Credit Building > Bip Credit Card review: a cardless credit builder card?

Bip Credit Card review: a cardless credit builder card?

Wollit Team2 minute read · Updated 4th July 2024

The Bip Credit Card is a digital-only credit building credit card. This means that it’s a credit card that is aimed at people with bad or no credit history, and which you can only use through Google Pay or Apple Pay.

Otherwise, it works just like a regular credit-building card, so let’s see how it compares.

What are the pros of a Bip Credit Card?

The Bip Credit Card stands out compared to other credit-building cards in a few ways:

Lower APR. Most credit building cards charge anywhere between 35% to 55% per year. The Bip Credit Card offers a competitive APR of 29.9%, which is relatively low compared to other credit builder cards.
No need to wait for a physical card to arrive in the post box.
No annual charges.
No late payment.
No fees for going over the credit limit.
Even no foreign exchange fees. Most credit cards charge about 3% on currency exchange, but Bip simply uses the Mastercard rates.
Great app: like any modern fintech.

Bip also comes with another very useful feature: you can set your own spending caps în the app, or turn a warning cap to receive an alert when reaching a certain spending limit. This can help you stay under the 25% credit utilisation percentage that Experian recommends if you want to improve your credit score.

What are the cons of the Bip Credit Card?

This doesn’t mean that Bip is perfect. Some of its cons:

Lower credit limits: Bip offers a starting credit limit of up to £1200. Most credit building cards go up to £1500, some even close to £2000. Having a higher credit limit, especially if you don’t go near it, can also help your credit score.
No rewards: the Bip card offers no rewards and no cashback. This isn’t unusual, as most credit building cards don’t offer rewards. Still, some do, like the Asda Money Select card or the Tesco Foundation card.
You’ll need to have your phone with you and your battery charged when you go outside. This isn’t a big issue nowadays, but it could be frustrating sometimes.

What do reviews say?

On Trustpilot, one of the largest customer review websites, reviews for the Bip Credit Card are very positive. Almost 2000 customers gave it a 4.4 out of 5 rating. Most of them praise how fast the application process is, and the fact that there are no hidden fees and especially no currency conversion fees.

However, a rather large 13% of customers gave Bip only one star. They complain about the high interest charges or the very poor customer service. Most concerning were reports about fraud and hackers breaking into the app. We’ve seen these sorts of incidents with other credit building cards, like Zable, and it’s always something to give you pause.

Is Bip worth it?

The Bip Credit Card offers a compelling solution. The fact that you can use it straightaway, don’t need to worry about hidden fees, and can set spending and warning caps can be really useful for keeping on top of your spending.

But the reports of poor customer service, poor app security, lack of rewards, and potential interest rate increases should make you at least think twice about getting it. There are plenty of other credit-building cards out there for you to look into.

For a safer alternative, consider a credit-building app like Wollit. Unlike Bip, Wollit reports your monthly fixed fee subscription as a loan repayment but not as a credit card.

This means that Wolit directly builds your credit history and gives you a chance to improve your credit score while keeping you safe from unexpected APR increases or fraudsters buying things with your card or taking credit in your name.