You're our first priority. Every time.

We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. While we don't cover every company or financial product on the market, we work hard to share a wide range of offers and objective editorial perspectives.

So how do we make money? Our partners compensate us for advertisements that appear on our site. This compensation helps us provide tools and services - like free credit score access and monitoring. With the exception of mortgage, home equity and other home-lending products or services, partner compensation is one of several factors that may affect which products we highlight and where they appear on our site. Other factors include your credit profile, product availability and proprietary website methodologies.

However, these factors do not influence our editors' opinions or ratings, which are based on independent research and analysis. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews. Here is a list of our partners.

5 Things to Know About the Revel Credit Card

It can be a very expensive option, depending on the terms you're given. Even among credit cards for bad credit, you have better options.

Written by

Melissa Lambarena

Melissa Lambarena 10 years of experience

Expertise

• Credit cards
• debt

Melissa Lambarena is a senior writer on the credit cards team at NerdWallet. She has enthusiastically covered credit card-related topics for over nine years. Her prior experience includes nine years as a content creator for several publications and websites. Through her work, she aims to help readers extract value from credit cards to meet financial goals like stretching their budget, building credit, traveling to dream destinations and paying off debt. Her articles have been published in The Associated Press, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, USA Today and Yahoo Finance, among others. Melissa has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Edited by

Kenley Young

Kenley Young 25 years of experience

Expertise

• Credit cards
• credit scores

Kenley Young directs daily credit cards coverage for NerdWallet. Previously, he was a homepage editor and digital content producer for Fox Sports, and before that a front page editor for Yahoo. He has decades of experience in digital and print media, including stints as a copy desk chief, a wire editor and a metro editor for the McClatchy newspaper chain.

other

Updated Jul 14, 2026

Fact Checked

How is this page expert verified?

NerdWallet's content is fact-checked for accuracy, timeliness and relevance. It undergoes a thorough review process involving writers and editors to ensure the information is as clear and complete as possible.

With its high fees and interest rates, the Revel™ Mastercard® won't inspire much merrymaking.

It's an unsecured credit card for bad credit (aka poor credit, meaning FICO scores of 629 or lower), so on the plus side, you won't have to put down a security deposit. And it's possible to qualify for a relatively generous credit limit, compared with cards in its category. But applying for this card — which is currently possible only by invitation — would be costly over time.

1. The card is packed with costly fees

With the Revel™ Mastercard® — issued by The Bank of Missouri and serviced by Continental Finance — you'll be assigned fees that fall between the following ranges, depending on the card's terms:

• An annual fee: $75 - $125. (After that, $99 - $125 annually.) The card's credit limit determines the cost of the annual fee. This is expensive, even for a card for poor credit.
• A monthly maintenance fee: $0 - $10 per month (up to $120 annually). This fee isn’t billed for the first 12 months the account is opened, but if you're paying any kind of "maintenance fee," it's a red flag. Most credit cards don't charge them.
• An additional card fee: $30 for every authorized user you add to your account. While some premium travel credit cards may also charge a fee for this, it's rare among most cards.
• A "premium card fee": You'll owe a one-time fee of $9.95 if you opt for a "premium" version of the card that comes in a different color. In any case, for a card like this, it's not a fee worth paying. The platinum version doesn't require this fee.

Even if you pass on the premium version of the card and don't add any authorized users, you could still be looking at a possible annual cost of $245 — and that's without factoring in any potential interest charges. That's ludicrous, even among credit cards for poor credit. Better options exist.

2. The credit limit could double

With the Revel™ Mastercard®, you'll start out with a credit limit range between $300 to $1,000, depending on eligibility. After making the first six monthly minimum payments on time, you can potentially qualify for a credit limit double the size.

An increased credit limit can have a positive impact on your credit because it can lower your credit utilization ratio — the amount of available credit you're using — which factors heavily into credit scores. But again, there are less expensive credit cards on the market that offer something similar.

3. Carrying a balance is expensive

Credit cards for those with bad credit tend to have high interest rates. The Revel™ Mastercard® is no exception, with an annual percentage rate approaching a dizzying 30% (as of January 2024). For comparison, as of Q3 2023, the average APR for credit card accounts that incurred interest was 22.77%, based on Federal Reserve data.

4. Payments are reported to the three major credit bureaus

The Revel™ Mastercard® reports payments to the three major credit bureaus: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. These companies record the information used to calculate your credit scores.

Having payments recorded by all three bureaus is ideal when you’re working on building credit, but it's not a feature that's unique to the Revel™ Mastercard®. Even among many products for poor credit, comprehensive credit bureau reporting is table stakes.

5. The Credit Protection program is optional

The Revel™ Mastercard® features an optional Continental Credit Protection program that covers the minimum payment owed if you lose your job, become disabled or end up in the hospital. It can also cover the outstanding account balance if you lose your life. To qualify, you must pay a monthly fee of 99 cents for every $100 of the outstanding balance. If you do choose credit protection, note that coverage is not automatic. You’ll have to submit a claim by phone, mail or email to activate these benefits.