What is the best Discover card for fair credit?

A 700+ credit score is needed to get most Discover credit cards, but there’s no minimum credit score needed for a few Discover cards. You can get the Discover it® Secured Credit Card with a bad credit score (below 640). And college students don’t need a credit score, or any credit experience, to get one of Discover’s two student credit cards. But you need at least good credit for all the other offers, including Discover it® Miles and Discover it® Cash Back, two of the most popular options. Some Discover offers listed here are not currently available on WalletHub and may be out of date.... read full answer

If you’re not sure how your credit is doing, you can check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub, the only site where credit scores and reports update daily.

Whether your finances aren’t so great or they’re right on track, you should be able to find a Discover card that works for you. Let’s take a look at Discover’s offers and what score you need to get approved.

Here’s the minimum credit score needed for each Discover card:

• Discover it Secured Credit Card: No minimum score, applicants with bad credit are eligible for approval (below 640).
• Discover it® Student Cash Back: Available to applicants with limited credit (less than 3 years of credit history).
• Discover it® Student chrome: Available to applicants with limited credit (less than 3 years of credit history).
• Discover it Cash Back: Good credit (700+) required.
• NHL® Discover it®: Good credit (700+) required.
• Discover it® chrome: Good credit (700+) required.
• Discover it Miles: Good credit (700+) required.

There aren’t any Discover cards that flat-out require excellent credit, currently. But we recommend a score of at least 700, which is toward the top of the good credit range, for the cards that require 700 credit for approval.

With that being said, it’s not just your credit score you should worry about. For example, Discover will consider other factors, such as how your income compares to your debt, along with your employment status, whether you own or rent your home, how many loans and lines of credit you already have open, and more.

The best Discover card for bad credit is definitely the Discover it® Secured Credit Card. In fact, it’s really the only Discover card that you can count on getting despite a bad credit score. Here’s how it works: When you apply, you place a security deposit of at least $200, which will become your credit line if you’re approved. This refundable deposit acts as collateral for Discover, reducing their risk.... read full answer

But that’s not all you need to know about Discover it® Secured Credit Card. There’s more to learn, both in terms of its benefits and some fine print details.

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card is the best Discover card for bad credit because:

• You won’t pay an annual fee. This card is free to have. There’s a 0% foreign transaction fee. But do keep in mind that you’ll have to temporarily part with at least $200 to make the security deposit.
• There are rewards. It’s unusual for a secured card to have rewards, but the Discover it® Secured Credit Card does. You get 2% cash back at gas stations and restaurants (up to $1,000 spent each quarter combined), and 1% back on all other purchases.
• Credit-building potential is equal to unsecured. There’s no difference in the way secured cards and unsecured cards report information to the credit bureaus.
• You can increase your credit limit. Any time after getting your first monthly statement, you can call Discover at 800-315-1776 to add to your security deposit. Your credit line will increase by the amount of this additional deposit.
• Graduation to unsecured is possible. After you’ve had Discover it® Secured Credit Card for at least 7 months, Discover will review your credit every so often. They might decide to refund your security deposit and transition you to an unsecured card.

So, the Discover it® Secured Credit Card is easy to get and has a lot of benefits. But if you want options with no security deposit and are open to cards from other companies, you can check out the Credit One Bank® NASCAR® Credit Card, the Credit One Bank® Platinum Visa® for Rebuilding Credit and the Indigo® Mastercard® for Less than Perfect Credit. They’re some of the best offers for bad credit.