How to get a Credit Card in Nigeria is not a myth. You can either get it online (virtual credit card) or you obtain it directly from a financial institution (banks).
However, the physical credit card is the most common ones because you can get them with ease. Virtual ones are hard to get, even if you see platform that will offer you, your credit score might not reach the standard limit of the institution.
A Credit Card is just like ATM card issued by financial institutions, which let you borrow money from a pre-approved limit for your financial expenses.
Meanwhile, I we share with you how to get both Virtual credit card and physical credit card in Nigeria.
How can I get a Credit Card in Nigeria?
To get a Credit Card online, you will have to submit an application to the institution offering the card. Here are list of some institutions or platform you can get a virtual credit card from in Nigeria.
- Standard Chartered Bank (Visa Gold and Visa Platinum Credit Card)
- 03 Capital Nigeria Limited (03Card)
And to get the physical ones, you can simply visit your local bank and apply for it. Nevertheless, here are some best bank to get credit card in Nigeria.
- First Bank of Nigeria (Visa Gold, Visa Infinity and Naira Credit Card)
- Guarantee Trust Bank (Visa Credit Card)
- First City Monument Bank (Classic and Gold Credit Card)
Before I begin to explain them one after the other, let simply dive into reasons why your credit card application might be declined. If you applied online and unfortunately your application was rejected, it may due to those following reasons;
- Bad Credit Scores
- Default in Loan Repayment
- Low Income
- Bad Use of Previous Credit Card
- Occupation
- Too young to get a Credit Card
- Mistake in filling application form
- Address verification fail
All these could cause your credit card application to be rejected or declined. For full details about this, I have a full article that treat this issues and how to ensure your credit card application isn’t declined.
So, here are the top credit card companies you can get a free credit card in Nigeria.
- Standard Chartered Bank
- 03 Capital Nigeria Limited (03 Card)
- First Bank of Nigeria (Visa Gold, Visa Infinity and Naira Credit Card)
- Guarantee Trust Bank (Visa Credit Card)
- First City Monument Bank FCMB (Classic and Gold Credit Card)
Here is the full details about them.
How do I get a Credit Card in Nigeria?
1. Standard Chartered Bank (# how to get a Credit Card in Nigeria)
Standard Chartered Bank is one of the best institution in Nigeria that offers free credit card to its customer. The bank offers Visa Gold and Visa Platinum Credit Card. A Visa Gold holder will be able to issues up to five supplementary card to the loved ones.
However, to apply, you need to meet the their requirements which includes
- Having income above 75,000 Naira on a Monthly basis
- Owning a Valid Nigerian Phone Number
- Minimum age of 22 yrs and Max of 60 yrs.
To apply, you need to fill the application form on their website, submitting your personal information correctly, after which you will be contacted by the bank confirming your approval or rejection.
For more infos and application form, visit the official website – Standard Chartered Bank.
2. 03 Capital Nigeria Limited (#how to get a Credit Card in Nigeria)
03 Cards come in classic, Platinum and prestige credit card. All Applications are done online too and you don’t need any collateral to apply for this card. No form of account opening or deposit is required.
03 Card Credit Cards are valid for 24 month and 45 percent fiat interest rate. They simply work on the verve scheme to offer credit card and according to analytics, verve card is the most used in Nigeria. Out of 25 Millions card, 18 Millions are verve cards.
Now, when talking about the credit limit, the classic ones comes with a 100,00–500,000 Naira credit limit, the platinum credit card comes with a 501,000–1 million naira credit limit and the prestige credit card comes with a 1,100,000–1.5 million Naira credit limit.
For more info and application form, visit Official Website – 03 Cards
3. First Bank of Nigeria (#how to get a Credit Card in Nigeria)
The First bank credit card come in three dimensions, the visa gold, visa Infinite and naira credit card. These cards are only issued to the 1 percent to 5 percent top customers of the bank, with 2.5 percent monthly rate.
However, when talking about credit limit, the Visa Infinite card has an infinite credit limit, the Visa Gold card has a maximum spend limit of 15,000 dollars, The Naira Credit Card has a maximum credit limit of 3 million Naira.
How To Apply?
To Apply for any first bank credit card, you will need to visit any nearest first bank branch and request for credit card application form.
4. Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB Credit Card)
The GTBank Visa Credit card is an international dollar payment card, the domination is in USD, but can be used to settle payments in other major currencies. The card is issued in partnership with Visa international and linked directly to the beneficiary’s account.
All transactions carried out using this GTBank are visa credit card will reflect on the account instantly. The card is only open to USD Domiciliary Account holders and those who don’t have one would be required to open one at the bank. The card is valid for 3 years.
To Apply for the card, you will need to visit any nearest GTBank and demand for their credit card application or open a domiciliary account first if you don’t have one.
5. First City Monument Bank Credit Card (#how to get a Credit Card in Nigeria)
FCMB Credit Cards come in only two dimensions, the Classic credit card and the Gold Credit Card. The classic card is issued to Civil Servants, Engineers, Bank workers, e.t.c. while the Gold card is issued to oil workers, multinationals, business owners, e.t.c with 3 percent monthly rate.
Talking about the the credit limit, the classic card limit is 100,000 naira and the Gold card limit is 3.5 million naira credit limits.
For more info and how to obtain application form, visit their Official Website – First City Monument Bank.
Conclusion
Here is a quick recap of best companies/platform to get credit card in Nigeria.
- Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) – Visa Gold and Visa Platinum Credit Cards
- 03 Capital Nigeria Limited (03 Card) – Classic, Platinum and Prestige Credit cards
- First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) – Visa Gold, Visa Infinite and Naira Credit Cards.
- Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) – Visa Dollar Credit Card
- First City Monument Bank (FCMB) – Classic and Gold Credit Cards
On a final note, credit cards are very useful in the sense that they help you pay for goods and services in times when you don’t have money and then you repay later but sadly most of the financial institutions offering this service place a lot of restrictions on it.
Some issuer might find one way or the other to disapproved your application even if you’re quality simply because they imagine you cannot afford to pay back or you going to give them problems when paying back.
Some uses credit scores and some uses age restriction, many more reasons card issuer can this qualify you from obtaining their credit card. Learn more about why your credit card application is declined.
Infact, many financial institutions will request you to open an account them before you can begin with the application. That’s why 03 Cards is my best recommendation. You do not need any collateral neither to open a bank account to access the credit card.
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