Credit Building > Which credit cards can you get with no UK credit history?

Which credit cards can you get with no UK credit history?

Wollit Team3 minute read · Updated 3rd July 2024

If you are new to the UK or have never borrowed money before, you may struggle to get approved for a credit card.

Having no credit history means that lenders don’t know enough about you to be able to decide if you’re a good or risky borrower, or how much interest they should charge you.

This being said, there are several credit card providers that work specifically with people who have limited or even no credit history at all.

What is credit history and why is it important for credit card providers?

Credit history is a record of how well you’ve been managing credit. It includes information about your past borrowing and repayment habits, which lenders use to assess your creditworthiness.

In the UK, there are three main credit referencing agencies: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Each agency collects information about your credit history and provides it in a credit report format to lenders when you apply for credit.

Credit history is important because it’s the main piece of information that lenders rely on when determining your eligibility for credit. Lenders use it to assess the risk of lending to you and to decide whether to approve your application.

A good credit history indicates that you are a responsible borrower and can manage your debt well. This makes it easier to get approved for credit cards. It also makes it more likely that you’ll get a credit card with good terms, like low APR, high credit limit, and long 0% interest purchase period.

The same works in reverse: a poor credit history suggests that you may struggle to manage your debt, which increases the risk for lenders.

This can lead to difficulties in getting approved for credit cards. Even if you are approved, you may be offered worse terms, such as high APR, low credit limits, and shorter 0% interest purchase periods.

Which credit card providers accept people with no credit history at all?

There are several credit card options available for people with no credit history in the UK. These cards are meant to help you build your credit score by giving you a line of credit despite you having no credit score.

The idea is that, over time, the repayments of your credit card debt will slowly build your credit history and show that you can indeed manage debt well.

The two main categories of credit cards which accept people with no credit history at all are credit builder cards and student credit cards.

Credit builder cards are specifically meant for people with no or poor credit history. They usually have a lower spending limit and a higher interest rate compared to other credit cards.

Some of the easiest ones to get by people with no credit history at all are:

Student credit cards are aimed at full-time college and university students aged 18 and over. They work very similarly to credit builder cards: low spending limit and a high interest rate. The main difference is that sometimes they come with perks or rewards specifically for students, which can make them a good option for students who want to build their credit score.

Some of the most popular student credit cards are:

TSB Student Credit Card;
and the HSBC Student Credit Card.

What are the eligibility criteria to apply for a credit card with no credit history?

To apply for a credit card despite having no credit history, you usually need to meet a few key eligibility criteria:

You must be at least 18 years old. This applies even to student credit cards.
You must earn a minimum amount of income, usually at least £10,000 per year.
If you’re self-employed, you may need to show at least two years of income. If you’re an employee, you usually need to have been in your current job for only three to six months.
You must have a valid UK address and proof of residency.
You must have the right to live and work in the UK.

How can I increase my chances of getting approved for a credit card if I have no credit history?

There are a couple of things you can do to increase your chances of getting approved for a credit card even if you don't have a credit history in the UK yet.

The first thing you can do is to get a better job.

This helps you when lenders calculate your affordability score. This score tells them how much you can actually afford to pay back every month. The more you earn, the more likely you are to be approved for any financial product including a credit card.

If you're self-employed you could try to find a full-time job instead, even if only a part-time one. This is because lenders prefer the stability of the full-time job over self-employment. a full-time employee has a much higher chance of getting approved for a credit card compared to someone who's self-employed even if they earn slightly less.

The next thing you can do is to build your credit history with the help of a specialised credit-building app.

These apps accept 100% of the applicants, as their role is to help you build credit in the first place. They are also much more affordable than credit builder cards, since they don’t come with excessive interest rates and don’t require you to buy things on debt in order to build your credit history.

One such app is Wollit.

Wollit is an app available both on Android and iOS, and it works by reporting a fixed-fee monthly subscription as a loan repayment to all main credit reference agencies in the UK (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion).

This builds your credit history and helps you improve your credit score. Eventually, a better credit history will increase your approval chances – not only for credit cards that accept people with no credit history but also for better credit cards that come with rewards and long 0% interest periods on purchases.