Credit Building > Marbles credit builder card review

Marbles credit builder card review

Wollit Team3 minute read · Updated 1st July 2024

The Marbles credit card is a credit-building product for people with poor or limited credit history.

The way Marbles works is simple: if you have bad credit or no credit rating, you can use the Marbles credit card to build a history of debt repayments and improve your credit profile over time.

Who is the Marbles Card For?

The Marbles credit card is meant for two kinds of customers:

For those new to credit or with no prior credit history, the Marbles card can be their first credit card, allowing users to start building a positive credit record from scratch.
People with poor credit scores: For those who have struggled with credit in the past, the Marbles card can repair their credit file through responsible usage.

Because of this, the eligibility criteria are more flexible; it also means that it charges a higher interest rate than other cards to compensate for the risk that these “bad credit” customers will default on their credit card bills.

What are the pros of the Marbles credit builder card?

You can use it to build your credit: Just like with any other credit-building card, you can use Marbles to build your credit. However, you must ensure you use the card responsibly and pay all bills on time.
Flexible credit limit: While the initial credit limit is only between £2500 and £1500, you can increase it if you pay the card balance on time and in full.
No annual fee: Great if you’re on a lower budget.
And all the features of a modern credit card: text alerts, online account management, and so on.

What are the downsides of the Marbles credit card?

For all its advantages, Marbles also comes with some cons:

High interest rates: The Marbles card’s representative APR of 34.9% is significantly higher than the average credit card in the UK. If you don’t pay your balance in full each month, your debt problem might worsen.
No perks or rewards: The Marbles card does not offer any rewards, cashback, or other perks. This isn’t that uncommon for a credit builder card, but it’s something to be aware of.
Potential for credit limit decreases: If you don’t make payments on time or if you max out your credit card limit, your credit limit might even decrease. This can actually end up hurting your credit score instead of building it.

How does the Marbles credit card compare with other UK credit builder cards?

The Marbles credit card doesn’t stand out compared to other UK credit builder cards:

High interest rates: The Marbles card’s representative APR of 34.9% is pretty much what you can expect from other credit builder cards. Some offer a lower representative APR, though, sometimes as low as 29%. For example, Barclaycard Forward has an APR of 29.5%, which can be reduced by up to 5% over 2 years if you pay the card balance on time.
Higher credit limits: Marbles offers an initial credit limit range of up to £1,500, slightly higher than the typical starting limits of up to £1,200 for other credit builder cards.
Credit limit increases: The opportunity to grow your credit limit every 3 to 4 months is better than most other credit builder cards. For example, Capital One allows only up to 2 credit limit increases per year, while Marbles review limits after 3 months.
No perks and rewards: Other credit builder cards, like Tesco Foundation Card or Asda Money Select, offer rewards and cashback. This can sometimes make a difference, especially for everyday purchases.

What do customer reviews say about the Marbles card?

On Trustpilot, a customer review website, almost 6,000 customers gave Marbles a 4.5 rating (out of 5).

Out of these, 75% gave it five stars out of five. They praise things like:

The credit limit increase: One customer’s limit went from £250 to £4,300 în two years.
The easy application process.
And the app security.

However, 10% of the customer reviews on Trustpilot also gave Marbles only one star. These complained about:

Poor customer service with long waiting queues.
Unexpected charges.
Worst of all, app glitches. Some of the reported glitches seemed quite serious and led to payments not going through, which ended up hurting instead of helping some customers’ credit scores.

Is the Marbles credit card any good?

Overall, the Marbles credit card seems to be yet another credit-building card without anything too special about it.

Based on our reviews, credit-building cards like Barclaycard Forward (which promises to reduce interest rates if you pay your bills on time) or Asda Money Select (which has up to 5% cashback) can be much better options.

Ultimately, though, the Marbles credit card suffers from the same problems all credit-building cards have: high interest rates, low credit limits, and sometimes challenging customer service. These can make your card harder to manage, which can eventually lead to missed payments, maxed-out credit limits, or even identity fraud—all things that can significantly hurt your credit score.

Because of these reasons, you might want to consider downloading a credit-building app instead.

Wollit is one such app, and it works very differently from a credit-building card.

With Marbles, you must buy and pay things back over time to show you can pay bills on time. But with Wollit, you pay a fixed fee every month, which is then reported as a loan repayment to the credit reference agencies.

This helps build your credit history directly and boosts your credit score without worrying about the surprise fees or high interest rates that come with credit-building cards. And as your score gets better, you can qualify for better cards and deals in the future.