PetalReviews of petalcard.com

Scam. Advertised as a card for beginners with “no fees” and began charging $96 a year. I paid on time for two years and remained under 10% utilization. Don’t fall for their “No fee” false advertising.

I will confirm what other recent reviews have stated--definitely a bait and switch tactic used by this company. I applied for this card 4 years ago to build my credit...it seemed legit and did help me build it since they did not require a credit check at the time of applying. Original card was no fees, low credit limit at first, but I could build that limit over time by making on-time payments--which I did every single month for the last 4 years. About two months ago (May 2023) I received a notice from Petal stating my Petal 2 card (the one with lower interest rate and for customers with better credit) was going to be automatically switched to a Petal 1 Rise card (much higher interest rate) and would begin charging $8 per month. The ONLY way to opt out of this change was to cancel the card altogether. I was like wha?! Credit bureaus do not like it when you close a card but literally Petal was forcing me to do it or pay their fees of $96 a year. Since I was only earning about $100 in rewards each year, it made no sense to keep the card because no other rewards or additional perks were being offered to me as an original Petal customer (when the company was first trying to launch, I was an original customer), even though I paid on-time and currently have an 800+ credit score. About my accumulated rewards points: I had about $100 in reward perks built up and the change notice stated I could cash those out by calling them directly (there was no way to make that request online) but when I called there was either no answer or I was put on an indefinite hold (waited 45 minutes one time then finally gave up). So instead, I charged up $100 worth of charges, redeemed my reward points to pay off that balance and closed the card. I have been an elated, 100% satisfied customer all these years, made frequent purchases on this card, and was able to establish my credit and increase my credit score because of the original Petal card I was issued. However, somewhere along the way (I think the company may have been sold to another one about a year and a half ago) they forgot who keeps them in business--their customers. I will say they did clearly communicate this change was coming a couple of months in advance, but why on earth you would intentionally burn your loyal customers without any fair alternative offered violates every business ethics rule out there. This card honestly gives VISA a bad name. I do not recommend any new customers apply for this card. I feel badly for any who are tangled up in this card with high remaining balances to pay off--the interest rate literally doubled and now monthly fees will be added on as well. GET OUT ASAP if you are a current customer and DO NOT APPLY if you are looking for a new card. This company ticks all the boxes as a shady, bait and switch scam.

They without explanation changed the card to a yearly $98.00 fee with 0 added benefits. I have very good credit. Make more now than when I 1st got this card. I’m being down graded from Petal 2 to this Rise card. It stinks. I called because credit experts (including me) say to call & try to work something else out. The girl (young & rude) was such a snot on the phone. Our choice…pay $98.00 yearly fee or close your account. Nothing else offered. No reduction in APR, no added perks $ etc. They come off with this “cutsie” marketing strategy which I fell for & went with for 2+ years. They stink. Not cute. Closing any credit card account negatively affects your credit rating. I’m really ticked off about this. Avoid this card! You can do better!

Suckers you in as a "No fees" credit card then changes to more fees than literally any other card I have. I'll be paying it off and closing my account ASAP. Oughta be illegal.

Had to cancel due to monthly fee, hurt my credit as I had for four years with responsible use. Glad I got rid of it ultimately with only $550 credit line over those 4 years and having no other CC limit below $5,000 out of my other 10 credit cards... Do yourself a favor and don't get this card it will hurt your credit closing it in the future if they decide to charge fees even if you have a 800+ credit score.

Well, first off - it's a great card if you're trying to build your credit BUT - I never expected for them to go behind my back after all these years of paying in full every single month by "changing" my account to Petal Rise by force. Basically, I either close the account (which hurts my credit score) or keep the "downgraded" account but start paying a monthly fee of $8 on top of fees for cash-like purchases. Below is a word-for-word statement from the email they sent out. "We are writing to notify you that we are replacing your Petal 2 account with a Petal 1 Rise account. Your Petal 1 Rise account will have the following fees and terms: Monthly Membership Fee of $8; we are expanding the types of purchases permitted on your account; we are adding a transaction fee on purchases that are cash-like transactions; and late fees and returned payment fees." I responded by saying I'd like to keep the Petal 2 Card and not be upgraded into the Petal Rise garbage. Crickets. No response at all. So, yeah. I'm closing the account thank you very much. AVOID. Very deceptive. They lure you in to their Petal Cards and then once they see that they can't make money off of you, they "upgrade" your account to a paid version and you cannot keep the current one. Wow.

Trash company. Charging monthly, or hurting your credit by forcing you to cancel. F this company. Doesn't matter if you pay on-time every single month. They force the upgrade and you either pay, or you cancel and hurt your credit. Terrible company that deserves to fail.

I got frauded out of almost 1k USD through a scam, and Petal denied my dispute forcing me to pay for it out of pocket. On top of that, Petal is now implementing a monthly fee of $8 which equates to a $96 yearly fee. When I applied and was approved for this card over a year ago, it was marketed as a no fee card. They shouldn't be forcing old customers to pay the fee, since we did not sign up for these fees. So it's either pay for the fees, or tank our credit by closing the account. Which is essentially holding us hostage paying these fees if we don't wanna tank our credit. To be fair, Petal did give me a good credit limit for my current financial standing with the opportunity of a higher credit limit after getting 6 on-time payments (along with a few other requirements).