Zolve Azpire Credit Builder Card review: Build credit with a debit card

If you’re eager to build credit but are wary of common credit card pitfalls like annual fees and interest charges, the Zolve Azpire Credit Builder card could be a great starting point. 

One of the only debit cards that reports payment history to all three credit bureaus, the Zolve Azpire card charges no annual fee and no interest. You don't need a Social Security number to apply and there are no credit checks required, making this an especially accessible card for people with bad credit, fair credit or no credit history. 

To use the card, you'll need to add money to an Azpire checking account. These funds double as your credit limit. When you use the Azpire card, the issuer will automatically pay itself back using your account funds and then report your positive payment history to credit bureaus. This allows you to grow your credit score over time. You may even be able to graduate to an unsecured credit card with a $5,000 limit in only four months.

But since the Zolve Azpire card doesn’t report on credit utilization — a major FICO scoring factor — it may not be your most efficient credit-building option. 

As long as you only use it to cover purchases you’re sure you can pay off, a no-annual-fee secured credit card could be a better credit-building tool — especially one that lets you put up a large deposit and get a matching high limit. 

Read on to learn more about where the Zolve Azpire card shines, where it falls short and whether it’s the best credit-building option for you.

Quick highlights

• Rewards rate: N/A (cash back available via Dosh)
• Welcome offer: N/A
• Annual fee: $0
• Purchase intro APR: N/A
• Balance transfer intro APR: N/A
• Regular APR: N/A

Like most debit and credit-building cards, the Zolve Azpire card doesn’t include a welcome offer. Opening an Azpire Deposit 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. And 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. 

Though the Zolve Azpire card lacks a traditional cash back program, it can still earn rewards via the issuer’s partnership with Dosh, a cash back app that offers savings at participating outlets. This gives you a chance to earn cash back on everything from hotel bookings to purchases at popular retailers, restaurants and department stores.

But since Dosh is also available as a standalone app, it’s hard to see the program as a unique selling point of the Zolve Azpire card. 

How you earn

You can get cash back rates ranging from 1.5 percent to up to 10 percent via Dosh with the Azpire card. 

As with card-linked offer programs like Amex Offers and Chase Offers, you can link your Azpire card to Dosh and earn cash back with a variety of brands. A key advantage of Dosh, however, is that you can earn cash back automatically, without adding individual offers to your card (though you may need to click through offers within the app to earn cash back on some online purchases).   

While Dosh offers plenty of cash back potential, you may earn more consistently with a traditional cash back card that offers either a flat cash back rate on all purchases or a bonus rate in categories like groceries, dining or gas. With Dosh, you may enjoy a higher cash back rate, but only with specific brands and potentially only for a limited time.

How to redeem

Redeeming cash back you’ve earned with the Zolve Azpire card and Dosh is relatively straightforward. Once you’ve earned at least $15 in cash back, you can transfer funds to your Azpire, PayPal or Venmo account. You can also donate your cash back to charity.

While this is not as flexible as competing rewards programs that let you redeem rewards in any amount for cash back, travel, merchandise and more, you also won’t have to keep track of point values or worry about which redemption method will yield the most value.

Though the Zolve Azpire card is missing some of the perks you’ll find on credit cards, it stands out for its accessibility and credit-building features. It also gives you a path from debit card to unsecured credit card without the typical in-between step of a secured credit card.

One of the only debit cards that builds credit

Perhaps the biggest selling point of the Zolve Azpire card is that it’s a debit card that can build credit. 

Debit card purchase and payment activity typically isn’t reported to credit bureaus, but the Azpire card features an automatic payback structure that allows you to use it as a debit card while demonstrating your creditworthiness via positive payment history. 

Simply use the card for purchases and maintain a high enough balance in your Azpire account to cover the cost and you’ll see on-time payments land on your credit report. Over time, this payment history should help grow your credit score. 

That said, it's worth noting the card does not report on credit utilization. As a debit card, the Azpire doesn’t extend users a traditional line of credit, so you won’t have any credit utilization to report. 

Since credit utilization makes up 30 percent of your FICO credit score, this limitation could slow down your credit-building efforts.

No credit check or Social Security number required

Since the Zolve Azpire is a debit card, there’s no need for a credit check. This could make the card an especially good option if you’re looking to avoid the credit hit that comes with a hard inquiry, don’t have or are uncomfortable sharing your Social Security number or are an international student or immigrant looking to build U.S. credit history.

Upgrade to an unsecured Zolve credit card

Along with helping you build your credit score, the Zolve Azpire card could put you on track for an unsecured rewards card. According to the issuer, you can upgrade from the Azpire to the unsecured Zolve Credit Card in as little as four months if your account is in good standing.

The Zolve Credit Card does not require any funds be set aside as a security deposit and offers  credit limits of up to $5,000 based on your credit history. The card also earns 5 percent cash back with select brands and 1 percent cash back on all other purchases. And like the Zolve Azpire, the Zolve Credit Card does not require a Social Security number, making it a terrific option if you’re new to the U.S. and have had trouble getting a credit card.

If you’re looking to avoid some of the major downsides of 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 aren’t quite borrowing money when you use the card to make purchases. This means you won’t have to worry about racking up interest charges. The card also charges no annual fee or late fees, so it should be an especially low-risk way to build a positive payment history and get experience using a card for purchases.

That said, since the Azpire card doesn’t allow you to carry a balance, it lacks the payment flexibility you’d get with a traditional credit card APR. While you wouldn’t want to carry a balance on a credit card long term unless you had to, having the option to carry a balance short term 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, you’d most likely have your transaction declined if you didn’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).

On the plus side, you won’t be charged an over-limit fee if you accidentally make a purchase in excess of your balance.

The Zolve Azpire card could make a lot of sense if you’re looking for a low-cost way to build credit without a traditional credit card, but you may be able to improve your score faster with a card that reports on utilization.

If you’re open to a credit card, these could be terrific alternatives thanks to their low cost, simplicity and flexibility:

Zolve Azpire card vs. Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card

The Capital One Platinum Secured card could be a terrific low-risk starter card since it charges no annual fee and only requires a small security deposit to get started. Where most secured cards only give you a credit limit equal to your security deposit, the Platinum secured lets you put down a refundable deposit as low as $49 and still get a starting credit limit of $200. 

While you won’t earn any cash back with the card, it could be a more effective credit-building tool than the Azpire card since it reports credit utilization to credit bureaus. If you use the card for small purchases and quickly pay them off, you should be able to maintain low credit utilization and build a positive payment and credit history over time. 

If you continue to pay on time and keep your card balances low, you may even be eligible to upgrade your Platinum Secured card to an unsecured Capital One card and get your deposit back. Along with no-frills cards for fair credit like the unsecured Capital One Platinum Credit Card, the issuer offers top-tier cash back cards like the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card and the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card.

Zolve Azpire card vs. Discover it® Secured Credit Card

Instead of earning rewards only with specific brands, the Discover it® Secured Credit Card earns cash back in popular everyday categories including gas stations and restaurants. Depending on your spending habits, this may help the card earn rewards a bit more consistently than the Zolve Azpire card does via Dosh. 

The Discover it® Secured Credit Card could also make it easier to build positive credit history since it reports on credit utilization and gives you a chance at a high credit limit. You can get a limit of up to $2,500 with a matching deposit, which should give you plenty of room to use the card for everyday purchases while maintaining low credit utilization. After seven months, Discover also starts automatic reviews to see if they can transition you to an unsecured line of credit and return your deposit.

The card can even offer some peace of mind if you’re wary of credit card late fees and interest charges. You won’t be charged a fee the first time you pay late (though it’ll be up to $41 each time after that) and while you’ll face a high interest rate if you carry a balance, you won’t face a rate hike due to late payments. 

If you’re already open to setting aside funds to build credit with a debit card like the Zolve Azpire, a no-annual-fee secured card that earns rewards and offers a chance at a high limit like the Discover it® Secured Credit Card is worth a look.

If you’re looking for a way to build credit without a traditional credit card, the Zolve Azpire card could definitely be worth it.

Since the Azpire is a debit card, you won’t have to worry about a credit check, paying annual fees or racking up debt via interest charges. You can simply add money to your account, make purchases and automatically pay them off. This should make it easy to build up a positive payment history. After a few months of responsible card use, you may even be able to upgrade to an unsecured Zolve card that offers cash back and a chance at a high credit limit. 

That said, the Azpire card lacks a few key advantages of traditional credit cards. 

The Azpire card doesn’t give you the option to pay off purchases over time, so if you don’t have enough funds in your account to cover a purchase, your transaction will be declined. While it’s wise to avoid credit card debt when you can, having the flexibility to carry a balance short term can sometimes be helpful.

And since the card only reports to credit bureaus on your payment history and account age — not your credit utilization — it may not help you build credit as effectively or efficiently as a traditional credit card. 

As long as you can pay off your purchases in a timely manner, a no-annual-fee secured card that offers a clear upgrade path may be the better way forward.