Mission Lane Cash Back Visa® Credit Card Review
With this card you can check to see if you qualify without a hard credit check that can ding your credit. This credit card can help build your credit with responsible spending and timely payments.
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Key Features
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- You can see whether you qualify for the card BEFORE Mission Lane conducts a full credit check.
- The rewards program isn't terribly lucrative, but it's a nice added benefit for an unsecured card available to people with credit_score_needed credit.
- There's no annual fee to worry about.
- The interest rate is high – there are better interest rates out there even for people in the Fair credit range.
CardName benefits
The CardName offers those with CreditScoreNeeded credit scores a chance to boost those scores while earning cash back on qualifying purchases.
Unlike many cards geared toward people in this credit range, the CardName isn’t a secured card and, therefore, doesn’t require a security deposit. With secured cards, your deposit – often a minimum of $200 – generally equals your initial credit limit, but Mission Lane doesn’t disclose what their minimum credit limit is.
Mission Lane reports to all three major credit bureaus, meaning that timely payments can help you increase your credit score. This can have a major impact on your ability to gain approval for a car loan, a mortgage or other major purchase. In addition, timely payments can lead to an increase in your credit limit in a little as seven months.
The CreditScoreNeeded rewards program is not eye-popping but with a $0 annual fee, all the cash back you earn goes straight into your wallet. You will earn 1%-1.5% cash back on your purchases, with that rate determined by your credit worthiness at the time your application is approved.
Speaking of approval, one of the key benefits of this card is that it offers every applicant a preapproval step so that you can determine whether you’ll be approved for the card BEFORE Misson Lane performs a hard credit check. That’s a big deal for people teetering on the edge of fair credit – hard credit pulls will ding your credit. It’s nice to know whether you’ll be approved before you consent to that credit check (more on this process below).
CardName preapproval
Before applying, you should be aware that Mission Lane offers two different cards: The CardName and the CardName. The latter is a credit building card geared toward people with CreditScoreNeeded credit. If you aren’t sure where you’ll fall, the good news is that Mission Lane will make that decision for you as part of the preapproval process.
Through the prequalification process, Mission Lane can tell you whether you’ll be approved before it conducts a hard credit check that will ding your credit, if only temporarily. This will also determine which version of the card you qualify for – the one with or without a rewards program.
Once you have the prequalification result, you can decide whether to proceed with a full card application, at which point Mission Lane will conduct a full credit check to verify the details you provided during prequalification were accurate. Mission Lane states that pre-qualified applicants will only be declined if Mission Lane can’t verify your identity or income information when it conducts the full credit check.
CardName fees and other downsides
While the CardName can work as an effective tool to build your credit score, you’ll want to be aware of some potential pitfalls. For starters, there is no introductory APR and the standard interest rate is RegAPR. This means you will want to avoid carrying a large month-to-month balance.
If you happen to be late with a payment, you’ll be looking at a late fee of up to $35. Additional fees include a foreign_fee fee on all foreign transactions.
One other hiccup you should be aware of is a lack of transparency around the minimum credit limit. It’s entirely possible your initial credit limit could be low enough that it could be difficult to keep yourself in the "low percentage of credit used" category that the credit bureaus like to see. This can make it harder to build your score and is another reason not to carry a big month-to-month balance. Additionally, while the card does earn rewards, if you can only earn 1% on purchases with a $200 credit limit, that amounts to not a lot of award potential.
How the CardName compares to other cards
Mission Lane Cash Back Visa vs. CardName
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Neither card charges an annual fee and both are available to applicants with at least fair credit, but the similarities end there. CardName has a strong introductory offer of 0% APR for 15 months on all new purchases and balance transfers. This can save a significant amount on interest if you are presently carrying a large balance on another card. After the introductory period, Citi Custom Cash has a standard interest rate of RegAPR, depending on credit worthiness. (Citi is a CardRatings advertiser.)
Furthermore, Citi Custom Cash also has a robust cash-back program with more to offer. Earn 5% cash back on purchases in your top spending category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent (then 1%). A special travel offer, earn an additional 4% cash back on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on Citi Travel℠ portal through 6/30/2026. As a welcome bonus, you can earn $200 (in the form of 20,000 ThankYou® points) for spending $1,500 in the first six months after your card is issued.
Mission Lane Cash Back Visa vs. CardName
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The CardName offers several benefits as compared to the Mission Lane card, but it comes with some costs. QuicksilverOne carries a AnnualFees annual fee and the standard APR is a whopping RegAPR, both higher than those offered by the Mission Lane Cash Back Visa. That said, the Capital One card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, while Mission Lane does.
Neither card has an introductory interest rate or a welcome bonus.
QuicksilverOne offers a slightly more attractive cash-back rewards program: You can earn 5% cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and 1.5% on your other purchases.
Mission Lane Cash Back Visa vs. CardName
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The CardName is a different type of credit card. With a credit card, you can carry a revolving balance from month-to-month, accruing interest on whatever balance you carry and making minimum monthly payments that change with your balance. The Upgrade Cash Rewards Visa operates more like a personal line of credit. Each month, all your purchases are collected into a single "personal loan" and given a fixed rate and loan term. You’ll pay off that balance through equal monthly installment that can last 24, 36 or 60 months.
Like Mission Lane Cash Back Visa, the Upgrade Cash Rewards Visa charges no annual fee.
With both The Upgrade Cash Rewards Visa and the Mission Lane Cash Back, you earn 1.5% cash back on your purchases.
Is the CardName a good card?
If your credit score is a bit bruised or perhaps just young, the CardName can be a useful tool, if used responsibly, to build it up. The $0 annual fee makes it cost-effective and the cash back rewards of 1%-1.5% is a nice touch for a card available to people in this credit range. Perhaps it’s best feature, though, is the chance to see whether you’ll qualify without putting your tender credit through a hard credit check.
Disclaimer:The information in this article is believed to be accurate as of the date it was written. Please keep in mind that credit card offers change frequently. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information in this article. Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. See the online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and rewards. Please verify all terms and conditions of any credit card prior to applying.
This content is not provided by any company mentioned in this article. Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed here are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any such company. CardRatings.com does not review every company or every offer available on the market.