The Verve Mastercard Credit Card has more cons than pros, and the main benefit it offers is helping to build your credit score.

While the card can help you do that if you use it the right way, you need to make sure that benefit outweighs the fees that the card charges.

Verve Card Pros

Pro 1: Credit Building Capabilities

The biggest pro to the Verve card is that it can help you build your credit score if you use it responsibly.

It’s designed for people with a low credit score, unlike premium credit cards and most cash back credit cards, you can apply and potentially get approved even if you have a bad score.

The card reports to the three credit bureaus, so if you make your payments on time and in full every month, you should start to see your credit score improve slowly over time as your credit history improves. Plus, you can easily monitor your progress by taking advantage of the card’s free monthly credit score checks.

All that being said, there are other options that exist that can help build your credit that we’ll dive into a little further below.

Pro 2: Credit Limit

The Verve Credit Card states that your credit limit could start at $750. Plus, they offer the ability to apply for a potential credit limit increase after 6 months.

That’s a lot of spending power for a credit card designed for someone with less than ideal credit. While a high credit limit is generally a good thing, you need to ensure that you use your card responsibly and only spend what you can afford to pay off.

Just because you can spend $750 a month, doesn’t mean you should.

Verve Card Cons

Con 1: Fees

The biggest downfall with the Verve Card is that it has some hefty fees.

Mainly, the $99 annual fee is a large one to pay with almost no benefits offered in return.

Plus, there are a few fees that you can avoid, but need to watch out for, such as the foreign transaction fee, late payment fee, and additional card fee.

While some other reviews on this card reported a monthly maintenance fee, I couldn’t find any mention of it in their cardholder agreement. Although, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

If a monthly fee does exist on top of the annual card, then you have an extremely high chance of finding a better card with fewer fees to help build your credit score.

Con 2: Lack of Rewards

A lack of rewards is not uncommon for a credit card in this category, but it is still a downfall of this card.

Con 3: Application Process

As mentioned earlier, the application process for this card is far from straightforward. I’m not even sure if you can apply without getting selected as a prequalified applicant via mail offers.

The lack of transparency is a clear negative here in my book.

Con 4: High APR

Paying the annual percentage rate, or APR, should be avoided at all costs. It’s essentially the interest rate carried on any credit card balance left unpaid at the end of the month (or on a cash advance).

If you’re paying the APR, it usually means you haven’t been paying off your card on time and in full every month.

While it should be avoided, sometimes emergencies happen and unexpected expenses pop up causing you to carry an outstanding balance on your card, and the APR with this card is very high if you do end up needing to pay it.