What Credit Score Do You Need for Milestone Credit Card?

The Milestone Gold Mastercard and Milestone Platinum Mastercard are popular credit cards issued by Credit One Bank. These cards offer rewards on purchases and come with no annual fee. However, like any credit card, approval is based on your creditworthiness. If you are considering applying for a Milestone card, an important question is – what credit score do you need to qualify?

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover the key details on credit score requirements for Milestone credit cards, including:

• How Milestone credit card approval is determined
• The minimum credit scores recommended for Milestone cards
• What constitutes a poor, fair, good or excellent credit score
• Tips for checking your current credit score
• Steps to take to improve your credit score
• Other factors beyond your score that influence approval odds
• Alternatives if you can’t qualify for a Milestone card yet

Let’s dive in to understand exactly what credit score you need to increase your chances of getting approved for a Milestone credit card.

How Milestone Credit Card Approval is determined?

Like any lender, Credit One Bank assesses an applicant’s credit profile and risk level when deciding whether to approve a Milestone credit card. The bank considers several factors, but your credit score plays a significant role.

Specifically, Credit One Bank will review your:

• Credit report – Your detailed credit history across accounts to assess reliability.
• Credit score – A mathematical rating of your creditworthiness.
• Income – Your earnings to evaluate your ability to pay balances.
• Existing debts – How much you already owe across all accounts.
• Credit inquiries – How frequently you have applied for new credit recently.

Your credit score doesn’t tell the full story, but offers a snapshot of your credit health. The higher your score, the better your approval chances. So what is the minimum score needed?

Minimum Credit Score Recommended for Milestone Cards

Credit One Bank has not formally published the exact minimum credit scores required for the Milestone cards. However, based on reviews from applicants, you typically need:

• Milestone Gold Mastercard – A minimum credit score of 600 is recommended for approval odds over 50%.
• Milestone Platinum Mastercard – A higher minimum score of 650 is suggested for better approval chances.

So for best approval odds, you’ll want to aim for a credit score of at least 600 for the Milestone Gold or 650 for the Milestone Platinum card. The higher, the better.

But what do these numbers really mean? Let’s look at credit score ranges and ratings.

What Do Credit Score Ranges Mean?

Your specific credit score is rated on a scale from 300 to 850. The scale is divided into general categories or ranges. Here is what the main credit score ranges indicate:

• 800-850 = Excellent
• 740-799 = Very Good
• 670-739 = Good
• 580-669 = Fair
• 300-579 = Poor

As you can see, a credit score between 600-650 falls into the ‘fair’ range – high enough for a decent shot at Milestone approval, but with room for improvement.

Top approval odds come with ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ level scores. Let’s explore the factors that impact your score.

What Impacts Your Credit Score?

Many elements affect the calculation of your credit score. The main factors include:

• Payment history – Whether you pay bills on time, particularly credit accounts. On-time payments raise your score.
• Credit utilization – The percentage of your total credit limit you are using. Lower utilization helps your score.
• Credit age – The length of your credit history. Older accounts support higher scores.
• Credit mix – The variety of credit types, like cards, loans and mortgages. Mix of accounts is better.
• New credit – Opening many new accounts at once can hurt your score temporarily.
• Hard inquiries – Too many applications for credit in a short period also lower your score.

Optimizing these areas through responsible credit management over time is key to boosting your score. Now let’s look at ways to check your current score.

Checking Your Current Credit Score

Since your credit score plays a big role in credit card approval, it’s important to check your current score so you know where you stand. Here are some options:

• Get your free credit report and FICO score from AnnualCreditReport.com. You can check your report from each bureau once per year.
• Use Credit Karma to view your credit score from TransUnion and Equifax for free.
• Many banks provide credit scores for customers through online banking.
• Purchase your FICO score directly from myFICO.com.
• Consider signing up for a credit monitoring service like IdentityForce or PrivacyGuard.

Checking your credit reports and scores regularly enables you to monitor your credit health over time. Now let’s look at improving your score if needed.

How to Improve Your Credit Score?

If your current score falls below 600-650, take steps to boost your credit score over the next few months before applying for a Milestone card. Recommended tips include:

• Pay all bills on time – Set payment reminders and automate payments. One late payment can drop your score.
• Lower credit utilization – Reduce balances to 30% or less of your total credit limit.
• Avoid new accounts – Hold off applying for more credit right now to avoid hard inquiries.
• Mix up credit types – Consider adding an installment loan or secured card to diversify credit types.
• Monitor closely – Check your reports and scores monthly to catch any reporting issues.
• Dispute errors – If you find mistakes on your credit reports, dispute them for correction.
• Consider credit repair – If needed, work with a reputable credit repair agency to identify improvement options.

With diligent credit management for 6-12 months, you can potentially raise your credit score significantly to boost approval odds.Along with your score, a few other tips can support your application.

Other Tips to Improve Your Approval Odds

Beyond your credit score, a few other best practices can increase your chances of getting approved for a Milestone credit card:

• Lower credit utilization – Keep credit card balances very low before applying.
• Watch income thresholds – Credit One may require minimum individual or household income amounts to qualify.
• Provide documentation – Have pay stubs or tax returns available to provide income verification if requested.
• Build credit history – Apply after you have at least 6 months of credit account history.
• Add an authorized user – Being added as an authorized user on someone else’s credit account can help.

Meeting these additional criteria demonstrates your creditworthiness beyond just your score. However, even if you can’t qualify yet, alternatives exist.

Alternatives if You Don’t Qualify for Milestone Cards Yet

If your credit score or history needs more time to develop, consider these options instead of a Milestone card:

• Secured credit cards – Secured cards require a deposit but report to credit bureaus.
• Credit builder loans – These special loans build payment history and get deposited back to you.
• Become an authorized user – Get added as a user on a family member or partner’s credit card.
• Retail credit cards – Department store cards tend to have lower credit requirements.
• Prepaid debit cards – Cards like Chime Visa don’t require credit checks.
• Milestone secured card – Credit One offers a secured version of the Milestone card.

Using alternative starter credit products allows you to establish positive payment history and build your credit score over time. Within 6-12 months you may become eligible for an unsecured Milestone credit card.

FAQs

Bottom Line on Milestone Credit Card Requirements

While approval depends on several factors, ideally you should strive for a minimum credit score of 600-650 for the best Milestone credit card approval odds, with higher always better. Checking your score, maintaining responsible credit habits, and allowing some time to build your profile can position you for qualification approval down the road. But even if you aren’t there yet, alternatives exist to start establishing positive credit.

Carefully managing your credit and financial health puts you on the path to being able to enjoy the benefits and rewards of Milestone credit card membership.