Avant Credit Card Review: Improve Your Credit History

Getting a credit card in the US may seem like a daunting task for many people. If you are one of the people that have a smaller credit history or even limited credit, your options might be quite slim. This is why you should be looking for a card that you can build your credit history with. After all, being able to access credit is becoming increasingly important in today’s world.

If this is your case, the Avant Credit Card would be the perfect solution for you. In this Avant Credit Card Review, we’ll be going over all the factors to consider with this card. We will also look to answer the following questions:

• What Is The Avant Credit Card?
• How To Make the Most of the Avant Credit Card?
• What Are The Financial Considerations Of The Avant Credit Card?
• Does The Avant Credit Card Have Other Benefits?
• Is the Avant Credit Card Right For You?

This way, you’ll know how to make the most of your credit card to be able to build your credit score. Let’s get started!

What Is The Avant Credit Card?

The Avant Credit Card is a credit card offered by WeBank. WeBank is a state-chartered industrial bank that is headquartered in Utah.

As we previously mentioned, the Avant Credit Card is targeted at people trying to build their credit score. This also includes rebuilding credit history and those new to credit cards. Unfortunately, this does mean that it doesn’t come with many benefits other cards may have.

That being said, it is an excellent option for those that are on a building path. If you have a poor or otherwise little credit history, it may be quite difficult to qualify for some of the larger credit card offerings out there. If you are not aware of why credit is important, make sure to check our Credit Card 101 article!

In this aspect, the card thrives. The Avant Credit Card is easy to apply for as it doesn’t require a hard credit study inquiry beforehand. This means that there won’t be repercussions to your credit score. After all, it is all about building your score, not lowering it!

The Avant Credit Card also lets you pre-qualify before you go through the hard inquiry. Only if you’re happy and submit that full application do you undergo the hard credit inquiry.  Only then do you put your credit score on the line… Which is unlikely to take a hit if you are already pre-qualified. This pre-qualification will give you an idea of what terms you would get your credit card under. This includes factors like the credit limit and what annual fee you may be paying.

As you can already and will continue to see in this Avant Credit Card review, this card is extremely easy to access. While the benefits might not be as big as with other credit cards…  it surely will get you to the point of applying for a premium credit card. Make sure not to let this opportunity go away!

How To Make The Most Of The Avant Credit Card?

As we mentioned, the Avant Credit Card is geared towards building a credit score. If you’re looking at this Avant Credit Card review, it is probably for that reason… And you are right. Let’s look at how this card will help you build a credit score.

For one, the Avant Credit Card reports to all three credit bureaus. That is Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. This is a must-have for anyone that is looking to build a credit score. However, having a credit card is only the first step towards building your credit score. For you to make the most of your Avant Credit Card, you want to keep good and responsible credit habits. But what exactly are those?

1.  Pay Your Bills on Time

The most simple thing that you have to keep an eye on is when your payment is due and how much you need to pay. Make sure to pay your credit card on time and in full.

Given that your payment history is so important in your credit score, building a good payment history is crucial.  It’s as simple as that. If you keep doing this, you’ll see improvements in no time.

2.  Don’t Overextend

There are also other factors that you have to consider. One of those is how much you are spending. The credit scoring models check how close you are to being maxed out, and you generally want to stay way below that limit.

That value of how close you are to your credit limit is known as your ‘Credit Utilization.’ This is a percentage of what you are using compared to your credit limit.

Experts generally advise keeping this value at or below 30% of your total credit limit. Doing so shows that you don’t frequently overspend and keep within your limits.

Let’s look at an example. If you qualify for the upper range of the Avant Credit Card limit, you can see a credit limit of $1,000. This means that you want to keep card usage under $300. If on the other hand, you are on the lower end of the credit limit, say $300, you want to keep your spending to $90. This will mean that you may need to keep an eye on your spending habits with the card.

3.  Maintain Your Credit History

The third consideration on this matter is simply maintaining a longer credit history. If you are just starting to build a credit history, these are the first steps.

Given that credit scores are based on the experience over time, you want to start building this history as soon as you can. The more experience that your credit report shows of you paying your loans on time, the better. This simply shows consistency and conscious tracking of spending. It thus is reflected in your credit score.

The Avant Credit Card provides you with all the tools that you need to build your credit score. The card issuer also periodically provides a review of your account to increase your credit limit.

If you keep to these good credit habits, you’ll be seeing an improvement in your credit score in no time.

With all this being said,  if you’re still wondering what the Credit Score is, don’t worry. You’ll be happy to know that we’ve gone into detail on this topic in our article on that here: https://turbowallet.com/credit/how-credit-score-works/. We’ve also covered how you can improve your credit score in the past. You can find our full guide on that here: https://turbowallet.com/credit/fix-bad-credit-score/

What Are The Financial Considerations Of The Avant Credit Card?

Now that we’ve gone over the main purpose of the Avant Credit Card, what’s next? Let’s see what fees and other financial considerations you must know before getting your Avant Credit Card.

Annual Fee

First things first, you’ll have to consider that the card comes with an annual fee. This can be up to $59 and is charged on the first billing cycle after the card is sent to you. In some instances, you might get a lower fee depending on certain offers. After the first charge, the fee will be charged on an annual basis.

Late Fee

On top of that, you do need to consider that Avant does charge a late fee. This will be charged to you if you do not pay the total minimum payment due by the payment due date. This fee will start at $28 but will increase to $39 if you incurred a late fee during the prior six billing periods.

Now, this should not be an issue if you are dedicated to keeping to the good credit habits we mentioned before. That being said, it is something that you want to be aware of before you get into the Avant Credit Card.

Cash Advance Fee

The next fees that you will have to consider are Cash Advance Fees. If you are looking to get cash advances with this credit card, you will be looking at paying fees for it. The amount is either $10 or 3% of the total, whichever is greater. This means that any advance over $333.33 will have a 3% applied while smaller advances will have the $10 charge applied.

The APR

Now that we have the fees over with, let’s look at the APR or Annual Percentage Rate. This is variable and can fall between 24.99% and 29.99%. Now, this may be a bit on the high end if you’re comparing it with other credit cards, but it’s alright. 

This is quite on the average side for cards made for building credit, so don’t be too alarmed. As long as you make your payments on time, you will not have to worry about the interest rate. 

The Credit Limit

Now that we have all the boring stuff out of the way, let’s look at the credit limits. With the Avant Credit Card, you can see between $300 and $1000 in credit limit. Now this will increase from the lower end to the higher side as your credit score increases. As we mentioned earlier, they periodically provide a review of your account to increase your credit limit.

Does The Avant Credit Card Have Other Benefits?

Given the fact that the Avant Credit Card is a bit of a starter credit card, it doesn’t provide that many rewards. As a starter credit card, this is not that important. Remember, the credit card is used more to build a credit score than anything else. If you use this credit card and are responsible with it, you will be applying for the cards with big benefits in no time!

That being said, we are happy to say that it does provide some benefits. For one, it is an unsecured credit card. This is opposed to what is a secured credit card. With a secured credit card, you have to make a security deposit when signing up. 

This deposit is then used as collateral for your borrowing habits. In the case of a secure credit card, your credit limit is usually equal to the collateral. This does not happen with the Avant Credit Card. You do not have to put up that initial collateral to get your hands on your card.

There are other few benefits that come with the card being a Mastercard. For one, you get a 15% discount on airport Meet and Greet services. 

You can also get an emergency credit card replacement should you lose your card as well as theft protection. The latter is a service that provides help to a team of specialists that address identity theft issues.

Now, these are relatively few and generic benefits, but it is understandable for a starter credit card. Once you move to bigger credit cards, the rewards improve.

Is the Avant Credit Card Right For You?

Now let’s move to the last question of this Avant Credit Card Review. Is it the right choice for you? Well, that depends. If you already have an established credit score, you should be staying away from the Avant Credit Card. There are other options you should consider, which we have covered in our credit card section.  

That being said, the card is clearly designed for those with little or no credit score. This lets you start building or improving your credit score, all without having to put down collateral. It’s a great card for that purpose and should be well worth considering. If this is your case, we recommend that you go and find out if you pre-qualify!