Cleo Credit Builder Card review
- Fee
- $14.99 per month
- Minimum deposit to open
- $1
Our verdict
Build credit with this online banking app and secured card.
Cleo is a fintech company and financial app. Its Credit Builder Card is a secured credit card designed to help build credit. It requires an opening deposit that sets the credit limit, and has no interest charges. You also decide how much you want to deposit, a little as $1. There's no hard credit pull when you apply and Cleo reports to all three credit bureaus. But you'll need the Credit Builder membership which costs $14.99 per month. The membership also gives you access to cash advances, cashback rewards and challenges, a Cleo wallet, budgeting and an AI chatbot. Compared to traditional credit cards, paying the equivalent of nearly a $180 annual fee is on the expensive side, but if you can't qualify for other cards it might be worth the cost.
Best for: Those who want to build credit.
Pros
-
No credit check or interest charges
-
Reports to all three credit bureaus
-
Opening deposit as low as $1
-
Cashback, budgeting and AI chat
Cons
-
$14.99 membership fee required
-
Must repay balance in full each month
Who is the Cleo Credit Builder Card best for?
Since Cleo’s secured card doesn’t check your credit, it’s best for borrowers who want to start building or repairing their credit.
It’s also best for those looking for a secured card with extra features like cashback rewards, budgeting and access to cash advances, since you’ll need to pay $14.99 per month for the membership.
But if you already have good credit, consider a traditional credit card and ones with no annual fees.
How the Credit Builder Card works
The Cleo Credit Builder Card is a secured credit card. It requires an opening deposit, which can be as low as $1. The amount you deposit also determines your credit limit. The deposit provides some extra security for the lender, because if you can’t repay your outstanding balance, the deposit simply covers it.
You can have your balance repaid automatically with your security deposit or make payments with a linked account. You can also add more money to your security deposit in the app to increase your credit limit anytime, giving you more flexibility than traditional unsecured credit cards.
Cleo’s card can get away without charging APR because you’re required to repay your balance by the end of the month. If you don’t repay the balance, the security deposit you made will cover the amount owed.
What we like about Cleo
The Credit Builder membership gets you the secured card, cashback rewards and access to cash advances. The app also gives you access to modern banking perks, such as the Cleo Wallet, budgeting features and the AI chatbot. The secured card is designed to build credit. If you already have decent credit, you don’t have to get the paid membership and can just use the free features.
0% APR and no hard credit check
Like other credit-building cards, the Cleo Credit Builder Card has no credit check and charges no interest. Requiring a deposit as low as $1, you can also add more money to your security deposit to increase your borrowing limit anytime. This allows for more flexibility than other secured cards, which typically require a one-time $200 deposit.
Cleo also reports to all three credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. The only thing it doesn’t report with the Credit Builder card is credit utilization because a secured card doesn’t have a preset credit limit.
Cashback rewards and challenges
Not many secured credit cards offer cashback rewards, but Cleo’s does. Cashback rewards are included with its Cleo Plus plan ($5.99/month) and Credit Builder plan ($14.99/month).
You can view cashback offers in the app, complete challenges and score limited-time cashback offers. However, you can only earn up to $5 in cashback per transaction. If you earn cashback, it’s transferred to your Cleo Wallet, which is an account you receive upon signing up for Cleo.
Get roasted or hyped by an AI
Cleo’s AI chat feature is one of our favorite features, and something we haven’t seen anywhere else. Cleo features an AI chatbot that analyzes your spending and savings habits to either praise you, or hand out tough love.
If you want to get roasted, Cleo shows the example, “12 trips to McDonald’s this month. Any more, and I’ll start listing it as a bill.” If you want praise, you may get something like, “Look at you spending less on travel this week. You little introverted legend.”
It’s one of the most commonly referenced features in reviews, with customers saying it’s a helpful tool that helps them keep track of their spending with some light-hearted sass, playfully pointing out weaknesses and strengths.
Cleo cash advances
Cleo’s Credit Builder membership also offers access to its cash advances. You need either the Cleo Plus or Credit Builder membership to qualify, so by getting the Credit Builder membership to get the secured card, you’ll already be halfway there to accessing the cash advances.
You can get up to $500 in cash advances by meeting requirements, such as setting up direct deposit, connecting a bank account and maintaining a positive account history with Cleo. You can apply right in the app, and Cleo will let you know if you qualify and for how much, and then you choose the repayment term.
Cleo savings account
Cleo also offers a high-yield savings account with a 4.11% APY. There’s a $2.99 monthly fee (separate from the credit-builder membership fee), but it does come with a lot of features and up to $3 million in FDIC insurance provided by Cleo’s partner bank.
The Cleo save account offers multiple saving features called Set & Forget, Roundups, Smart Save and Swear Jar. The Swear Jar is a very fun one; it’s a self-imposed “tax” for spending at your guilty pleasures.
Where it falls short
The biggest downside with Cleo’s secured card is that you must have the Credit Builder subscription for $14.99 per month. Plenty of secured cards exist with no annual or monthly fees, such as the Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card (Terms apply, see rates & fees).
However, the downside with other traditional secured cards is that they charge interest and require a hard credit pull, whereas Cleo doesn’t. If you’d rather avoid interest on your balance altogether, Cleo is worth considering, but if you’re sure you can avoid interest charges by staying on top of your balance, then a no-annual-fee credit card could save you cash.
Must repay balance each month
Cleo requires that you repay your outstanding balance on the Credit Builder Card each month. This is a little unorthodox compared to traditional credit cards, but as this card is designed to help its customers build a credit history, it may be for the better.
Cleo also offers something called Carefree Credit Building, which means your payments are automatically paid using the funds in your security deposit. But you can also pay your balance manually via a connected payment method linked in the Cleo app or with the Cleo Wallet.
Cleo Credit Builder Card’s fees and access
| Type of fee | Fee details |
|---|---|
| Monthly or annual fee | $14.99 per month |
| Minimum deposit | $1 |
| Credit score | Not required |
| APR | 0% |
| Balance transfer fee | N/A |
| ATMs |
|
| Foreign transaction fee | 0%, may be subject to VISA exchange rates |
| Overdraft or nonsufficient funds | $0 |
Compare Cleo to other credit-building options
See how Cleo compares to other credit-building options to see which could be best for you.
What is the Finder Score?
The Finder Score crunches over 300 checking accounts from hundreds of financial institutions. It takes into account the product's monthly fees, overdraft fees, opening deposit, customer support options, ATM network and features — this gives you a simple score out of 10.
To provide a Score, Finder’s banking experts analyze hundreds of checking accounts against what we consider is the best option: no monthly fees, no overdraft fees, a large ATM network of 50,000 or more, additional features outside of typical banking services, and the optional perk of earning interest. Accounts that are nearly free to maintain and use are scored the highest, while accounts with costly fees and few features are scored the lowest.
How to open the Cleo Credit Builder Card
To get the Cleo Credit Builder Card, first download the Cleo app. The app is compatible with Apple and Android devices. Then, follow these steps:
- Create a Cleo account and fill out your information, and you’ll get a Cleo Wallet.
- Link an existing bank account for money transfers.
- Sign up for the Credit Builder subscription plan for $14.99 per month.
- Apply for the Cleo Credit Builder Card.
- Make a security deposit of at least $1 to activate the card if approved.
Customer experience
Cleo does pretty well in the realm of customer feedback. It currently has an F rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), which is based on customer complaints and a business’s responsiveness to those complaints. There were just over 100 complaints in the last year, but it’s worth noting we normally see thousands of complaints for fintechs similar to Cleo.
Many of the BBB complaints reference Cleo’s subscription cost and issues with the cash advances. Quite a few complaints cite issues canceling their account with the AI chatbot and being unsuccessful. And like most other fintechs with banking services, a handful of people claim someone had stolen their information and created a fraudulent account. Cleo responds to these complaints rather quickly and states it refunds the victims and shuts down any fraudulent accounts.
On Trustpilot, Cleo’s reviews are glowing. Cleo has a high rating of 4.1 stars out of over 3,000 customer reviews. Happy customers sing praises for the Credit Builder card, cash advances, budgeting features and easy application process, and overall cite a great and seamless experience with the app.
Credit building card ratings
★★★★★ — Excellent
★★★★★ — Good
★★★★★ — Average
★★★★★ — Subpar
★★★★★ — Poor
Read the full methodology of how we rate credit building cards.
Your reviews
Bethany Finder
Editor, Banking
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