Despite the fact that the Zolve Azpire card has fantastic features, its absence of a welcome offer and limitations as a debit card can be significant drawbacks
Welcome offer: Doesn’t have a sign-up bonus
Like most debit and credit-building cards, the Zolve Azpire card doesn’t include a welcome offer. Opening an account won’t earn you any cash back or bonuses, either.
While a welcome offer shouldn’t be your primary focus when building credit, a handful of cards available with a low credit score or limited credit history include a one-time bonus. Unless such offers spur overspending, they can be a great perk.
The Discover it® Secured Credit Card, for example, matches all of the cash back you’ve earned with the card at the end of your first year, with no specific spending requirement.
Rates and fees: No fees but you can’t carry a balance
If you want to avoid some of the major downsides of traditional credit cards, including annual fees, interest, foreign transaction fees and more, the Zolve Azpire card should be a welcome sight. Many credit cards available with poor credit or a limited credit history come with either high fees, high APRs or both, which could make building credit costly.
But since the Zolve Azpire card is a debit card — not a credit card — you can't carry a balance on the card since you aren’t borrowing money when you use the card to make purchases. Therefore, it lacks the payment flexibility you’d get with a traditional credit card, and you'll need to pay off your purchases in full.
Having the option to carry a balance could come in handy from time to time, even if it costs you a bit in interest charges. For example, according to Bankrate’s credit card payoff calculator, if you needed to chip away at $500 in expenses over six months, you’d face $44 in interest charges if you made $90 monthly payments on a card with a 30 percent APR. That’s not ideal, but it may be a reasonable cost if you have no other way to cover emergency expenses.
With the Azpire card, transaction amounts exceeding your checking account balance may be declined if you don’t have enough funds in your account to cover it. According to the card’s terms, if a transaction did post in excess of your account balance, you’d need to immediately make a deposit to cover it or your account could be closed after 60 calendar days with a negative balance. So if you need time to pay off a sudden expense, you'll have to consider another option.
And you should be aware of how much is in your account at any given time to prevent purchasing over your account balance. On the plus side, you won’t be charged an over-limit fee if you accidentally make a purchase in excess of your balance.