There are several benefits that comes with having good credit and one of them is the easy access to having an airline or travel card but if you have a bad credit, there are some airlines that offer secured cards that you can qualify for.
Discover it® Secured is one of the best airline credit card with no annual fee. This is a secured cards for bad credit, it offers a signup bonus, rewards, a reasonable minimum security deposit, as well as a monthly access to your FICO score.
Best Airline Credit Cards for Bad Credit are;
- LATAM Visa® Secured Card
- Discover it® Secured
- Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card
- SKYPASS Visa® Secured Card
- AeroMexico Visa® Secured Card
- Credit One Bank® Platinum
- Visa® for Rebuilding Credit
LATAM Visa® Secured Card
This is The Best Credit Card for Airline Discount
This is the most affordable secured cards, for the first year, you are charged $0 but after the first year, you are charged $25. With this card you can save more if you purchase multiple flight tickets in one purchase because it offers a 10% discount on your first LATAM purchase every year.
Annual fee – $0 for the first year into annual fee, then $25 each year after that
Minimum deposit – $300
Advantages of LATAM Visa® Secured Card
It offers low annual fee; $0 fee for the first card year, then $25 each year
You will earn rewards of 1x points on all purchases
It offers a signup bonus of 5,000 points after using your card for the first time
You will get a discount of 10% on your first LATAM purchase with a maximum of $500 per year
Disadvantages of LATAM Visa® Secured Card
It has high APR of 22.99% variable, which makes it higher than the industry average of 16%
Discover it® Secured
This is The Best Credit Card for General Rewards
Discover it® Secured is one of the best secured card. There’s no annual fee, and it offers solid rewards as well as a free option to check your FICO score each month. This is one of the best cards for vacation because it offers 2% cash back at restaurants and gas station on up to $1,000 combined purchases every quarter then 1%. Discover it® Secured is a good card for building credit with it’s no foreign transaction fee.
Annual fee – $0
Minimum deposit – $200
Advantages of Discover it® Secured
You will earn a cash back of 2% at restaurants and gas stations on the first $1,000 combined purchases each quarter. And on all others purchases it offer 1% cash back.
It offers a signup bonus and will match all the cash back earned without any limits
Discover it® Secured will report your payment history to the three main credit bureaus which are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion which will enable you build your credit if payments are made consistently and on time.
After eight months, your account will be reviewed monthly and if they ascertain you have been paying on time and in full, they may return your security deposit while you continue using your card and this turns your secured card into an unsecured card.
Disadvantages of Discover it® Secured
You’d get a $45 fee for late payment. Although the first late payment fee is waived but other late or returned payments will cost you.
There is a time limit for balance transfer. Your transfer must post to your account within the first month if you want to utilize the intro balance transfer APR.
Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card
This is The Best Credit Card for Business
This is also one of the best Airline and Travel cards, it offers 1.5% cash back on all purchases on your travel spending. Alternatively, it offers 1.5x points and bonus points every month you spend. The downside with this card is that there is a higher deposit of $500 but the good things about this card is that there are not foreign transaction fee.
Annual fee – $0
Minimum deposit – $500
Is it possible to get an airline travel credit card if I have bad credit?
It is possible to get an airline or travel card if you have bad credit but it is difficult. The reason is because card providers prefer to give highly qualified applicants because of the rewards and perks it comes with.To be considered for the card you have to narrow your choices
Which airline credit cards are the easiest to get approved for?
Secured credit cards are the best options if you have bad credit. And there are a number of secured airline cards you can choose from such as LATAM Visa® Secured Card, Discover it® Secured, and Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card.
To get a secured card, you are required to first make a security deposit of $200 to $300, with this deposit banks are more willing to give secured cards to those with bad credit because if you do not repay your card debt, your provider can take this deposit.
With travel cards you can earn cash back or points on travel purchases such as flights, hotels, restaurants, and car rentals. These are several airline and travel cards but here are the best options.
Best for Airline Discount
- LATAM Visa® Secured Card
Best for Bonus Airline Miles
- SKYPASS Visa® Secured Card
Annual fee – $50
Minimum deposit – $300
Best for General Rewards
- Discover it® Secured
Best for Business
- Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card
Best for Companion Certificate
- AeroMexico Visa® Secured Card
Annual fee – $25
Minimum deposit – $300
Best unsecured cards
- Credit One Bank® Platinum
- Visa® for Rebuilding Credit
Annual fee – $0 to $99
Minimum deposit – None
There are airline credit cards that comes with carrier-specific benefits. These cards offer flexible rewards. For instance, LATAM is part of Onewoeld Alliance which means that you can redeem LATAM Pass points for flights with other carriers in the alliance. This is the same for Korean Air and Aeromexico which are park of SkyTeam.
Airline alliances
You can book flights with alliance carriers with your points and miles after earning rewards with certain airline credit cards.
Oneworld carriers
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Qatar Airways
- Fiji Airways
- Japan Airlines
- Finnair
- Malaysia Airlines
- LATAM
- S7 Airlines
- Iberia
- Qantas
- Royal Air Maroc
- Royal Jordanian
- Cathay Pacific
- SriLankan Airlines
SkyTeam carriers
- Delta Air Lines
- KLM
- Aeroflot
- Aeromexico
- Saudia
- Aerolíneas Argentinas
- China Airlines
- Air France
- Air Europa
- China Southern
- Alitalia
- China Eastern
- Garuda Indonesia
- Czech Airlines
- Vietnam Airlines
- Korean Air
- Middle East Airlines — Air Liban
- Tarom
- Xiamen Air
- Kenya Airways
Advantages of Airline Travel Credit Cards for Bad Credit
There are cards that offer airline-specific benefits
Most cards offer general rewards on all purchases
Disadvantages of Airline Travel Credit Cards for Bad Credit
There are not many airline travel cards for bad credit
You are limited to secured cards or unsecured cards with high yearly fee
How to choose the best airline travel credit card for bad credit
When you have bad credit you are limited to a number of airline and travel credit cards unlike when your credit score is good or excellent. When you have bad credit, there are some factors to consider before choosing the right card and it includes the following;
Annual fee
The annual fee for secured cards is usually within $25 to $50. This annual fee can affect your reward as well so you have to sure if you will get enough value from a card to to offset it’s price.
One of the best airline or travel cards with no annual fee is the Discover it Secured card.
Security Deposit
This is the price of a secured card, security deposit is required because it serves as a colleteral and it’s usually within the range of $200 to $500 but if this is much for you there are cards with lower minimum security deposit.
Rewards
It is very important to check the rewards structure and the type of rewards you’d get before choosing a card. Airline Miles is useful because you can redeem them with alliance partners. Cash back on the other hand is easier to redeem. Either options are good but you need to consider where you spend the most money because some cards offer bonus rewards for certain categories.
Airline Alliance
The airline card listed above falls under Oneworld alliance. If you fly with any of the carries in this alliance, your miles could prove flexible.
Benefits
There are some good deals that comes with bad-credit airline cards. So it’s important to consider the kind of flyer you are and whether or not you can take advantage of the card’s benefits.
Foreign Transaction Fee
Most secured cars charge a certain fee for international transactions. If this is an issue, then you can look for a card that doesn’t charge fees for foreign transaction.
Signup Bonus
There are several airline or travel cards that offer signup bonus as soon as you open your card. Airline Miles worth over 1 cent apiece.
Alternatives to airline travel credit cards for bad credit
There are several secured cards for bad credit so you do not have to limit yourself to airline or travel cards. You have to choose what’s best for you because the purpose of this is to build credit and get an unsecured airline or travel card with better rewards and perks.
One of the best unsecured cards for bad credit is Credit One cards. With these cards, you are not required to make a security deposit to get it. And it offers 1% cash back on select purchase like restaurants and gas depending on your credit.
Conclusion
Airline or travel cards are aimed towards those with good credit, however, if you have bad credit there are some you can qualify for as mentioned above. If you are not looking for airline cards that means you should look for the ones that suits your needs so you can build credit.
