Kikoff
REVIEW

New Online Store Credit Card with Cool Features

Kikoff is a San Francisco based firm started by Cynthia Chen. Their main product, the Kikoff Credit Account, is an online store that extends you a $500 line of credit where you can purchase financial and wellness ebooks for $10. Kikoff does not check your credit so you will definitely be approved. Furthermore, they do not charge any interest on your purchases so the APR is 0%. Kikoff does have a monthly membership fee of $2/month and you are locked in for a year. You get a free Vantage 3.0 credit score from Equifax and Kikoff also reports to both Equifax and Experian. Kikoff says that "qualifying" members have an opportunity to open a credit builder loan in additional to this credit account. Kikoff used to have a $12 credit builder loan where you pay off $1 a month for 12 months. But this product is no longer offered so one can assume that qualifying members who want to get their credit builder loans will be offered one with similar terms like this.

Competition

As Kikoff is an online store that gives an unsecured credit line, we will have to compare it with similar rebuilders products like that. Below is a table highlighting 3 such competitors.

Card	Monthly Fee	Credit Checks	Credit Bureau Reporting	Credit Limits
Kikoff	$2/month	No Credit Checks	Experian and Equifax	$500
Horizon Gold Card	$24.95/month	No Credit Checks	No longer reports	$500
Fingerhut	$0	N.A.	Yes - Hard Inquiry 3 Major Bureaus	Varies
Buy On Trust	$0	N.A.	No Credit Checks 3 Major Bureaus	Up to $5,000

One of the most prominent online store rebuilder card is the Fingerhut Credit Card. The card has no annual fee and they have their own online store where you can buy products with their credit card. Like Kikoff, their card cannot be used elsewhere. But Kikoff is better than Fingerhut in many aspects. Firstly, kikoff does not check your credit when you apply whereas Fingerhut might deny your application. Secondly, Fingerhut has a regular purchase APR whereas Kikoff does not charge any interest rate on your purchases. Kikoff also offers a free credit score which Fingerhut does not. The only area where Fingerhut is better than Kikoff is that the Fingerhut has no annual fee whereas Kikoff has a $2/month monthly fee.

Another competitor of Kikoff (and one which most resembles them in terms of features) are online store cards from Horizon Card Services like the Horizon Gold Card. Like Kikoff, the Horizon Gold Card does not check your credit and the APR is also 0%. However, the monthly fees are much higher at $24.95/month and the product range is pretty crappy. On top of that, you have to pay separate delivery charges. In contrast, Kikoff has a much lower monthly fee ($2/month) and ebooks have no delivery charges. So Kikoff is definitely better than any cards from Horizon Card Services.

Kikoff also competes with online electronics stores like Buy on Trust, which sells electronic products online which you can pick up at your nearest Best Buy. Like Kikoff, Buy On Trust does not perform any credit checks though you need to be earning at least $1,000 from the same company for the last 3 months. While Kikoff gives you a $500 limit, Buy On Trust gives you an unsecured credit limit of up to $5,000. Buy on Trust also reports to all 3 major credit bureaus whereas Kikoff reports to Experian and Equifax but not TransUnion. However, Buy on Trust is essentially a leasehold to own firm so they do charge an interest rate if you pay over time.

Pros: Much to Like

• No Credit Checks - Kikoff does not check your credit when you apply so you will definitely be approved.


• 0% APR - Kikoff does not charge any interest rates on your purchase.


• Low Fees - Kikoff charges a very low monthly fee of $2/month, which works out to only $24 a year. This is much low than it's competitors.


• Reports to 2 Major Credit Bureaus - Kikoff reports to both Equifax or Experian.


• Free Credit Score - Kikoff also provides free Vantage 3.0 credit score from Equifax.

Cons: Very little to dislike

• Can only be used at their web store - Kikoff is not a Visa or Mastercard and it can only be used on their store to purchase mainly ebooks on finance and wellness.

Our Take: Low Cost Way to Rebuild Credit

While Kikoff is a relatively new product, it's concept isn't exactly new. It is essentially an online store credit card which extends a credit limit, reports to credit bureaus and enables a rebuilder to rebuild their credit scores. As mentioned earlier, there are quite a few of these around.

What makes Kikoff unique is that they do not check your credit and their monthly fees are ridiculously low compared to their competitors. While there are others who offer crap products on their site, at least Kikoff offers something useless (ebooks) which are low cost ($10 or $20). To rebuild your credit, all you have to do is to buy one or two of their products and simply stick to your payment plan. Because of the small sums involved, you are very unlikely to miss a payment. And that is probably the reason why Kikoff does not check your credit when you apply.

The question is who is Kikoff for and how would getting it work in relation to your other rebuilding cards and effort. First off, I would say that Kikoff might be worth considering for any rebuilder but especially if you face the following situtation:

1. You have been denied other credit card and do not want another hard inquiry - Many rebuiders get denied cards that they apply (even secured credit cards). And that is just part of the game when you are in this situation. If you have been denied secured credit cards, bear in mind that there are other secured credit cards like Opensky that also does not check your credit and will definitly approve you. But if you are unwilling to put down a security deposit, then Kikoff might be an ideal line of credit to get started on your rebuilding efforts.

2. You want to increase your credit lines - If you already have a secured credit card and want to increase your credit lines without adding additional security deposits to your existing secured credit card, then Kikoff might also be ideal because you know you will be approved and you can also avoid a hard pull.

To sum up, after reviewing and evaluating Kikoff, we have decided to give it a 4.3 star out of 5 rating for it's low cost, 0% APR, no credit checks, free credit scores and it's reporting to both Equifax and Experian. The fact that you can only use it at their online store prevents us from giving it a higher rating.