card that can be used for anything, the Credit One Bank® Platinum Visa® for Rebuilding Credit is your best bet. You can get approved for it with bad credit. It offers a $300 starting spending limit. And you can use it wherever Visa is accepted.

Those aren’t your only options, though. WalletHub’s editors compared all of the unsecured credit cards in our database of 1,000+ offers. And we selected our favorite easy-to-get offers.

Easiest Unsecured Credit Cards to Get Approved For

• Fingerhut Credit Account: Easiest Overall
• Credit One Bank® Platinum Visa® for Rebuilding Credit: With Rewards
• Capital One® Spark® Classic for Business: For Small Businesses
• Petal® 2 Visa® Credit Card: For Limited Credit
• Deserve® EDU Mastercard for Students: For Students

The easiest unsecured credit cards to get generally work best for minor emergencies. You will only receive a small amount of spending power, after all.

Unsecured credit cards for people with bad credit also tend to be very expensive, charging lots of fees and high interest rates. So if you don’t need a small emergency loan, the best course of action is to improve your credit inexpensively with a secured card. Secured cards are cheaper than unsecured cards, build credit just as effectively, and offer the closest thing you’ll find to guaranteed approval.

To learn more, check out WalletHub's complete list of the year’s easiest credit cards to get approved for​.

The best pre-approved credit cards are really just the top cards that you can see if you pre-qualify for before actually submitting an application. And you can’t check to see if you pre-qualify for one card in particular, at least not directly. Rather, a credit card company will tell you which of its cards you’re pre-approved for. If that happens to include the card you’re targeting, you’ll know your odds of being approved are … read full answerextremely high, should you decide to apply. If your chosen card isn’t listed, there’s still a chance you could get approved, but it’s not a good sign.

Here are the best pre-approved credit cards:

• Cash Back: Citi Double Cash Card
• Travel Rewards: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
• Initial Bonus: Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
• Balance Transfers: Citi Simplicity Card
• 0% Purchases: Amex EveryDay Credit Card
• Fair Credit: Capital One Platinum Credit Card
• Students: Bank of America Travel Rewards credit card for Students
• Bad Credit: Discover it Secured Card - No Annual Fee

Take note, however, that only some credit card companies allow people to check which, if any, cards they’re approved for.

These credit card companies let you check for pre-approval:

• American Express
• Bank of America
• Capital One
• Chase
• Citi
• Discover

Checking for pre-approval is definitely a good idea. It lets you gauge your chances of success before risking a hard pull on your credit. And the better your credit is, the better the credit cards you pre-qualify for will be, too. Your odds of actually getting approved when you apply will also be higher.

That’s where WalletHub’s free daily credit scores and personalized credit analysis can help. You’ll always know exactly where your credit stands and what you need to do to improve it.