Mission Lane Visa® Credit Card 2024 Review: An Unsecured Card With No Major Surprises

Mission Lane Visa® Review

The Mission Lane Visa® is an unsecured credit card for people who want to improve their credit or establish a borrowing history. For this type of card, it’s fairly standard in most respects, but here are the major considerations to keep in mind:

• It might be expensive: Annual fees on the Mission Lane Visa® are $0–$59, and the purchase APR is 19.99%–29.99% (variable). If you get an offer at the higher end of these two scales, this card could be expensive, especially if you carry a balance.
• Credit limit: To start with, the Mission Lane Visa® gives you a credit limit of $300 or more. They don’t specify how high their credit limits go, but they do say you can get reviewed for credit limit increases after 12 months at most.
• It’s good for credit building: This card reports to all three major credit bureaus and gives free credit scores to help you monitor your credit-building progress.
• You’ll get a hard inquiry when you apply: Mission Lane’s prequalification process won’t hurt your credit at all. But if you then go on to formally apply, you’ll trigger a hard inquiry (when you select “Get my answer”), causing your credit score to drop slightly.

The Mission Lane Visa® allows you to prequalify without affecting your credit score, so it’s worth doing this to find out what kind of interest rates and fees Mission Lane will offer you. It’ll then be easier to tell whether it’s worth your while to apply for this card.

Pros & Cons

Who Is the Mission Lane Visa® For?

• Applicants who want fast approval: The Mission Lane Visa® website claims you can get an instant decision when you apply for the card, so you won’t need to wait around to find out whether you qualify.
• Holders of bad credit or no credit: The Mission Lane Visa® works well for building or rebuilding credit, as it reports to all three major credit bureaus. It also gives you free access to your credit score so that you can see your progress as you work toward better credit.

If neither of these descriptions applies to you, see if any of these alternatives might be a better fit:

• Credit cards for bad credit
• Unsecured credit cards for bad credit
• Credit cards for no credit
• Secured credit cards

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Rates & Fees

Fees

• Annual fee: $0–$59
• Cash advance fee: $10 or 3% (whichever is greater)
• Foreign transaction fee: 3%
• Late/returned payment fee: Up to $35
• Over-limit fee: None

Interest Rates

• Regular APR: 19.99%–29.99% (variable)
• Cash advance APR: 19.99%–29.99% (variable)
• Minimum interest charge: $0.50

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Rewards

Rewards are rare among credit cards for lower credit scores, but they do exist. If earning cash back is important to you, consider looking for a secured credit card with rewards.

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Credit Limit

Having a good credit limit is important when you’re trying to build or rebuild credit. One metric in your credit score is how much of your credit you’re using at a given time, so having a higher credit limit and borrowing responsibly can help improve your credit score.

Credit Limit Increases

The Mission Lane Visa® website says, “We’ll evaluate your account for a credit line increase at least once within your first 12 months as a Mission Lane member.” However, this doesn’t guarantee that your limit will increase, even if you make all your payments on time.

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Benefits

Here are the benefits you can expect from the Mission Lane Visa®.

Although these benefits are welcome, they’re not particularly remarkable. Apart from free credit scores, most of them will be included with almost any credit card you choose.

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How to Get a Mission Lane Visa®

Credit Score Required

The Mission Lane Visa® card is marketed as a way to build or rebuild credit. And Visa says that the card is appropriate for holders of poor credit or people wanting to rebuild credit.

For FICO scores, 300–580 scores are considered to be a “bad” or “poor”. You may still be eligible for the Mission Lane Visa® if your score is within this range.

How to Apply

You can apply for a Mission Lane Visa®:

• By applying online: Go to the Mission Lane Visa® website, and click “See if I’ll Be Approved” to prequalify. This won’t affect your credit score.
• By responding to a preapproval offer online: If you’ve received a preselected Mission Lane Visa® offer by mail, you can respond by visiting the Mission Lane Visa® website and entering your personal offer code.

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Building Credit with a Mission Lane Visa®

Credit Reporting

To build credit, you need to make sure that your lenders report to as many of the major credit bureaus as possible. Because the Mission Lane Visa® credit card reports to all of them—Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion—it’s a good card for borrowers with lower credit scores.

Tips for Credit Building

These strategies will help you to build credit with your Mission Lane Visa®:

• Keep on top of your bills: If you miss payments altogether or pay more than 30 days late, you’ll risk getting a late payment on your credit report. This is a black mark on your credit history, and is bad for your credit score. It also usually means late payment fees, which make it even more difficult to stay up to date with future payments.
• Spend as little as possible on your card: The proportion of your available credit that you use is one important metric that credit scoring models include in their calculations. The less of your credit you use, the better. On the other hand, if you max out your credit cards, it’s bad news for your score.
• Use your credit responsibly: As mentioned, your Mission Lane Visa® account will be reviewed for credit limit increases in the first year. Credit limit increases make it easier to use a smaller proportion of your credit, so they’re good for your credit score in the same way that low spending is. Credit limit increases are more likely if you follow the above guidelines, but you should also use your card enough to keep it active.

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Comparable Cards

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Mission Lane Visa® Credit Card FAQs

What bank issues the Mission Lane Visa®?

The Mission Lane Visa® credit card is issued by Transportation Alliance Bank, Inc.

Does the Mission Lane Visa® credit card have a grace period?

Yes, the Mission Lane Visa® has a grace period of 23 days.

Does the Mission Lane Visa® allow cash advances?

Yes, the Mission Land Visa® allows cash advances (a service where you use your credit card to borrow money or make cash-like transactions). However, the amount you can withdraw is limited at a maximum of 25% of your credit limit.

There’s also a cash advance fee of $10 or 3% (whichever is greater). This fee is fairly standard. The cash advance APR, meanwhile, is 19.99%–29.99% (variable), so it’s the same as the APR for purchases (whereas many cards have a higher APR for cash advances).

Can you add authorized users to the Mission Lane Visa®?

No, Mission Lane doesn’t let you add authorized users to your card. It also doesn’t allow joint accounts.

How can I pay my Mission Lane Visa® credit card bill?

You can pay by logging into your Mission Lane Visa® credit card account online. Alternatively, you can use the iOS app or Android app.

As well as making payments online, you can mail payments to Mission Lane at:

Mission Lane LLC

PO Box 23075

Columbus, GA 31902-3075

How do I contact Mission Lane’s customer service?

If you have questions about applying for the Mission Lane Visa®, you can email them at [email protected], or send a message online.

Finally, you can write to:

Mission Lane LLC

PO Box 105286

Atlanta, GA 30348-5286

How do I close my Mission Lane Visa® account?

There are two ways to close your Mission Lane account, but note that you can’t reopen your account once you’ve closed it.

To close your account, do either of the following:

1. Send Mission Lane a message to say you want to close your account
2. Call Mission Lane (at the number on the back of your card), and tell them you’d like to close your account.