Elevate Credit, which specializes in lending to subprime consumers, is adding a credit card to its suite of products.
The Today Card, announced Thursday, offers customers with blemished credit records some of the features that are typically available to cardholders with prime credit scores.
For example, the card will come with a mobile app that customers can use to make payments and receive alerts. It will also offer free credit score monitoring, the Fort Worth, Texas-based company said.
Elevate’s card will run on Mastercard’s network and be issued by Capital Community Bank of Utah. It will compete in a segment of the credit card market that has grown more competitive in recent years.
There were 75 million subprime credit card accounts in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2017, up from 52 million four years earlier, according to data from the American Bankers Association. Industrywide, the average credit line available on subprime cards was around $3,600, or less than one-third of the average for customers in the top credit band.
Credit lines on the Today Card will top out at $3,500. Elevate plans to charge variable interest rates starting at 29.99%. Customers will have the option of buying additional cards for $10 each in order to allow family members to access a specified portion of the credit line.
Elevate said in a press release that the card is currently undergoing pilot testing, and that a customer waiting list has been launched.
Elevate Credit was spun off from Think Finance, another company that specializes in subprime consumer credit, in 2014. Elevate held an initial public offering in April 2017.
In addition to the new credit card, Elevate offers an installment loan product called Rise and a line of credit called Elastic to U.S. customers.
