Best Pre-Approved Credit Cards for Bad Credit

Explore the best pre-approved credit cards for bad credit that we believe stand out from many of the other credit cards available to people with less-than-perfect credit. We selected these cards based on their fees, benefits, pre-approval options, and opportunities to improve the account over time.

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Our Best Pre-Approved Credit Cards for Bad Credit

After more than 25 years of reviewing credit cards, we have seen just about every type of credit card offered to people with bad credit. The two cards below stand out to us because they offer pre-approval while also having a fee structure and features that are substantially different from many of the cards traditionally marketed to people with bad credit.

1. Ollo Everyday Rewards Mastercard^® — Our #1 Choice

The Ollo Everyday Rewards Mastercard^® is our first choice for people looking for a pre-approved credit card for bad credit. You can see if you are pre-approved with no impact to your credit score, and the card has a $0 annual fee. It also offers 3% cash back at gas and EV charging stations, grocery stores, and drugstores, plus 1% cash back on other purchases.

Ollo also has no over-the-limit, returned payment, or foreign transaction fees. There is also no rate increase for making a late payment. These features, along with the $0 annual fee and cash back rewards, are some of the reasons we consider Ollo different from many other credit cards designed for people with bad credit.

Ollo also provides an opportunity for an automatic credit-line review in as little as 6 months. If you want to see the complete details of this card and check for a pre-approved offer, see our Ollo Everyday Rewards Mastercard review.

2. OneMain BrightWay^® Card

The OneMain BrightWay^® Card is another pre-approved credit card that stands out for people with bad credit. You can check to see if you are pre-approved with no impact to your credit score. The card offers 1% cash back and provides an opportunity for a credit-limit increase or APR decrease in as little as 6 months, subject to the card's requirements.

While the BrightWay Card can have a high interest rate, it also has a $0-$89 annual fee depending on the offer, and we are not aware of a monthly maintenance fee on the card. The opportunity for an APR decrease or credit-limit increase in as little as 6 months is another feature that sets it apart from many other cards designed for people with bad credit.

The BrightWay Card is not available in every state, so availability depends on where you live. For complete details and to check for a pre-approved offer, see our OneMain BrightWay Card review.

Why We Selected These Two Cards

What makes these cards different is not simply that they offer pre-approval. It is how the accounts are structured. Many credit cards designed for people with bad credit come with combinations of annual fees, processing fees, monthly maintenance fees, and other account charges that can make them expensive to keep.

Ollo Everyday Rewards and OneMain BrightWay are different from many of those cards. Ollo has a $0 annual fee, while BrightWay can have a $0-$89 annual fee depending on the offer. Both offer opportunities for the account to improve over time, and both allow you to check for a pre-approved offer without an initial impact to your credit score.

Our 25 Years of Credit Card Experience

Through our 25 years of experience reviewing credit cards, we have learned that the interest rate is only one part of what makes a credit card expensive. Ollo and BrightWay can still have relatively high interest rates, but if you pay your balance in full each month, you can avoid paying interest on purchases. Annual fees, processing fees, and monthly maintenance fees, however, are costs you cannot simply avoid by paying your balance in full.

That is one of the reasons these two cards stand out to us. After reviewing credit cards for more than two decades, we believe Ollo Everyday Rewards and OneMain BrightWay offer a combination of pre-approval, fees, benefits, and opportunities for account improvement that is substantially different from what we typically see among credit cards designed for people with bad credit.

If you are looking for a pre-approved credit card for bad credit, start with the two cards above and review the individual card information before deciding which offer may be right for you.