Credit One Bank Platinum Visa Card Review [2024]: A Solid Choice for Low-Credit Borrowers

When your credit isn’t perfect or you’re just starting to build a credit history, getting a credit card can be a challenge. Secured cards — which require you to put down a deposit that serves as your credit limit — are often the easiest to get. Traditional unsecured credit cards that approve those with low credit scores are few and far between.

The Credit One Bank Platinum Visa Card is one of them and could be a good option if you’re trying to build your credit. What’s more, it offers you the opportunity to earn 1% cash back on some purchases, which is a perk you don’t often see in a credit-building card. Here is our review of the Credit One Bank Platinum Visa Card and what you need to know before applying.

Unsecured Credit for Poor or No Credit History

Credit One Bank Platinum Visa Card

3.2

FinanceBuzz writers and editors score cards based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Credit One Bank Platinum Visa Card

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Current Offer

Opportunities to increase your credit line

Annual Fee

$39

Rewards Rate

1% cash back on eligible gas, grocery, mobile phone service, internet service, and cable and satellite TV service purchases

Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits

• Offers simple cashback rewards
• High approval odds
• Provides free credit monitoring

Drawbacks

• Charges a $39 annual fee
• Cashback rewards are modest
• Foreign transaction fees

Card Details

• Opportunities to increase your credit line
• 1% cash back on eligible gas, grocery, mobile phone service, internet service, and cable and satellite TV service purchases

Card basics

Who should get this card?

The Credit One Platinum Visa is a good option for someone who has poor or fair credit. This means your FICO scores are likely in the 300 to 669 range, and you may have some collections, defaults, or even bankruptcy on your record. It could also be useful to students and those who are new to building a credit history.

This Credit One credit card is specifically designed to help you build good credit by reporting your payments to credit bureaus. By using the card and paying on-time, your credit line can also increase, which will also help boost your credit score — so long as you don’t use up too much of that credit line. Keeping your credit card balances low can have a positive impact on scoring.

This card is also a good option for people who are also looking to earn cashback rewards while building credit or who don’t want to put down a deposit like you would with a secured card.

Top card benefits

• Simple rewards: The rewards program for Credit One’s Platinum Visa is pretty simple. You earn 1% cash back on eligible gas, grocery, mobile phone service, internet service, and cable and satellite TV service purchases, paid in the form of statement credits. This is a relatively rare benefit for a credit-building card, making it stand out among competitors. If I were looking to improve my credit, this would be a huge perk.
  
• You could be approved even with poor credit: Because this card is designed for those with limited or poor credit, your chances of being approved could be pretty good. You can fill out a pre-approval application on the website to estimate what kind of offer Credit One may make you. This application will not show up on your credit report as a hard credit pull. If you want to move forward to the full application, you can do so after seeing what you qualify for; this will count as a hard inquiry on your credit reports.
  
• Free credit score: As a Credit One customer, you’ll have access to your Experian credit score and credit report summary online for free. I really like this feature because it allows you to track your score’s improvement over time. For those trying to improve their credit, this is a very useful feature.
  
• Regular credit review: Your account will be reviewed regularly. This is a good thing because if you’re spending and paying responsibly, you could be approved for increases to your credit limit. This can have a positive impact on your scores. When looking for a credit-building card, this is something that I would rank highly in terms of importance.

Drawbacks of the Credit One Bank Platinum Visa

• Annual fee: The Credit One Bank Platinum Visa has an annual fee of $39. While this is relatively low, there are other cards out there that may not charge an annual fee at all.
  
• Cashback rewards are modest: You could argue that the 1% cash back rewards are pretty low, and you wouldn’t be wrong. However, I see the fact that you can earn any cash back is a huge perk. If your main goal is to build credit and you have a low credit score, you will likely find it difficult to find a card that offers any sort of rewards. But if your main goal is to earn cash back, there are many other cards you could consider.
  
• Limited redemption options: Unfortunately, your options to redeem your cash back are pretty limited. You can only access your rewards in the form of automatic statement credits to your account. While this is a bit of a drawback, I also appreciate the simplicity of this cashback rewards program.
  
• Foreign transaction fees: This card will also charge you foreign transaction fees if you use it while traveling abroad. I see this as a small price to pay if your main priority is building credit, and you can always use a different card or local currency while traveling to avoid this.

Earning and redeeming

The Credit One Platinum Visa offers 1% cash back on eligible gas, grocery, mobile phone service, internet service, and cable and satellite TV service purchases. Use your card when making purchases to fill up your gas tank, getting your weekly groceries from the supermarket, or paying your internet or cable bills.

FAQ

Other cards to consider

While the Credit One Platinum Visa is a decent choice for an unsecured credit card you can get with less-than-stellar credit, here are a few other options for credit cards to consider before completing an application.

Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card

The Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card is pretty comparable to the Credit One Platinum Visa, with a few extra perks. You get unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase; plus 5% unlimited cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, an annual fee of $39, unlimited access to your credit score, and automatic consideration for a credit line increase in as few as six months.

You can use your cash back as statement credits, to cover the cost of a recent purchase, or purchase gift cards. All this is steps ahead of what Credit One offers, but you do have to have what Capital One defines as average credit to be approved.

Citi^® Secured Mastercard^®

The Citi^® Secured Mastercard^® is designed for those with limited or poor credit and comes with a $0 annual fee. This is a secured card, which works differently than the Credit One Platinum Visa. You will have to put down a deposit, which will serve as your credit limit. The deposit is refundable if you close the account in good standing.

Unsecured Credit for Poor or No Credit History

Credit One Bank Platinum Visa Card

3.2

FinanceBuzz writers and editors score cards based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Credit One Bank Platinum Visa Card

3.2

FinanceBuzz writers and editors score cards based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Why We Like It

Opportunities to increase your credit line

See how these cards compare:

Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card

• Recommended for those with fair credit
• Offers cashback rewards
• Potential for credit line increases
• Provides credit score monitoring

Citi® Secured Mastercard®

• Flexible payment dates
• Helps build credit
• No annual fee