Credit building cards

A credit building credit card is a card designed for people who’d like to try and improve their credit rating. It generally has a low credit limit. For example, our Foundation Credit Card has a starting limit of between £250 - £1,500. You may be considered for a raise of your credit limit if you make all of your monthly payments on time.

With a credit building credit card, it’s especially important to stay on top of your payments, as showing that you’re able to handle your finances is what will help you improve your rating. It can take around 4 to 6 months to see an improvement in your credit score. You can find a few other ways you might be able to improve your rating in our guide to how credit scores work.

If you’ve got a low credit score or you don’t have much in the way of a credit history, you may find it hard to be approved for a credit card, loan or other kind of borrowing. A credit building credit card is a way to borrow a small amount of money and show that you’re capable of paying it back, which can help improve your credit rating. The goal is to show that you can be responsible with money.

If you’ve never borrowed any money in the past, the problem might be that there’s no credit history for lenders to check. This tends to affect students or young people who’ve never needed to take out credit before.

You may also have a low credit score if you’ve defaulted on a loan in the past or you’ve struggled to pay your bills. You might also find it difficult to take out a credit card if you’ve had a county court judgment (CCJ) taken out against you or if you’ve ever been declared bankrupt.

Credit builder cards work by lending you a small amount of money and giving you the chance to pay it back every month. When you have a low credit limit and are only borrowing a small amount of money, getting into the habit of managing monthly repayments can show lenders that you’re a responsible borrower.

They tend to have lower credit limits and additional features to help you stay in control.

Credit builder cards are designed for people with bad or low credit ratings, which means they should be easier to be approved for than the average card. That said, there’s no guarantee that you will be eligible, especially if you’ve got a negative credit score.

You can check how likely it is that you’ll be approved for our Foundation Credit Card without affecting your credit score by using our eligibility checker.

Your credit score is a number that gives you an idea of how lenders view your credit history. If you're new to credit or haven't managed credit well in the past, your score is likely to be low. If you have a low or bad credit score, you may find it harder to get the best deals on credit cards, loans and mortgages.

Tesco Bank CreditView is a free, exclusive service to help our Foundation Credit Card customers to stay fully up to speed with changes in their credit rating and financial history, provided by TransUnion.

For three years from account opening Foundation Credit Card customers who register with Tesco Bank CreditView will have:

As part of the sign-up process you will be required to pass TransUnion's identity validation checks before accessing your Tesco Bank CreditView account.

It's worth knowing that only the primary credit card holder will have access to Tesco Bank CreditView.

There are two ways to build your credit score. Firstly, your score will improve if you pay your bills on time and always pay at least the minimum required amount. Secondly, if you lower your credit utilisation, this will also help your score. You can do this by making sure you don’t get too close to your credit limit (e.g. a low credit utilisation might mean you only use £300 out of a possible £1,000).

Read our guide on improving your credit score with a credit card for more information.

In the long run and with correct management of credit limits and repayments, credit cards could help you to improve your credit score.

Initially, your score may be lowered due to the hard credit checks and the average age of accounts when opening a new account. However, a strong payment history and improved credit mix could significantly improve your credit score.

Additionally, by having a credit card, you can borrow money to pay for products before paying this back later. This helps show lenders that you are responsible with money and could improve your chances of being accepted for a future loan or mortgage.

APR is short for Annual Percentage Rate. It tells you the cost of borrowing, as a percentage of the amount you owe, over a year.

You can use the APR to work out how much a credit card, loan or mortgage, or other forms of credit will cost. The APR includes the interest rate charged, along with any fees.

Most credit cards have a variable APR, and all it means is that the Annual Percentage Rate for a credit card may change over time. If the APR on your card is going to change, you’ll be notified in advance.

Most of our charges and fees relate to when you move money between accounts, withdraw cash, or pay for things abroad. You may also be charged if you go over your credit limit or miss a payment. You can check your interest rate on your monthly statements.

To see the complete list, read our page on charges, fees, and interest.

Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act you could get extra protection if something goes wrong on single purchases that cost between £100 and £30,000. So if something you've paid for turns up broken or faulty, or if it doesn't arrive at all, you may be able to get your money back through a Section 75 claim.

Read more about your consumer rights on our page on the top credit card features.

Yes, you can manage your credit card with Online Banking or on our Mobile Banking App.

Yes, your Tesco Bank Credit Card will work overseas.

With each transaction in a foreign currency you’ll be charged a foreign exchange fee of 2.75% of the cost of your purchase.

Get more information in our guide to using your credit and debit cards abroad.

A Tesco Bank Credit Card is also a Clubcard, so when you spend on it in Tesco you’ll collect your normal Clubcard points (1 point for every £1 spent) plus an extra 1 point for every £4 you spend.

When you buy Tesco fuel (excluding Esso) you’ll collect your normal Clubcard points at an enhanced rate of 1 point for every 1 litre bought (usually 1 point for every 2 litres with a Clubcard alone) and you’ll get 1 extra point for every £4 spent.

When you spend outside Tesco you’ll collect 1 point for every £8 you spend.

Points are calculated on single transactions and you must have available credit. Points collection rates are subject to change. Remember there are some things you won’t collect points on.

The Tesco Clubcard Scheme is administered by Tesco Stores Limited, Tesco House, Shire Park, Kestrel Way, Welwyn Garden City, AL7 1GA who are responsible for fulfilling Clubcard points.

You can only collect points on purchases, so cash withdrawals, cash transactions, balance or money transfers, gambling transactions, buying travel money and regular payments like standing orders and Direct Debits don’t count.

There are also some products at Tesco you can’t collect points on, see the Clubcard website for details.

Every 3 months your Clubcard points are turned into Clubcard vouchers. Or you can choose to get them quicker with Faster Vouchers.

Your vouchers can be used to spend at Tesco, in store, online or on fuel (excluding Esso), or they can be exchanged to get up to 2x the value of your vouchers with Tesco Reward Partners.

The calculator works out how many Clubcard points you could collect if you had a Tesco Bank Credit Card and used it to pay for items in and out of Tesco.

Based on the amounts you enter into the calculator, we work out the number of Clubcard points you could collect and give an idea of the amount in Clubcard vouchers.

The fuel calculator uses an average price per litre to calculate the number of points, based on 1 point per litre bought. Calculation based on average fuel price per litre. Average price per litre is based on both petrol and diesel and an average fill of 33 litres. Average price per litre updated monthly.

Remember though, your points will be worked out on each individual transaction that you make and not on your total monthly spend. So, this means the calculator only gives an indication and the actual points you receive could vary.

Don't forget that you'll need to spend a minimum amount to begin collecting Clubcard points.

When you open a credit card account with us you’ll be automatically enrolled into the Clubcard scheme if you’re not already a member, and Tesco Bank will share information with Tesco Stores for the operation of your Clubcard account.

Clubcard accounts are managed separately by Tesco Stores, and you should visit the Tesco Stores privacy notice for further information about how Tesco Stores uses your information.