College Ave Launches Mastercard Secured Credit Card for College Students

Financial services company College Ave has launched a secured credit card for college students.

The new Ambition Mastercard is designed to help students 18 years and older build and establish a positive credit history, College Ave said in a Tuesday (Jan. 30) press release emailed to PYMNTS.

The card joins the other products and services offered by College Ave, which has partnered with FIS-owned embedded finance platform Bond to develop financial solutions for college students and their families.

“Our goal with the Ambition card is to give students a smart and safe tool so they can put their best financial foot forward,” Joe DePaulo, co-founder and CEO of College Ave, said in the release.

The Ambition card requires no credit check to qualify, according to the release. Students can establish the credit limit by transferring money to the secured credit card from their checking or savings account.

The card has no interest charges, no late fees and no fees to apply, the release said. There is no monthly fee for the first six months; after that, the account will be charged $2 each month.

The Ambition card also enables students to earn cash back and to build a positive credit history, as on-time payments are reported to the three major credit bureaus, per the release.

“When a student heads off to college, they are not just earning a college degree. They’re taking the first steps toward adulthood, including becoming more financially independent,” DePaulo said in the release. “We are excited to launch the Ambition card and give these students a head start in building a positive credit history.”

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that young consumers are seeking financial knowledge from diverse sources, including social media, financial education apps/tools, family, friends, and traditional channels like bank branches and financial advisers.

This has created an opportunity for companies to help these consumers build credit and teach them lifelong skills, according to “The New Challenges Facing Finance: Algorithms, Finfluencers and the Quest for Reliability,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and NCR VOYIX collaboration.

In another recent product introduction in this space, financial wellness platform Credit Sesame said in August that it launched a Mastercard debit card that helps individuals build and enhance their credit scores through their everyday debit purchases.

The Sesame Credit Builder is designed to eliminate obstacles for those with limited credit history and equip them with the tools to establish a positive payment history.