Millions of Americans either don't want or can’t get a credit card. It’s no mystery why—credit cards can encourage overspending and charge high interest rates, in addition to possibly being confusing or just inaccessible. But credit is something most people want at some point in life no matter what you are trying to achieve. A great credit score can change lives, especially for important long-term goals like securing a housing mortgage or getting the best possible repayment plan on your big purchases. Despite this, few alternatives for building credit exist. We set out to change that.

Enter Extra. Extra allows you to build credit without a credit card and earn rewards points. Please see terms, credit may be offered by Lead Bank. We created Extra to help everyone win at finance by building credit with ease and predictability. Whether you’re working to rebuild your credit, or just starting on your credit journey, Extra strives to make it as easy as we can to build your credit.

• Many people often ask us, ‘how can you build credit without a credit card’, which is a great question. Lets take a closer look at how Extra does it:
• The first thing to understand is the relationship between your Extra debit card and your available Spend Power, which may be extended by Lead Bank, please see terms.

• Just to recap: Your Extra Debit Card is what gives you access to your Spend Power, and the payments made with your Spend Power is what gets reported to the bureaus and contributes towards building your credit.

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We understand your possible confusion. 🙂 The Extra Debit Card is not a secured card.

Traditionally, secured cards require an upfront deposit, which is often 1-2 times the credit limit. Secured cards have had a reputation of high interest rates and fees, and rarely provide rewards. Due to their structure, they usually have low limits. Did you know utilizing more than 30% of your available limit could actually hurt your credit score?

The Extra platform uses your existing bank account. Members are given Spend Power to pay for purchases made with their Extra Debit Card. Spend Power is based on their current bank balance and a couple of other factors. There are no upfront deposits, interest charges, or hidden fees. Sounds like a win-win to us! Please see your terms, Spend Power may be credit provided by Lead Bank.

Extra offers two membership levels: Credit Building and Credit Building + Rewards. We don’t believe in interest or hidden fees; therefore, our membership rates are all-inclusive.

Regardless of which plan you choose, both allow you to build credit with Spend Power. You also gain access to the Extra App, where you can track your spending, and access content like podcasts, interviews, and more—just for members.

For those who’d like an added boost, our Credit Building + Rewards plan enables you to earn Reward Points with every swipe which can be redeemed in our Extra Rewards Store, where you can get your hands on your favorite brands and hard to find products.

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Credit Building Plan

✅ Builds your credit with Spend Power

✅ Extra spend tracking app

✅ Access to the Extra Rewards Store

❌ Earn reward points for every purchase

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Rewards + Credit Building Plan

✅ Builds your credit with Spend Power

✅ Extra spend tracking app

✅ Access to the Extra Rewards Store

✅ Earn reward points for every purchase

Currently, we report to both Equifax® and Experian® at the beginning of each month.

Once you sign up, we should start appearing on your credit report by the 20th of the following month. For example; if you signed up on 11/1, our first credit report would be submitted in December and we should appear on your credit report by 12/20.

If you're not seeing Extra on your reports, give us a shout from your Extra App and someone from our Concierge Team will be happy to help.

Here at Extra, we nor our banking partners have access to your banking credentials when you connect your checking account to your Extra purchases. We use Plaid, a well-known industry provider, to connect to your bank account. Plaid uses encryption and internationally-recognized security standards to do their best to keep your information safe and secure.

Spoiler alert: Your credit score is heavily impacted by what you’ve done before signing up for Extra and what you are doing outside of Extra with your other lines of credit. 

Think of Extra like a vitamin, it can have amazing positive effects, but only if you keep up a healthy routine overall while using it. 

Everyone’s credit profile is different and these are the top 4 things that we recommend taking care of and keeping in check while using Extra. 

1. Debt currently in collections

• No surprise, having debt that is currently in collections tends to be a huge weight on your credit score. Check your credit report to see who the collections agency is and, if you can, set up a payment plan to take care of this ASAP or, if you don’t recognize the debt, take steps to dispute it. It will be hard for your credit to grow until you resolve any collections activities. 

2. Average age of all credit lines; longer is better

• Lenders like to see as much positive payment history for as long as possible. For your credit lines that are in good standing, try to keep them open, even if you’re not using them. For your credit lines that aren't in good standing, pay them off and also keep them open, length of credit history matters!

3. Utilization of all credit lines

• Try to avoid spending more than 30% of your available credit on any given credit line.  This is one of the things that can make your credit score fluctuate month to month even if you’re doing everything else perfectly. If you have to spend more than 30%, pay it off before your payment due date if you can, this should reset your utilization before the billing period is over.

4. Missed payments in the last 6 months

• Last but not least, If you had a missed payment on your credit report before signing up for Extra, it’s going to take some time to recover from it, but maintaining positive payment history with all of your other payments, including your Extra Card, can help. If you can, try to set up auto pay with all of your credit lines when possible.

Additional questions? Check here

In a recent study comparing more than 10,000 consumers, Extra members experienced, on average, a 20-point increase in their credit scores during the study period compared to only a 1-point increase in credit scores among non-Extra users.

The most successful Extra members that used the product as recommended saw a 48-point increase on average, and those who started Extra with a credit score of less than 500 experienced an impressive 99-point credit score increase!

Successful members, who use the product as recommended, are defined by having: no missed payments in the last 6 months of membership on any credit line; no maxed out credit lines in the last 3 months of membership; and starting their membership with a credit score of 650 or less.

Bolstered by increased credit scores, Extra members were 2-3 times more likely to open new trade lines for mortgages, auto loans and/or credit cards over the course of a year.

Additional questions? Check here

You can cancel your membership anytime by contacting our Member Concierge team through the app or by emailing us at hey@extra.app.

We’re more than happy to answer them all. Check out the rest of our FAQ page, or email us at hey@extra.app. A real person from our Concierge Team will do their best to get you the answers you’re looking for.