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Because the Tomo Credit Card doesn’t allow you to carry a balance, it doesn’t offer the greatest flexibility among credit cards.
Despite this limitation, it has a lot going for it, including cashback rewards, premium benefits, no fees, and credit-building capabilities.
Quick Review
The Tomo Credit Card is a credit card with a couple of very unusual features. First, it doesn’t let you carry a balance from one month to the next, because your card is frozen if you don’t pay off everything at the end of each billing cycle.
Second, the Tomo Credit Card billing cycle is 7 days long, rather than a month, with automatic payments from your bank account at the end of each 7-day period (you can’t get a Tomo Credit Card unless you link it to at least one bank account).
This system has advantages and disadvantages. Although you’ll lose the luxury of being able to chip away at your balance more slowly, you won’t have to pay any interest or late payment fees, and can easily monitor your credit spending.
Other notable points in this card’s favor are the generous rewards program (with a cashback rewards rate of 1%–20%), fee-less foreign transactions, and premium Mastercard® benefits. It’s unusual to get benefits like cell phone insurance with cards for bad credit or no credit, so these additions are impressive.
Considering all these advantages—plus the comprehensive credit reporting you get and the fact that you don’t have to pay anything upfront (as there’s no security deposit or annual fee)—we highly recommend the Tomo Credit Card for credit builders and anyone having trouble getting approved for other cards.
Tomo Credit Card Important Details
Basic Card Details
- Credit card issuer: Community Federal Savings Bank
- Regular APR: N/A
- Annual fee: $0
- Rewards rate: 1%–20%
- Credit limit: $100–$10,000
Additional Information
- No security deposit required
- 1% cashback rewards rate
- Extra cashback rewards for referrals (up to 20%)
- 7-day automatic payment schedule (and your account is frozen if you miss a payment)
- Monthly credit reporting to three major bureaus
- Fast online application that takes as few as 5 minutes
- No joint accounts or authorized users
- Cash advances and balance transfers are not available
- No foreign transaction fees
- Free credit scores available
- Cell phone insurance
- Other World Elite Mastercard® benefits (e.g., exclusive discounts, MasterRental insurance against theft of or damage to rental cars, travel assistance, emergency assistance with card replacements)
- Transaction and usage limits apply (e.g., caps on the number and total value of purchases allowed per day or per month, for example)
Tomo Credit Card Feature Breakdown
In this section, we’ll take a look at how the Tomo Credit Card works.
Fees
The Tomo Credit Card has none of the fees that you often get with comparable credit cards (especially no-credit-check credit cards):
- Annual fee: $0
- Late payment fee: $0
- Foreign transaction fee: $0
Note that, although there are no late payment fees, you should still pay your bills on time. If you don’t pay off your balance at the end of each week, Tomo will suspend your account temporarily so that you can’t use your card until you’re caught up. Your credit may also suffer.
Repayment Terms
The Tomo Credit Card has an unusual system for repayment. When you sign up for your Tomo card, you have to link a bank account and authorize Tomo to take automatic payments from the account every week. If your payment doesn’t work (because of insufficient funds in your account), the issuer freezes your card, and you won’t be able to use it again until you’re up to date with payments.
Tomo Credit Card payments are triggered every Sunday.
There are reports online claiming you may be able to switch from a 7-day repayment schedule to a 30-day schedule after a few months using the Tomo Credit Card. However, the Tomo customer service team told us that you cannot change your payment schedule further down the line.
Interest Rates
With most credit cards, you can carry a balance from month to month. The issuer charges interest on the balance you leave unpaid.
If you have a credit card that allows you to carry a balance from one billing cycle to another, the annual rate of interest you’ll pay is called the APR (annual percentage rate). However, the Tomo Credit Card does not allow you to carry a balance, so it doesn’t charge interest.
Rewards
The Tomo Credit Card has cashback rewards, with a regular cashback rate of 1% (which is reasonable for credit cards in this tier). However, you can boost the rate by 1% if you refer someone else for the card, and then get another 1% for each person you refer—up to a maximum of 20%.
As many credit cards for poor credit or limited credit don’t offer rewards programs, this is a good deal.
Benefits
The Tomo Credit Card has great benefits for a credit card with no credit score requirements. For one, you’ll get free credit scores. Tomo doesn’t advertise this feature, but their customer service team told us that they’ve recently started offering them. However, they didn’t specify whether these were FICO credit scores or VantageScore credit scores.
You’ll also get World Elite Mastercard® benefits including:
- Cell phone protection: This insures your phone for up to $1,000 in case it’s stolen or damaged.
- Concierge service: This is a complimentary service to help you with tasks like booking dinner or event reservations and locating hard-to-find items such as tickets for a sold-out show.
- Luxury hotel and resorts portfolio: This gives you access to a selection of luxury properties where you can get extra perks like complimentary breakfasts, free wifi, or discounts on hotel spa services.
- Lowest hotel rate guarantee: If you use the Mastercard® Travel and Lifestyle Services program (either online or through an authorized program agent) to book a hotel room, but you then find a cheaper deal, you’ll normally be eligible for a refund of the price difference.
- Priceless cities: This is an online collection of experiences curated exclusively for Mastercard® customers in cities around the world—wellness retreats, concerts, dining, museums, art events, and much more.
- Zero fraud liability: This means the credit card issuer won’t hold you responsible for transactions not authorized by you.
- Mastercard® ID theft protection: This includes TransUnion credit report monitoring and dark web monitoring to check for misuse of your personal information (e.g., your Social Security number and your credit or debit card information).
- 24-hour assistance if your card is lost or stolen: This gives you an emergency phone number to report your card lost or stolen and request emergency card replacement as well as emergency cash advances.
- Exclusive discounts: Exclusive offers on ride-sharing, online shopping, food delivery, and more.
Foreign Transactions
The Tomo Credit Card allows you to make foreign transactions, and doesn’t charge any fees for doing so.
Many credit cards that allow foreign transactions charge fees equivalent to 1%–3% of the transaction amount, whereas others don’t charge a foreign transaction fee at all. If you travel a lot, fee-free foreign transactions are a great bonus.
Cash Advances and Balance Transfers
A cash advance is when you use your credit card to withdraw money from an ATM. A balance transfer is when you move debt from one credit card to another to consolidate debt.
Cash advances and balance transfers aren’t allowed on the Tomo Credit Card, so if you need these functions, look for another card.
Transaction and Usage Limits
There are limits to how much you can use your Tomo Credit Card. These limits are as follows:
- Number of purchases allowed per day: 20
- Value of purchases allowed per day: $5,000
- Number of purchases allowed over 4 days: 40
- Value of purchases allowed over 4 days: $10,000
- Value of purchases allowed per month: $20,000
- Value of purchases allowed per year: $240,000
Credit Limit
The Tomo Credit Card offers initial credit limits ranging from $100–$10,000. Credit limit increases are also available. The Tomo website says that you can achieve a credit limit of $10,000 over time based on period account reviews.
Credit Reporting
Credit reporting is an important part of credit building, as your credit report is based on the information your lenders send to the credit bureaus. Fortunately, the Tomo Credit Card reports to all three major credit bureaus—Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion—each month.
Credit Building
Because the Tomo Credit Card reports to all three credit bureaus, it’s great for credit building. However, you must avoid missing payments or underpaying; your credit scores may suffer otherwise.
Tomo claims that the 7-day payment schedule builds your credit faster. However, as they report activity monthly (like most credit cards), we’ve found no evidence to support this claim.
Credit Score Requirements
Tomo doesn’t perform a credit check when you apply for the Tomo Credit Card. This means there are no credit score requirements, so you don’t have to worry about your credit report sabotaging your application.
Application and Approval
Tomo says that it takes only five minutes to apply for a Tomo Credit Card online. You’ll have to provide some basic information, but Tomo won’t perform a hard inquiry (a credit check that’s visible to others viewing your credit report and has a small impact on your credit score).
As part of your application, the Tomo Credit Card issuer will evaluate your finances (instead of your credit history). They’ll do this by using the financial history of the bank accounts that you link to the card. They will then decide whether to approve your application and, if so, for what credit limit.
Notably, you don’t even need a Social Security number to apply for the Tomo Credit Card. You can use an ITIN (an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, which is a number that the tax authorities issue to non-residents of the US for tax purposes).
Managing Your Account
You can manage your Tomo Credit Card account from the Tomo dashboard, or through Apple and Android apps you can download.
For payment methods, the options are limited. You’ll have to set up automatic payments from a linked bank account to make payments every week.
Tomo’s website implies that there may be alternatives to this system after you’ve had the card for a while. However, the customer service team told us that you can’t switch to monthly payments even if you’ve had the card for a while, and they didn’t mention any alternative payment methods. This seems to suggest that the weekly autopay option is the only one available, regardless of how long you’ve had the card and of your financial status.
Lost or Stolen Cards
If your Tomo Credit Card is lost or stolen, you can call 1-800-627-8372 (1-800-MASTERCARD) in the US.
Customer Service
If you need help with your Tomo Credit Card, you can email customer service at [email protected], call them at (866) 432 7695, or send them mail at:
TomoCredit Inc
535 Mission Street, Floor 14
San Francisco, CA 94105
Should You Get the Tomo Credit Card?
FinanceJar Verdict
Because of the Tomo Credit Card’s cashback rewards, nonexistent fees, and great benefits, we would recommend it to credit-builders that can reliably pay their balance each week.
You’ll need at least an ITIN to apply, but it’s otherwise an extremely accessible card—regardless of your credit status.
Who Is This Card For?
- People with no credit history: If you’re a young adult or new immigrant, you may not yet have had time to establish your credit. If that’s the case, the Tomo Credit Card is a great way to get a foot on the credit ladder (and earn rewards while you do it).
- Anyone with a strict budget: If you carry a balance on a credit card, minimum required payments and interest charges can be unpredictable. The Tomo Credit Card makes budgeting easier, because you have to pay off everything as you go. This means it’s more straightforward to plan and control your finances. However, this inflexibility also means that you can’t simply pay less if there’s a month where you’re short on funds.
Comparable Cards
To determine whether the Tomo Credit Card is right for you, take a look at how it measures up against similar credit cards on the market.
