5 Things to Know About the Possible Card

The Possible Card — issued by Coastal Community Bank, in partnership with Possible Finance — began slowly rolling out to the public in April 2023. As of this writing, the card is available by invitation only to a limited number of users. It offers predictability in terms of your monthly payment, and it also allows you to bypass a credit check.

The credit card is friendly to those with less-than-ideal credit and skips traditional requirements like a steep security deposit that can sometimes get in the way of building credit. But among credit card options for building credit, it’s not the most cost-effective.

Possible Finance touts "peace of mind" that you won't be charged interest, but there's a big caveat: Instead of an annual percentage rate, the card has a monthly fee. Unlike a security deposit, which is refundable, those monthly fees won't be. Plenty of other credit cards can jump-start your credit-building goals at a lower cost.

Monthly fees on credit cards are a hot trend now, especially among young financial technology companies (fintechs). But depending on the balance you're carrying, that fee can be more expensive than interest charges you'd find on a traditional credit card.

Here’s what you need to know about the Possible Card.

1. The monthly fee adds up

The monthly fee to hold the Possible Card is either:

• $8 per month ($96 annually) for a $400 credit limit, or

• $16 per month ($192 annually) for an $800 credit limit.

That makes the Possible Card more expensive than similar newcomers in its class. For example:

• The Grow Credit Mastercard has multiple price points, but its cheapest tier is free for Year One, then $3.99 a month.

• The Pesto Secured Rewards Mastercard® costs $3.33 a month, and while a deposit is required, you can put up an asset instead of cash.

• The Ambition Mastercard from College Ave charges a $2 monthly fee ($24 annually), which doesn't kick in until after the first six months.

• The Ava Credit Builder Card requires a monthly membership fee as low as $6, if you pay annually. (It's more expensive if you pay month to month.)

• The Neu Card charges $4 to $7 per month ($48 or $84 annually), depending on the credit limit.

In fact, for no monthly or annual fee at all, you could consider cards like the Chime Secured Credit Builder Visa® Credit Card or the Varo Believe Secured Credit Card. Neither card carries an APR, neither conducts a credit check, and both report your payments to all three major credit bureaus. (More on that below.)

Or, you could fare even better with a traditional secured credit card. Yes, you'll have to come up with a one-time security deposit upfront, but for many of the best secured credit cards, you need a minimum of just $200, or nearly what you'd pay — every year and nonrefundable — for the Possible Card's higher-limit version. Plus, many traditional secured cards come with upgrade paths to better products. The Possible Card does not, nor do many newer fintech-backed cards, for that matter.

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card is a good example of the kind of features to look for in a starter card. It requires a minimum security deposit of $200, but it has a $0 annual fee and earns rewards. It reports payments to all three major credit bureaus, and Discover begins automatic reviews starting at seven months to see whether you qualify to upgrade to an unsecured card and get your deposit back.

2. There’s no credit check

The Possible Card doesn’t require a credit check and instead relies on a cash-flow-based underwriting algorithm to determine whether you qualify. But that underwriting process requires you to link an eligible account through a third party called Plaid.

This practice of skipping a credit check in exchange for linking a bank account has become a fairly common practice for certain credit cards, especially newcomers backed by fintechs. But there are better credit cards that don’t require a credit check.

The previously mentioned Chime Secured Credit Builder Visa® Credit Card, for instance, requires opening a Chime Checking Account, but it doesn’t charge any fees or interest. It’s a secured credit card with a flexible deposit. The amount of money that you move from the spending account to the Credit Builder secured account is the amount you have available to spend.

3. No interest applies, but don't be fooled

Some credit cards that charge monthly fees instead of interest market the idea of being “predictable,” for budgeting purposes. Possible Finance claims on its website that the monthly fee is cheaper than the charges on a traditional credit card, but that’s misleading. For most credit cards, interest charges don't apply at all if you pay off the balance in full every month.

With the Possible Card, you’ll owe the monthly fee whether you carry a balance or not.

Depending on the size of your balance, that monthly fee could cost more than the interest charged on a traditional credit card, especially in cases where the card's credit limit is relatively low. You can use the sliding scales below to illustrate this:

For context, the average APR for credit cards assessed interest in May 2024 was 22.76%, according to Federal Reserve data. If you have less-than-ideal credit, that percentage may be higher.

4. It doesn’t report payments to all major credit bureaus

As of June 2024, the Possible Card reported payments to TransUnion and Experian, two of three major credit bureaus (Equifax is the third). But when you’re building credit with a credit card, ideally you want your credit history to be recorded by all three of those bureaus, so that future lenders can access that information easily. (You never know which bureaus a potential lender will access when reviewing your creditworthiness).

Many other credit-building cards report to all three bureaus, including some of the alternatives mentioned above.

5. You can carry a balance

Unlike some credit cards in its class, the Possible Card allows you to revolve a balance. You’ll still owe a minimum payment as you would with a traditional credit card. The difference with the Possible Card is that you won’t pay late fees or penalties if you miss a payment.

Still, aim to pay on time because it can hurt your credit score not to do so. After a certain amount of time, a late credit card payment is reported to credit bureaus, which can cause your credit score to drop. A credit bureau records the information used to calculate your credit score. Paying on time is one of the key factors that impacts that number.