What are the best unsecured credit cards for fair credit?

Easy credit cards for fair credit are cards that even people with limited credit or bad credit can get. There are plenty of credit cards that require fair credit, at a minimum. But if easy approval is what you’re after, you’ll want to exceed the card’s requirements rather than just meeting them.… read full answer

Checking for pre-approval will give you a good idea of which credit cards will be easiest to get with your fair credit score. If you get pre-approved for a credit card, you have about a 90% chance of a successful application. Most major credit card companies let you check for pre-approval, including Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Discover, and Wells Fargo.

That said, I’ll highlight a handful of specific cards that offer great terms and tend to be pretty easy for people with fair credit to get.

Easy Credit Cards for Fair Credit:

• QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card. The annual fee is $39. You’ll get 1.5% cash back on all purchases. The card requires limited credit.
• Capital One Platinum Credit Card. There’s no annual fee or rewards. You can get the card with limited history.
• Capital One Secured Mastercard. This card doesn’t charge an annual fee. The initial deposit will be $49, $99 or $200, depending on your credit worthiness. There are no rewards, and you can get approved with bad credit.
• Discover it Secured Card. There’s a $0 annual fee and the minimum security deposit is $200. You’ll get 2% cash back on your first $1,000 spent per quarter on gas and at restaurants. You get 1% everywhere else. You can get this card with bad credit.
• Target Credit Card. There’s a $0 annual fee. You save 5% on Target and Target.com purchases. Free shipping on most Target.com purchases. This card requires fair credit.

It’s not hard to find easy credit cards for fair credit, even ones with rewards. But it is hard to find 0% intro rates for financing. So it’s probably best to pay off your balance in full each month. And if you pay it on time consistently, you should see your credit score start moving up toward the good credit range.

The Fingerhut Credit Account is the easiest unsecured card to get approved for. 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® Visa® Credit Card 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.

Here are the easiest unsecured credit cards to get:

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