8 Credit Cards with No Bank Account Needed (April 2024)

The FDIC reports that, as of 2019, approximately 7.1 million US households are unbanked, meaning they have no checking or savings accounts. Of these households, 29% say they can’t meet the minimum balance requirements, and 16.1% say they don’t trust banks.

If you count yourself among the ranks of the unbanked, read on to learn about credit cards with no bank account needed to open an account. You’ll see that you’ve got options, whether you have bad or no credit, are a student, or want a secured or prepaid card.

No/Limited Credit | Bad Credit | Students | Secured | Prepaid
FAQs & Methodology

Some unbanked consumers have little or no experience using a credit card, which means they have no credit — or a thin credit file. The following two cards are available to unbanked individuals who meet other qualifying criteria.

The Capital One Platinum Credit Card is specifically geared toward consumers who need to build credit. Although the initial credit line is modest, you can qualify for a higher limit by making your first six monthly payments on time.

There is no annual fee, and you can prequalify for this card with no impact to your credit score.

The Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card offers unlimited cash back on purchases, and you can get one without a bank account.

CreditWise can help you track your credit-building progress and provide tips for improving your credit score over time.

You may think the combination of bad credit and no bank account would doom you to a life without credit, but you’d be wrong. The following unsecured credit cards can help you rebuild credit by reporting your on-time payments to the major credit bureaus. Of course, paying late will hurt an already-damaged credit score and is something you must avoid doing to improve your credit.

The Mission Lane Visa® Credit Card is another subprime offering that doesn’t require a bank account for approval, but you’ll still need a way to submit payments online. The only other way to pay is to send a check by mail, but of course, checks are tied to bank accounts.

The Milestone® Mastercard® is aimed at consumers with less than perfect credit. The application process is easy, and you receive an instant decision. The card charges an annual fee, but unlike other cards in this class, there are no application or maintenance fees.

It’s hardly unusual for today’s students, who are mostly millennials and post-millennials, to attend college without feeling the need to open a bank account. The next two cards give students the opportunity to make purchases on credit without stepping foot in a bank.

Both are rewards cards that offer many benefits and protection features as well as charge low fees.

The Discover it® Student Cash Back card offers cash back rewards and an introductory APR for new cardmembers. Students will appreciate the many security features, including free fraud and activity alerts and instant card freeze and unfreeze.

Late payments won’t raise your APR, and your first late payment won’t trigger a late fee.

The Discover it® Student Chrome card offers cash back rewards – see card terms above for additional details. You can redeem your rewards at any time or use them instantly when you check out on Amazon.com.

The card’s many benefits include free FICO scores, introductory APR on purchases by new cardmembers, and free overnight replacement of lost or stolen cards.

A secured credit card is a sure opportunity to establish or rebuild your credit, banked or unbanked. You deposit with the issuer an amount equal to the card’s credit line. The deposit serves as collateral if you miss a payment. If you practice creditworthy behavior, the issuer may eventually upgrade you to a secured card and refund your deposit.

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card is aimed at consumers with no credit and scores of 669 or less. It offers cash back reward along with many other benefits.

Your required minimum deposit secures your credit line. You receive automatic monthly reviews to see whether you qualify for an unsecured card.

You can obtain an OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card without a credit check or bank account. The card accepts a refundable deposit between $200 and $3,000 that is deposited in an FDIC-insured account.

The issuer claims that 99% of new cardholders without a credit score were able to establish a score in as little as six months. The card has a low annual fee and a monthly fee that kicks in when the card is inactive for 12 months.

Prepaid cards are a handy tool for unbanked consumers. You load cash onto the card and then use it to make purchases just as you would a regular credit card.

Both cards can cover overdrafts of up to $10, and your credit score is irrelevant to approval. These cards allow you to receive your direct deposit checks up to two days early.

The Brink’s Armored™ Account accepts cash, checks, transfers from other cardholders, and direct deposits. You can load cash onto your prepaid debit card at more than 130,000 reload locations on the NetSpend network.

You can expect to get up to two days faster when the card receives a direct deposit. Your deposits are kept in an FDIC-insured account at Axos Bank.

The NetSpend® Visa® Prepaid Card can be loaded with cash, checks, and direct deposits (such as your paycheck or Social Security check). You can deposit checks quickly using the Mobile Check Load feature on the Netspend smartphone app.

In addition, there are more than 130,000 reload locations across the country. You can withdraw cash from the card at ATMs or at the cash register.

Credit card issuers know that millions of individuals are unbanked in the United States. So, it’s not surprising that many issuers welcome unbanked applicants and provide payment methods that don’t require bank accounts.

For consumers with no or limited credit, we recommend two cards from the same issuer. The Capital One Platinum Credit Card and the Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card charge no annual fee and allow you to build a credit score. If you want cash back rewards, the QuicksilverOne® card lets you earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on purchases.

On the other hand, if your credit is poor, you need to rebuild your score. The Merrick Bank Double Your Line® Mastercard® is easy to get without a checking or savings account but can be expensive after you factor in its fees and interest rates.

If you want a general-purpose credit card despite not having a bank account or a good credit score, you may like the Milestone® Mastercard®. It is fee-friendly and promises applicants a quick decision.

The two student cards from Discover differ only in their cash back schemes. The Discover it® Student Cash Back card realizes reward amounts based on rotating categories, whereas the Discover it® Student Chrome card offers rewards on fixed categories.

The OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card and Discover it® Secured Credit Card let anyone obtain a credit card by depositing a refundable deposit that acts as collateral for your payments. These cards are an easy way to establish or rebuild credit and their issuers can promote you to an unsecured card if you make your payments on time for a set period.

Finally, the NetSpend Visa® Prepaid Card and Brink’s Prepaid Mastercard are more like debit cards, in that you must fund them before use. These are perfect for those who don’t want to own a bank account nor pay overdraft fees.

You have several ways to pay your credit card bill without having a bank account. The most obvious way is with cash. You can go into any bank that supports the credit card network (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover) and make a credit card payment with cash or money order.

In addition, your credit card issuer may take payments at retail stores. For example, Capital One lets you pay your credit card at certain stores, as well as MoneyGram, Money Services, and Western Union locations. You can use the PayNearMe app to make a Capital One credit card payment at 7-Eleven stores.

Money orders are also handy if you wish to mail in your payment. All credit cards have an address where you can mail payments.

Make sure you put your credit card account number on the money order. You may want to use certified mail to ensure proper delivery.

If you use prepaid cards, you can purchase a reload pack with cash or a money order at a participating retailer. Each reload pack has a unique serial number. You can then go online or call the card’s customer service number to use the reload pack number to transfer the cash to your prepaid card.

Another advantage of prepaid cards is that they accept direct deposits, in which the payer routes the payment directly to the card account. This can come in handy for paychecks, tax refunds, Social Security payments, and other sources. These have the advantage of speeding up your receipt of the payment by up to two days.

Alternatively, you can use smartphone apps like the Netspend Mobile App that have a mobile check capture feature to deposit the check to a prepaid account. You can endorse and photograph a check you’ve received and then transmit the image to your prepaid card account.

Most credit cards report your payments to at least one of the three national credit bureaus. This reporting is what determines your credit score. Here are some tips for boosting your score with a credit card:

• Use your card responsibly. That means paying your monthly bill on time, not exceeding the card’s spending limit, and paying more than the minimum amount each month (preferably the full balance).
• Pay off balances and maintain a credit utilization ratio (i.e., total credit balances divided by total credit limits) below 30%.
• Ask to become an authorized user on another person’s credit card. With responsible use, this will help you start building credit right away.
• Consider a secured credit card. Usually, you can obtain one despite having no or poor credit. By using the card responsibly, you may eventually be upgraded to an unsecured card.
• Dispute errors on your credit reports. You can get free copies of your reports from AnnualCreditReport.com. Check them carefully and dispute any mistakes. Your credit score will immediately improve when a credit bureau removes derogatory information.
• Do not close old credit card accounts, even if you no longer use the card. A long credit history helps your score.

Ultimately, your credit score should improve when you exhibit creditworthy behavior. Even if you’ve gone through negative events such as collections and bankruptcies, their impact starts to wane over time. By obtaining a credit card and using it responsibly, you can put yourself on the road to better credit.

Our list of credit cards with no bank account needed for approval evaluates the best credit card offers that approve applicants with no, limited, or bad credit histories. To determine our rankings, we assessed the following factors:

• rates, terms, and rewards offered
• the ability to build credit with reported payments
• deposits and/or fees required
• overall customer satisfaction

CardRates’ reviews undergo a thorough editorial integrity process to ensure that content is not compromised by advertiser influence.