Credit Building > Zopa credit card review

Zopa credit card review

Wollit Team3 minute read · Updated 3rd July 2024

The Zopa credit card is a mobile-friendly card meant to help people build their credit rating. Here are its pros and cons, and how it compares to other credit builder cards in the UK.

What are the pros of the Zopa credit card?

No foreign transaction fees, which is great when you shop or travel abroad.
The Zopa credit card can be managed through a user-friendly app that offers features like instant spending notifications, viewing PIN within the app, and the ability to freeze the card if you see any signs of fraud or if your card gets stolen.
No annual fee.
And 56 days of interest-free period on purchases is quite long for a credit builder card.

The Zopa card also has a great feature called “Cash Cushion.”

The Cash Cushion feature on the Zopa credit card allows you to set aside a portion of your credit limit for emergency spending only.

Having a cash cushion has a few advantages:

It obviously can work as an emergency fund and safety net.
It’s convenient: you won’t need a separate “rainy day” pot.
It can also help you ensure that you don’t easily go over your credit limit, keeping your credit score safe, as maxed-out credit limits tend to lower your credit score.

What are the cons of the Zopa credit card?

The Zopa credit card has a high representative APR of 34.9%, which is higher than the average for credit builder cards (which tends to be between 29-34%). You might rack up high-interest charges if you can’t clear your monthly balance.
While the card offers fee-free spending abroad, cash withdrawals at home and abroad incur a £3 charge, which can add up if you frequently withdraw cash.

How does the Zopa card compare to other credit builder cards?

It depends on what you’re looking for:

Zopa has no rewards, which is not unusual for credit builder cards. However, some do offer them—for example, the Asda Money Select or the Tesco Foundation cards, both of which often offer quite generous rewards and cashback. If you frequently shop at Tesco or Asda, you might want to look into one of these cards instead.
If you want to lower your APR, you might want to consider the Barclaycard Forward card, which offers a “price promise” feature. This means that the card will reduce the interest rate you pay if you keep making the monthly payments on time and in full.
If you want a higher credit limit, you might want to look into Vanquis. This company automatically reviews your credit limit each month to see if you’re eligible for an increase. This automatic check does not affect your credit score; you don’t need to apply for it.

What do customer reviews say?

On Trustpilot (one of the largest customer review sites), over 24,000 customers have given Zopa an “excellent” rating of 4.5 out of 5.

However, keep in mind that these reviews are for the bank as a whole—they also offer savings, personal loans, and other products.

If we only look at the reviews that mention the card, the customer experience seems to be more mixed.

On the one hand, plenty of reviews praise the Zopa card. These seem happiest with the hassle-free application process, the speed of getting the card, and the app’s ease of use.

On the other hand, there are quite a few 1-star reviews. Some of the most concerning ones complain about:

Balance transfers being lost on the way (first time we’ve heard about this with any card);
Fraudulent transactions which Zopa reviewed and decided not to reverse;
Poorly managed direct debits meant that some customers were accidentally reported as having missed payments, which in turn affected their credit scores.

Is the Zopa credit card worth it?

The Zopa credit card certainly seems like a good choice. We especially liked its cash cushion feature, which can come in really handy in an emergency.

Overall, Zopa’s customer service does not always seem up to par. Even some of the 4 and 5 star reviews say that while the bank is great, the customer service chat is “very frustrating.””

Unfortunately, poor customer service can greatly impact your credit score if the bank doesn’t deal with fraudulent transactions or technical glitches on time. Especially if you have a poor credit score, the last thing you need is a technical error to lower your score even more.

For a safer alternative to building or improving your credit history, consider downloading a credit-building app like Wollit.

Building your credit history with a card like Zopa requires you to buy things on credit first and then repay them as soon as possible if you don’t want to be hit with extremely high fees and interest charges.

With Wollit, you only need to pay a fixed monthly subscription. Wollit then reports this subscription as a loan repayment to the credit reference agencies.

This builds your credit history and improves your credit score while keeping you safe from high APR charges, maxed-out credit limits, or even getting deeper into debt.

More importantly, as your credit score increases, you’ll eventually become eligible for credit cards with higher credit limits, lower APRs, and great rewards.