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Best First Credit Cards
WalletHub experts track 1,500+ offers to help you get the right first credit card to build credit
Getting your first credit card is a great idea because using a credit card responsibly is the easiest way to build a good credit score. The best credit cards for first-timers have annual fees as low as $0, high approval odds for inexperienced applicants, and monthly reporting to the three major credit bureaus.… show more… show more
Best First Credit Cards of February 2023
FILTER CREDIT CARDS FOR FIRST TIMERS
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Capital One Platinum Credit Card Capital One Platinum Credit Card

- No annual fee
- Available to people with limited credit
- Free credit-score access
- No foreign transaction fee
- No rewards
- High regular APR
- No reduced introductory rates
Petal® 2 Visa® Credit Card Petal® 2 Visa® Credit Card

- No membership fees
- No foreign fee
- Qualify with limited or no credit history
- Does not require security deposit
- No rewards bonus
- No balance transfers allowed
Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card

- No annual or monthly fees
- Starting credit line $200
- Great for credit-building
- No rewards
- Higher-than-average interest rate
Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card

- 1.5% cash back on all purchases
- Available to people with limited or fair credit
- No foreign fee
- $39 annual fee
- Above-average regular APR
Discover it® Secured Credit Card Discover it® Secured Credit Card

- No annual or monthly fees & No fees for account opening
- Up to 2% cash back
- First-year rewards doubled
- Relatively low minimum deposit
- High regular APR
Reflex® Platinum Mastercard® Reflex® Platinum Mastercard®

- Qualify with limited or no credit history
- Does not require security deposit
- High membership fees
- High regular APR
- Foreign fee
First Digital Mastercard® First Digital Mastercard®

- Qualify with limited or no credit history
- Does not require security deposit
- One-time fees
- High Regular APR
- Foreign fee
Capital One Quicksilver Secured Cash Rewards Credit Card Capital One Quicksilver Secured Cash Rewards Credit Card

- Great rewards
- No annual fee
- Relatively low minimum deposit
- Qualify with limited credit history
- High interest rate
Petal® 1 Visa® Credit Card Petal® 1 Visa® Credit Card

- No membership fees
- No foreign fee
- Qualify with limited or no credit history
- Does not require security deposit
- No rewards
- High regular APR
OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card

- Reasonable $35 annual fee
- $200 minimum deposit
- 3% foreign transaction fee
WalletHub's Research
Why People Trust WalletHub
Unlike other sites that only promote cards they're paid by, WalletHub's editors focus on finding the best cards. WalletHub makes it easy to find the best first credit card.
Our picks for the best credit cards for fair credit in 2023
Capital One Platinum Credit Card
Why We Like It: The Capital One Platinum Credit Card is the best first credit card because it has a $0 annual fee and offers high approval odds to people with limited or no credit history. Capital One Platinum does not require a security deposit.
What We Don’t Like: This card does not offer rewards. It also has a fairly high interest rate for balances carried from billing period to billing period.
Who Should Get It: Apply for Capital One Platinum if you have limited or no credit history and you want your first credit card to build your credit at a low cost.
Alternatives to Consider: The Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card offers rewards but charges an annual fee. The Petal® 2 Visa® Credit Card offers rewards and no annual fee.
OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card
Why We Like It: The OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card is a good option for first-timer credit card applicants who are especially concerned about having a credit card company review their credit history when they apply. This could be the case if you have negative marks on your credit report from past mistakes with other financial products, for example. But that’s not a problem with the OpenSky Secured Card, as there’s no credit check when you apply.
In addition, the OpenSky Card reports account information to the credit bureaus monthly, meaning it will help you build credit if you pay the bills on time.
What We Don’t Like: You have to place a security deposit of at least $200 and pay an annual fee of $35.
Who Should Get It: Consider applying for OpenSky if you’re looking for your first credit card after previously damaging your credit.
Alternatives to Consider: The First Progress Platinum Elite Mastercard® Secured Credit Card is another credit card with no credit check, but it has a $29 annual fee.
Discover it® Secured Credit Card
Why We Like It: The Discover it® Secured Credit Card is relatively easy to get, even for first-timers. Plus, the Discover it Secured Credit Card is great for building credit because it reports account information to the major credit bureaus each month, has a $0 annual fee and rewards cardholders with 1 - 2% cash back on purchases.
What We Don’t Like: This card requires a refundable security deposit of at least $200. The amount you put down becomes your spending limit.
Who Should Get It: Consider applying for the Discover it Secured Credit Card if you’re looking for either your first credit card ever or your first credit card after previously making some mistakes with credit and you want to earn rewards on purchases.
Alternatives to Consider: The Capital One Quicksilver Secured Cash Rewards Credit Card offers very good rewards and reports account information to all three major credit bureaus.
Deserve® EDU Mastercard for Students
Why We Like It: The Deserve® EDU Mastercard for Students is a good first credit card for international students with no credit, as it does not require such applicants to provide a Social Security number on the application. That’s not the only thing to like about the offer, either. The Deserve EDU Card also gives 1% cash back on purchases and has a $0 annual fee.
What We Don’t Like: If you carry a balance from month to month, interest charges will cost you more than rewards save you.
Who Should Get It: Consider applying for Deserve EDU if you’re a college student with enough income to afford the monthly bill payments.
Alternatives to Consider: You can compare WalletHub’s picks for the best student credit cards to confirm you’re getting the right first card for your needs.
Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card
Why We Like It: The Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card is one of the best first-time credit cards with rewards, especially for applicants who plan to use the card every day and spend a decent amount in doing so. It gives unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases, at a minimum.
What We Don’t Like: The QuicksilverOne Card charges a $39 annual fee and has a rather high regular APR, 29.74% (V).
Who Should Get It: Consider applying for Capital One QuicksilverOne if you plan to charge at least $2,600 per year to the card and pay the bill in full monthly.
Alternatives to Consider: The Petal® 2 Visa® Credit Card is another good first credit card with rewards, and it doesn’t charge an annual fee.
Petal® 2 Visa® Credit Card
Why We Like It: The Petal 2 Visa Credit Card is a good first-time credit card because it is available to people with limited or no credit, has a $0 annual fee, and gives 1 - 1.5% cash back on eligible purchases. It may not be the single most rewarding card available to newcomers, but it’s certainly in the running. And it’s definitely a good choice for a first-timer’s main objective: building credit at a low cost.
What We Don’t Like: The card’s regular APR ranges from 17.24% to 31.24% (V).
Who Should Get It: Consider applying for the Petal 2 Card if you want to earn rewards on purchases and you plan to pay your bill on time and in full every month.
Alternatives to Consider: The Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card has better rewards early on but also charges an annual fee.
Final Thoughts & Comparison
Your goal in shopping for your first credit card, once you turn 18 and can qualify for your own account, should be to find an offer with low fees and approval requirements that you can comfortably meet. So WalletHub’s editors compared hundreds of credit cards in search of deals fitting that description. Below, you can compare our picks for the year’s best first credit cards for 18-year-olds (and up) in a few key categories.
Best First Credit Cards Comparison
Credit Card | Best For | Annual Fee |
Capital One Platinum Credit Card | Winner | $0 |
OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card | No Credit Check | $35 |
Discover it® Secured Credit Card | Good Approval Odds | $0 |
Deserve® EDU Mastercard for Students | No SSN | $0 |
Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card | Cash Back | $39 |
Petal® 2 Visa® Credit Card | Rewards & No Fee | $0 |
If you’d rather do your own homework than rely on our editors’ picks, the following tips will help guide you to a great first credit card.
Tips on how to pick your first credit card
- Check your credit score. If you have no prior credit experience, you won’t have a credit score. So you can focus on cards designed for people with limited or no credit. But you will if you’ve used credit in the past, even as an authorized user. And how good (or bad) your resulting score is will dictate what cards you should consider.
- Get a student card if you can. The best first credit card for students is definitely one branded for student use. College student credit cards tend to have the best terms of all the cards available to people with limited or no credit. And if you have an active college or university email address, you’ll be able to qualify for one.
- Focus on low fees. The best feature a first credit card can have is no annual fee. Most first credit cards simply don’t offer enough rewards or interest savings for paying a fee to make sense. So you’re better off saving your money for bill payments.
- Take advantage of existing relationships. A great place to get your first credit card is the bank or credit union that you already have a banking relationship with, as that could make it easier to get approved. Your personal relationships could also help you become an authorized user on a friend’s or family member’s account in order to boost your credit-building efforts. However, the rewards, interest rates and fees that your first credit card offers are still more important than where exactly you get it.
- Try to apply just once. Applying for numerous credit cards within a short period of time can hurt your credit score. So don’t apply in bunches or for a card that requires much better credit than you currently have.
- Get a card with no credit check if you’re rejected. If you don’t get approved for your first choice, consider simply placing a refundable deposit on a secured credit card that won’t check your credit history when you apply.
So don't drag your heels when it comes to applying for your first credit card, or think your job is over once you’ve opened it. One of the best ways to learn about credit is to simply watch how your credit score changes over time in accordance with your spending and payment habits. And WalletHub is the best place to do so, as it is the only site that offers free credit scores and full credit reports that are updated on a daily basis. Your free WalletHub account will also provide personalized grades for each component of your credit score and customized recommendations for credit-card upgrades when the time comes.
How we picked the best first credit cards
To identify the best first credit card for different types of first-time credit card users, WalletHub’s editors regularly compare more than 1,500 credit card offers based on their approval requirements, fees, rewards, interest rates, and credit-reporting practices. This enables us to find the best first-time credit cards with rewards, no annual fee, high approval odds and more. Some cards are issued by WalletHub partners, but advertiser status does not affect WalletHub’s editors’ picks in any way. Selections are made based on cardholder savings.
The competition
There are lots of really good first credit cards offers on the market right now. The following offers didn’t quite make the cut for our editors’ best-card selections, but they can still save cardholders a lot of money.
Info | ![]() Capital One Quicksilver Secured Cash Rewards Credit Card | ![]() Petal® 1 Visa® Credit Card | ![]() OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card |
---|---|---|---|
Annual Fee | $0 | $0 | $35 |
Bonus Offer | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Rewards Rate | 1.5 - 5% Cash Back | N/A | N/A |
Purchase Intro APR | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Transfer Intro APR | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Regular APR | 29.74% (V) | 24.24% - 33.74% (V) | 21.64% (V) |
Editors' Rating | 5 | 4 | 4 |
Details, Rates & Fees | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More |
Sources
WalletHub actively maintains a database of 1,500+ credit card offers, from which we select the best first credit cards for different applicants as well as derive market-wide takeaways and trends. The underlying data is compiled from credit card company websites or provided directly by the credit card issuers. We also leverage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to develop cardholder profiles, used to estimate cards’ potential savings.
Best First Credit Cards FAQ
Comparing can be tough. But you’ve got the knowledgeable WalletHub community on your side. We encourage everyone to share their knowledge while respecting our content guidelines. Please keep in mind that editorial and user-generated content on this page is not reviewed or otherwise endorsed by any financial institution. In addition, it is not the financial institution’s responsibility to ensure all posts and questions are answered.show more
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Featured Credit Cards
Expert Opinions
Getting credit when you have none, to begin with, might seem like a chicken-or-egg conundrum, but it’s actually not that complicated. There are many credit cards designed for people with limited or no credit, and the credit-improvement process is pretty straightforward. You just need to know where to look and what pitfalls to avoid.
With that in mind, we posed the following questions to a panel of personal finance experts in search of insights that can help you start your credit career on the right foot. You can check out their bios and responses below.
- What was your first credit card? How was the experience? What would you change?
- When do you recommend people get their first credit card?
- What advice do you have for someone getting their first credit card?
- Do you think credit card companies take advantage of first-timers?
- Is it ever too late to get your first credit card?
Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Marketing Department, UIC Business, University of Illinois Chicago
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Ph.D., CPA, Associate Professor of Accounting & Department Head, Susquehanna University, Sigmund Weis School of Business
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CFA, Associate Professor of Finance, Jack Welch College of Business & Technology, Sacred Heart University
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Associate Professor and Synovus Fellow, Faculty Director of Fulltime and Online MBA Programs, Department of Finance, Harbert College of Business, Auburn University
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Professor of Business at Raritan Valley Community College
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Ph.D., Associate Professor & Extension Specialist, Family Social Science, University of Minnesota
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We work hard to show you up-to-date product terms, however, this information does not originate from us and thus, we do not guarantee its accuracy. Actual terms may vary. Before submitting an application, always verify all terms and conditions with the offering institution. Please let us know if you notice any differences.
† Approval Odds are WalletHub estimates intended to gauge your likelihood of approval for a particular product. Approval Odds are based on WalletHub data and are not provided or endorsed by the lender. Approval Odds are not meant to imply or guarantee that you will be approved by the lender or that credit will be extended. WalletHub may share your information with third-parties in order to show personalized offers, as well as enable you to interact more easily with pre-fill forms or applications. You can opt-out of sharing your personal info here.
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Editorial and user-generated content on this page is not provided, commissioned, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any issuer.
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