No credit check required
No interest or account fees
No seperate credit card
No credit check required
No interest or account fees
No seperate credit card
Use one debit card1
No credit check
No account fees4
No interest
There’s a lot that goes into calculating your credit score, but one of the biggest factors is your credit utilization or the percentage of available credit you're using.
The cash you allocate to build credit is used as a security deposit for a virtual Secured Credit Card. Your virtual Secured Credit Card is designed to help increase your overall available credit and lower your credit utilization, which can lead to a higher score. All with the cash you have.
Like credit utilization, payment history also has a big impact on your credit. Combined, they account for about 65% of your score! As you make Sesame Cash debit purchases, we’ll create an identical balance on your virtual Secured Credit Card—and set aside money to pay it off. This happens behind the scenes, helping you demonstrate credit utilization and payment history we report to the bureaus. All with the day-to-day debit purchases you’re already making!
Your virtual Secured Credit Card gives you the credit building benefits of a traditional secured card, through the use of your Sesame Cash debit card.
There’s no separate plastic card! Fund your security deposit from your Sesame Cash Debit Card, and start making purchases to help to build your credit history.
Set your own utilization! With a traditional secured credit card, you can spend all your available credit and unknowingly impact your score. With credit builder, you’ll set your credit utilization limit up front and we’ll choose debit purchases to create a credit balance within that amount. No surprises, no interest—just credit building with the day-to-day debit purchases you’re already making!
Less risk with automatic payments enabled! When you set up automatic payments, we’ll pay off your full balance every month. When we tally up Sesame Cash purchases to create a balance on your virtual secured line of credit, we’ll set aside money to pay it off too. Since you already paid with debit, we’ll stash this money so it’s ready to pay your full statement on time at the end of each month!
We'll update the credit bureaus regularly, and you could see a higher credit score as soon as next month!
There are no fees or interest payments associated with your virtual Secured Credit Card. The money you set aside is simply used as a security deposit to begin building your credit, and you can access it when you need it! Paying off your balance doesn’t cost you additional money either.
To open your virtual Secured Credit Card, you’ll be asked to make a minimum security deposit from your Sesame Cash account. Increasing this amount can lower your credit utilization even more and help improve your score.
You can access your cash when you’re ready to use it, but you should allocate an amount you’re comfortable saving for up to 6 months.
Yes! Increasing your security deposit can lower your credit utilization and help improve your score. Your security deposit is still your money—it’s just set aside to build your credit and help you do more in the future.
Building your credit is better with the FREE Credit Sesame app - unlock ALL your account features now. You’ll be able to update your score daily, track your progress, and use Sesame Cash purchases to grow your score even more.
You can withdraw your security deposit at any time by contacting our Customer Care team at 1-866-720-0893. While increasing your security deposit can lower your utilization and improve your score, withdrawing your funds too early can prevent your credit score from reaching its full potential!
1 Sesame Cash is a prepaid debit card issued by Community Federal Savings Bank (CFSB). Building credit with Sesame Cash requires you to also open a virtual secured credit card with CFSB that is reported to the credit bureaus. Use money from your Sesame Cash account to create a virtual secured credit card. Your debit card purchases are then added up to create a balance on your virtual secured credit card. As you make these purchases, an amount equal to the balance on your virtual secured credit card is also set aside in your Sesame Cash account to ensure you can make timely payments to pay off the balance on your virtual secured credit card at the end of each month, allowing you to build a positive payment history. Credit Sesame does not guarantee credit score improvement. Any predicted credit improvement from the use of your virtual secured credit card assumes that you will maintain healthy credit habits, including paying bills on time, keeping credit balances low, avoiding unnecessary inquiries, appropriate financial planning, and more.
2 Cash back offers are powered by Empyr, Inc. and Button, Inc. Cash back requires the activation of any active offer before payment is made. Offers vary by geographic location and are subject to change. Please review the full program terms for more details.
3 International and out-of-network cash withdrawal fees apply. Third-party and cash deposit fees may apply.
4 Direct deposit and earlier availability of funds are subject to payer’s support of the feature and timing of payer’s funding.
