Mercury Credit Card 2021 Review & Everything you should Know
The Mercury Credit Card or Mastercard is issued by First Bank & Trust. The card was created a few years back when Barclays sold about $1.6 Billion in “risky” credit card balances to CreditShop, who then created the Mercury Card.

Despite all the uncertainty surrounding this interesting credit card, one thing is known – it’s a good no annual fee card for building your credit.
Mercury Credit Card Key Specs:
- Regular APR: 25.65% to 28.65% at the time of publishing this review (variable)
- Initial Credit Limit: Varies
- Credit Reporting: Reports to all three major credit bureaus
- Fraud Liability: $0 fraud liability and protection
- Annual Fee: $0
- Foreign Transaction Fee: 3%
- Late Payment Fee: Up to $38
- Balance Transfer Fee: Either $5 or 4% of the amount of balance transfers, whichever is greater
- Cash Advance Fee: Either $10 or 5% of the amount of cash advances, whichever is greater
- Sign-Up Bonus: Unknown – assumed to be $0
- Rewards: Unknown – some users state there are rewards, others don’t
- Credit Card Application: You can only apply with an invitation and reservation code
- Customer Service: Per their website, cardholders can call 866-686-2158 for Mercury customer service agents to assist them 24/7
Who is The Mercury Credit Card best for?
The mercury credit card is best used for building your credit from fair to good.
- 800-850: Exceptional
- 740-799: Very Good
- 670-739: Good
- 580-669: Fair
- 300-579: Very Poor
As previously mentioned, this card is best for someone with a fair credit score, which is a step above very poor credit (bad credit) and no credit. At least, from what we can gather, it seems like people with fair scores are getting the ones getting sign-up codes to apply.
Since this card has no annual fee, it can be a good option to build your credit score from fair to good, and hopefully even higher. Specifically, there are three components of your credit score that this card can help build:
- You don’t have to worry about canceling this card since there is no annual fee, which builds your credit history
- You will get an additional credit limit with this card, helping to lower your credit utilization
- If you make your credit card payments on time and in full every month, as you should, it will help build your payment history.
Mercury Card Pros

No Annual Fee: The Mercury Credit Card and Mastercard offer no annual fee, making it a great low-cost card to help build credit in the long run.
Multiple Smaller Perks: Mercury cardholders receive other perks as table-stakes for a mid-tier credit card:
Free FICO Score: You can also check your score for free with Credit Karma, or you can get a free credit report from annualcreditreport.com. This is a nice thing for a card to offer, but not a game changer.
Fraud Protection: This is an awesome perk to protect against credit card fraud, but is standard with most cards these days.
Mobile App: They have a mobile app, but again, an app isn’t groundbreaking and it’s another feature that is commonplace with most credit cards.
Merchant Acceptance: Most merchants accept Mastercards nationwide.
Read Also:
- Credit Card Account Number Anatomy
- Buying Bitcoin With a Credit Card
- Best Virtual Credit Card
- Credit Card Generators
Mercury Card Cons
High Interest: The Mercury Credit Card has a relatively high interest rate, or APR (annual percentage rate). At least, it’s a higher interest rate than most similar cards.
Foreign Transaction Fee: If you’re not traveling internationally, the 3% foreign transaction fee won’t matter to you. However, the 3% fee will add up for someone who is planning to use this card abroad.
Sign-Up Code Required: Even if you are interested in the Mercury Card, you cannot just go out and apply for it. Remember, it’s the most exclusive mid-tier credit card out there. You need to wait for Mercury to select you to even get the opportunity to apply.
Difficult to Find Information: Last, and most importantly, this card is too mysterious for my liking. The cardholder agreement available online is vague, leaving out crucial pieces of information, like whether or not they have a rewards program.
Conclusion

The Mercury Credit Card is a fine card for someone with fair credit who wants to improve their credit score. Also, it seems as though their pre-approved offers and sign-up codes are not exactly as good as they sound. Some people reported getting denied for the card after supposedly being pre-approved – which dings your credit in the short term.