Check if you’re eligible for a credit card

Having a credit card can be really useful. You can use it to spread the cost of a big one-off purchase or for simple, everyday things like groceries or petrol.

But to be accepted for one, all lenders will have credit card eligibility criteria that you’ll need to meet. Meaning it can be hard to know for sure if you’ll be accepted before you apply.

To apply for a Capital One credit card you need to be at least 18 years old and live in the UK. But we’ll also consider your credit history and whether you can afford your repayments before we can accept you as a customer.

We created QuickCheck to help you see if you’re eligible before applying for a credit card, so you can be sure if you’ll be accepted or not. All you have to do is tell us a few details about you and your finances, and we’ll do the rest.

QuickCheck is our free, online credit card eligibility checker. It will give you a clear, definite answer to an important question: "Will I be accepted for a credit card?"

You’ll get a 100% guaranteed yes or no, so you’ll know for certain if you will be accepted for one of our credit cards before you apply.

To do a QuickCheck, we’ll start by asking some simple questions about you. Such as what you do for a living and where you live. With the details you give us, we do a ‘soft check’ of your credit file to make sure that it all matches up.

Over four million people have already been preapproved for a Capital One credit card after using QuickCheck. Here’s why you should use an eligibility checker:

How do you use my information?

So we can check your eligibility for our credit cards we’ll need to ask you for a few details. We’ll use these to run a ‘soft check’ of your credit report, which will confirm the information you’ve given us. Then we can give you a definite answer before you apply.

We take the protection of your personal data very seriously. When you use QuickCheck, we’ll only use the details that you give us to see if we can accept you. Find out more about how we take care of your personal information by reading our privacy policy.

After you’ve put your details into QuickCheck to find out your credit card eligibility, we’ll be able to give you a clear yes or no. Then we’ll show you the cards you’re eligible for and the credit limit we could offer you.

If it’s a ‘yes’, you can go ahead and apply for a credit card from Capital One knowing that you’ll be accepted. You may need to give us some more information, but you won’t need to re-enter the personal details you’ve already provided.

When you apply for a balance transfer credit card, we’ll also need you to tell us about the credit or store card you’ll be transferring a balance from, including the amount.

If you get a ‘no’ from our credit card eligibility checker, it’s because a Capital One card might not be right for you at the moment. But it doesn’t mean that will always be the case.

If you use our credit card eligibility checker and the answer you get isn’t the one you hoped for, there are things you can do to help in future.

Once you know your credit score there are a few things you can do to start improving it, like registering to vote opens in a new tab . It could also help you spot an error on your credit file. Contacting the credit agencies and getting any incorrect information on your credit file fixed will also improve your chances of becoming more eligible for a credit card.

We know that some people can worry about past problems with credit. And how it might affect their credit card eligibility in future. But even if you don’t have a spotless credit history it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not eligible for a credit card.

At Capital One, you could be accepted for one of our credit cards for bad credit if you’re over 18 years old and live in the UK. But don’t forget to use our credit card eligibility checker first.