Chase Sapphire Preferred Review
A powerful combination of bonus rewards, annual credits and travel perks.
Courtney Mihocik is a NACCC Certified Credit Counselor™ and a former senior editor for the Bankrate credit cards team. She specialized in helping people with limited or no credit understand their options for improving their credit scores. She focused on the subprime category and provided guidance to people on their credit-building journeys.
Courtney is passionate about creating a space where people can learn more about managing their personal finances, specifically helping her peers achieve their credit card and credit score goals. She believes that public education fails to teach the essentials of personal finance to students and wants to make up for it in her editorial work.
Previously, she led insurance content at Reviews.com and worked as the loans editor at The Simple Dollar, where she produced daily personal finance articles from founder Trent Hamm in addition to student, personal, business and bad credit loan articles. Before entering the digital media space, Courtney worked in hyper-local print journalism, covering arts, culture, food, news and more for publications in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Courtney graduated college with a 750 credit score, which quickly plummeted to the 500s when she nearly defaulted on her high student loan payments she couldn’t afford. After applying for an income-driven repayment plan and six years of careful budgeting, hustling and responsible credit use, she’s happy to report her credit score is back hovering around 720 and she can qualify for better financial products.
Achieving a good credit score takes time and patience. But as long as you pay bills on time and manage your credit wisely, you will watch your score climb. As someone who went from a 500 score to a 750 score, I can tell you it’s worth the effort.
— Courtney Mihocik, CCC
This card’s low variable APR could be enough to make it a top option for some credit-builders.
Although the Quicksilver Student doesn't offer the best cash back or APR rates among student cards, it's as rewarding and easy to use as the full card.
Self’s credit card is easily accessible, but the fees and restrictions with the added credit-builder loan might make traditional secured cards better choices.
The best Mastercard credit cards offer generous rewards, tempting sign-up offers and long introductory periods during which you’ll pay no interest. Check out Bankrate's top picks.
Check out our top credit cards picks for consumers with average or fair credit. Compare offers and read analysis from Bankrate's credit card experts.
This hybrid credit card/personal loan packs in plenty of features and could be a standout option for rewards seekers looking for an easy-to-use flat-rate card
The Bank of America Platinum Plus Mastercard Business card has a low APR and no annual fee, making it a good card for business owners making large purchases.
For those in the market for a credit-building card, the First Access Visa Credit Card is a possible option, but it comes with lots of fees.
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