Reflex Mastercard vs Arro Mastercard

Executive Summary

Both the Arro Mastercard and Reflex Mastercard are unsecured credit cards that are targeted at people with bad credit.

The Reflex Mastercards has 4 different versions and each one has a different credit limit and fees. The biggest attraction of the Reflex Mastercard is that your credit limit will double after 6 months if you pay your first 6 bills on time. On all their 4 versions of their cards, Reflex has much higher fees than Arro. You would also need to have a 600 FICO score to have a good chance of approval.

The Arro Mastercard is unique in that it is an unsecured credit card that does not perform any hard inquiry. Instead, you have to meet a certain monthly income threshold and have a minimum bank balance to get approved. Arro is one of the easiest unsecured credit card to get approved for if your FICO scores are the in 500s.

In this comparison, I will highlight the difference between Arro and Reflex and explain why we think Arro is the better credit card.

Similarities

Here are the ways both Arro and Reflex are similar.

• Both are unsecured credit cards targeting those with bad credit
• Both are Mastercard

That aside, they are quite different. Let's take a look at our different they are.

Differences

The Reflex Mastercard is different from the Arro Mastercard in the following ways:

Arro does not perform hard inquiry (does not rely on FICO scores)

Arro does not rely on FICO scores to determine your credit worthiness. Instead they have 3 criterias:

• Minimum Monthly Requirements - Arro requires you to have a minimum monthly income of $1,800.


• Minimum Bank Balance - Arro requires you to have a minimum bank balande of $50. Your chances of getting a larger initial credit limit increases if you have a higher positive bank balance


• Link your bank account to Arro - Arro requires you to link your bank account to them via PLAID. This enables them to verify your income and bank balance required to approve you. It also enables you to set up autopay.

Reflex has a pre-quaification process with no impact on credit score, but eventually a hard inquiry

The Reflex Mastercard requires you to go through a pre-approval process which has no impact on your FICO score (a soft pull or soft inquiry). If you pass this process and pre-qualify for a card, you will be given the terms and conditions for the offer that you will receive. If you are happy with the terms and decide to pull the trigger with a "proper application", then there will be a hard inquiry and you will know instantly whether you are approved or denied.

You need a minimum FICO score of 600 to have a chance to be approved for the Reflex Mastercard.

Arro has lower fees

Arro's Fee - Arro has signicantly lower fees than the Reflex Mastercard. With Arro, you have to pay $1/month year during the first year. This works out to $12 annually. From the second year onwards, you will have to pay a $3/month fee, which works out to $36 annually.

Reflex's Fee - The Reflex Mastercard has 4 different versions and each has different fees. There is the $300, $500, $750 and $1,000 credit limit versions. The $750 and $1,000 limit versions both have an annual fee of $125.

The $500 credit limit version also has an annual fee of $125. However, from the second year onwards, there will be a monthly fee of $10/month ($120 annually).

The $300 credit limit version has an annual fee of $75 during the first year. From the second year onwards, the annual fee increases to $99 and a monthly fee of $10/month is charged to the cardholder.

Both have different starting credit limits and maximum limits

Arro's Inital Credit Limit - Arro's initil credit limit may be from $50 - $200. However, you can easily increase your credit limit simply via taking online financial literacy courses on their mobile app. Each time you complete a course, your credit limit will increase instantly.

Arro's Maximum Credit Limit - The maximum credit limit you can get with the Arro Mastercard is $2,500.

Reflex Initial Credit Limit - As we have mentioned before, the initial credit limit of the Reflex Mastercard could be either $300, $500, $750 or $1,000. After 6 months of paying your bills on time, your credit limit double to $600, $1,000, $1,500 and $2,000 respectively.

Reflex Maximum Credit Limit - The maximum credit limit you can get is $4,000.

Arro has a lower APR

The APR for Arro is 16% while the APR for Reflex is 29.9%. Furthermore, Arro will lower your APR if you complete certain financial literacy courses from their app.

Which is better? Both are good in certain aspects

Both the Arro Mastercard and Reflex Mastercard have good features that are better than the other card.

Ways which Reflex is better than Arro

The Reflex Mastercard has better starting credit limit than the Arro Mastercard. All their starting credit limits ($300, $500, $750 and $1,000) are higher than the $50-$200 starting credit limit than Arro.

Reflex also doubles your credit limit after 6 months if you pay your first 6 bills on time. Their maximum credit limit of $4,000 is also higher than the $2,500 maximum limit of the Arro Mastercard.

Ways which Arro is better than Reflex

The Arro Mastercard has much lower fees than Reflex. From the second year onwards, you will pay a total of $36 in fees to be paid monthly. In contrast, $125 is the lowest fee you will pay for the Reflex Mastercard. And that is if you get offered the $750 or $1,000 credit limit version.

The APR for the Arro Mastercard is also much lower. It is 16% versus 29.9% for the Reflex Mastercard. 29.9% is a typical rate for subprime credit cards whereas 16% is actually a rather low rate for any type of unsecured credit card. You can also lower the APR of the Arro Mastercard by completing certain financial courses on their app.

Arro does not not rely on FICO score to approve you. Instead you need to earn at least $1,800/month and have a positve bank balance of at least $50. You must also be willing to link your bank account to Arro via PLAID. In contrast, Reflex is like a traditional credit card that relies on FICO scores. Though they are a card that target those with bad credit, in reality, most people who get approved for the Reflex credit card has a FICO score of 600 or higher. If your scores are in the 500 area and you meet Arro's approval criteria, they are the much better card to get.

To Sum Up....

If your FICO score is 600 and above, if you are a hurry to get an unsecured credit card with a high credit limit and if you do not mind paying the fees for the Reflex card, then you should go through the pre-approval process of the Reflex Mastercard and see if you could get the $750 or $1,000 limit offer. If you do and you pay your bills on time during the first 6 months, then your limit will increase to $1,500 and $2,000 respectively. That is quite a good credit limit when your FICO scores are in the low 600s. If you pre-qualify for the $300 or $500 limit version, I would give it a skip and go for Arro Mastercard instead because the fees are simply too high.

If your FICO score is less than 600 or if you simply want to pay lower fees for an unsecured credit card, then the Arro Mastercard is the card you should get. As long as you mee their criteria, you will be approved. In fact, if your bank balance is higher, the likelihood of you getting a higher starting credit limit or larger credit limit increases is much higher.

Overall, I prefer the Arro Mastercard to Reflex because it does not rely on FICO score, has a much lower APR and also because increasing your credit limit is totally within your control.