
Chase Sapphire Preferred Review
A powerful combination of bonus rewards, annual credits and travel perks.
Courtney Mihocik is a NACCC Certified Credit Counselor™ and a senior editor for the Bankrate credit cards team. She specializes in helping people with limited or no credit understand their options for improving their credit scores. She focuses on the subprime category and provides guidance to people on their credit-building journeys.
Courtney is passionate about creating a space where people can learn more about managing their personal finances, specifically helping her peers achieve their credit card and credit score goals. She believes that public education fails to teach the essentials of personal finance to students and wants to make up for it in her editorial work.
Previously, she led insurance content at Reviews.com and worked as the loans editor at The Simple Dollar, where she produced daily personal finance articles from founder Trent Hamm in addition to student, personal, business and bad credit loan articles. Before entering the digital media space, Courtney worked in hyper-local print journalism, covering arts, culture, food, news and more for publications in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Courtney graduated college with a 750 credit score, which quickly plummeted to the 500s when she nearly defaulted on her high student loan payments she couldn’t afford. After applying for an income-driven repayment plan and six years of careful budgeting, hustling and responsible credit use, she’s happy to report her credit score is back hovering around 720 and she can qualify for better financial products.
Achieving a good credit score takes time and patience. But as long as you pay bills on time and manage your credit wisely, you will watch your score climb. As someone who went from a 500 score to a 750 score, I can tell you it’s worth the effort.
— Courtney Mihocik, CCC
The Mission Lane Cash Back Visa card for fair credit could be a great fit if you’re eager to earn rewards and avoid putting down a security deposit or paying a high annual fee.
Check out our top credit cards picks of 2025 for consumers with average or fair credit. Compare offers and read analysis from Bankrate's credit card experts.
This hybrid credit card/personal loan packs in plenty of features and could be a standout option for rewards seekers looking for an easy-to-use flat-rate card
It’s one of the best no-annual-fee cards for low rates and fees, cash back, first-year value and customer service if you don’t mind rotating categories.
Our credit card editors at Bankrate break down the best credit cards of 2025 for those with limited or no credit history. Start establishing credit and improving your financial life today.
A solid prepaid card—although kept nearly identical to Netspend cards—but upgrading to a debit or credit card is still worthwhile.
A great choice for grocery delivery fans, but markups and fees could take a chunk of your earnings. See our full Instacart Mastercard review.
This card is a great option if you’re looking to earn rewards on everyday purchases and don’t want to worry about annual fees or rotating categories.