Petal Reviews 

The worse card and terrible customer service on the planet. I’m closing my account with them

Absolutely a company trying to pocket from the dead since no opt in required for $8/month fee.

Horrible experience with Petal "fee free" credit builder credit card. Took less than 5 minutes to apply and get approved, but years later they pull a Bait-n-switch and start charging a $8 monthly membership fee...but worse they have made it near to impossible to close my account. The app is useless when it come to closing your account. It directs you to call, but puts you on an eternal hold. 7 times I had to hang up after being on hold for over 20 minutes. I reached out via the apps Contact Us but never received any response. Finally after waiting on hold for over 25 minutes with my phone on speaker. I received the worst customer service. Was threatened that if the $8 fees imposed on my zero balance account were not paid, late fees and other charges would be added. The company is supposed to be a "Credit Builder company" and is pulling a bait-n-switch credit card scheme. Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this failing company.

How do we sue this company this was a total bait and switch scam I have recorded 4 managers saying “it was a business decision based on the current credit climate” lol what does that even mean I’ve been with these guys for 3 years now but now you guys wanna charge me $8 per month on top of interest wow!!! And get this if you didn’t opt out and then decide
You want to close the account you are
Still responsible for that $8 monthly fee on top of paying your balance down with interest!

Lol I wish I thought of this scam cause this is one of the best I’ve seen!

Ridiculous "repair credit rate" 31% in june of thos year began $8 membership monthly fee. Total bs and terrible customer service. DO NOT use this credit card company!

I’ve been a longtime customer with this company for five years. It was great to start building my credit. The problem is it recently all current members got charged a membership fee or yearly fee there was no way around it. We are not allowed to upgrade to the brand new cards that they have we are not allowed to do anything. We are to cancel our account and never be a customer with them again or to pay a monthly fee or yearly fee with them, meanwhile all new customers get a bunch of new benefits no annual fee no membership fees at all. Meanwhile I’ve been with them for five years and I’m getting kicked out I get no options to upgrade anything I’ve been in contact with them via email they refused to help me. Sorry you close your account will never do business with you again you should’ve paid the membership fees is pretty much is what I’m getting told they won’t do anything to assist with this conflict. I highly do not recommend getting them getting them.

Doing some research the CEO of the company is Jeremy Gross. We should all start sending emails like I currently have actually been doing with Customer service but we should all start sending them to Jeremy Gross the CEO see how he likes being bombarded by all of the customers that werekicked out of having a card with them or so on and so forth all of us who feel that we’ve been wronged by this company or scammed by this company

Scam. Advertised as a card for beginners with “no fees” and began charging $96 a year. I paid on time for two years and remained under 10% utilization. Don’t fall for their “No fee” false advertising.

I will confirm what other recent reviews have stated--definitely a bait and switch tactic used by this company. I applied for this card 4 years ago to build my credit...it seemed legit and did help me build it since they did not require a credit check at the time of applying. Original card was no fees, low credit limit at first, but I could build that limit over time by making on-time payments--which I did every single month for the last 4 years. About two months ago (May 2023) I received a notice from Petal stating my Petal 2 card (the one with lower interest rate and for customers with better credit) was going to be automatically switched to a Petal 1 Rise card (much higher interest rate) and would begin charging $8 per month. The ONLY way to opt out of this change was to cancel the card altogether. I was like wha?! Credit bureaus do not like it when you close a card but literally Petal was forcing me to do it or pay their fees of $96 a year. Since I was only earning about $100 in rewards each year, it made no sense to keep the card because no other rewards or additional perks were being offered to me as an original Petal customer (when the company was first trying to launch, I was an original customer), even though I paid on-time and currently have an 800+ credit score. About my accumulated rewards points: I had about $100 in reward perks built up and the change notice stated I could cash those out by calling them directly (there was no way to make that request online) but when I called there was either no answer or I was put on an indefinite hold (waited 45 minutes one time then finally gave up). So instead, I charged up $100 worth of charges, redeemed my reward points to pay off that balance and closed the card. I have been an elated, 100% satisfied customer all these years, made frequent purchases on this card, and was able to establish my credit and increase my credit score because of the original Petal card I was issued. However, somewhere along the way (I think the company may have been sold to another one about a year and a half ago) they forgot who keeps them in business--their customers. I will say they did clearly communicate this change was coming a couple of months in advance, but why on earth you would intentionally burn your loyal customers without any fair alternative offered violates every business ethics rule out there. This card honestly gives VISA a bad name. I do not recommend any new customers apply for this card. I feel badly for any who are tangled up in this card with high remaining balances to pay off--the interest rate literally doubled and now monthly fees will be added on as well. GET OUT ASAP if you are a current customer and DO NOT APPLY if you are looking for a new card. This company ticks all the boxes as a shady, bait and switch scam.

They without explanation changed the card to a yearly $98.00 fee with 0 added benefits. I have very good credit. Make more now than when I 1st got this card. I’m being down graded from Petal 2 to this Rise card. It stinks. I called because credit experts (including me) say to call & try to work something else out. The girl (young & rude) was such a snot on the phone. Our choice…pay $98.00 yearly fee or close your account. Nothing else offered. No reduction in APR, no added perks $ etc. They come off with this “cutsie” marketing strategy which I fell for & went with for 2+ years. They stink. Not cute. Closing any credit card account negatively affects your credit rating. I’m really ticked off about this. Avoid this card! You can do better!

Suckers you in as a "No fees" credit card then changes to more fees than literally any other card I have. I'll be paying it off and closing my account ASAP. Oughta be illegal.

Had to cancel due to monthly fee, hurt my credit as I had for four years with responsible use. Glad I got rid of it ultimately with only $550 credit line over those 4 years and having no other CC limit below $5,000 out of my other 10 credit cards... Do yourself a favor and don't get this card it will hurt your credit closing it in the future if they decide to charge fees even if you have a 800+ credit score.

Well, first off - it's a great card if you're trying to build your credit BUT - I never expected for them to go behind my back after all these years of paying in full every single month by "changing" my account to Petal Rise by force. Basically, I either close the account (which hurts my credit score) or keep the "downgraded" account but start paying a monthly fee of $8 on top of fees for cash-like purchases. Below is a word-for-word statement from the email they sent out.

"We are writing to notify you that we are replacing your Petal 2 account with a Petal 1 Rise account. Your Petal 1 Rise account will have the following fees and terms:

Monthly Membership Fee of $8;
we are expanding the types of purchases permitted on your account;
we are adding a transaction fee on purchases that are cash-like transactions; and
late fees and returned payment fees."

I responded by saying I'd like to keep the Petal 2 Card and not be upgraded into the Petal Rise garbage. Crickets. No response at all.

So, yeah. I'm closing the account thank you very much. AVOID. Very deceptive. They lure you in to their Petal Cards and then once they see that they can't make money off of you, they "upgrade" your account to a paid version and you cannot keep the current one. Wow.

Trash company. Charging monthly, or hurting your credit by forcing you to cancel. F this company. Doesn't matter if you pay on-time every single month. They force the upgrade and you either pay, or you cancel and hurt your credit. Terrible company that deserves to fail.

I got frauded out of almost 1k USD through a scam, and Petal denied my dispute forcing me to pay for it out of pocket.
On top of that, Petal is now implementing a monthly fee of $8 which equates to a $96 yearly fee. When I applied and was approved for this card over a year ago, it was marketed as a no fee card.
They shouldn't be forcing old customers to pay the fee, since we did not sign up for these fees. So it's either pay for the fees, or tank our credit by closing the account. Which is essentially holding us hostage paying these fees if we don't wanna tank our credit.

To be fair, Petal did give me a good credit limit for my current financial standing with the opportunity of a higher credit limit after getting 6 on-time payments (along with a few other requirements).

DON’T GET THE PETAL 2 CARD.
The Petal 2 was my first credit card ever and I swore by it, even though the cash back rate is rather low, and the product itself is tremendously boring. But hey, it was a solid, reliable, no-annual-fee card that would not fail you… until a couple weeks back.
Petal decided to start charging me an annual fee of $96, starting August 1st and if I don’t comply, I’m out, or so the ultimatum goes in my inbox.
I researched this issue, and it turns out that this is not across the board, as Petal cherry-picked which customers to cut off—never mind that I’ve payed every single statement in full since inception.
I called them and their representative said that they “don’t have answers” as to the company’s rationale to cut me off.
Great! So professional!
So now I will be out, and I will be several thousand dollars short in my credit line, which will impact my credit history immediately (due to account closure), and in the long run (due to expenditure proportion growth).
Who on Earth advised this company to charge its customers like if Petal 2 was a co-branded Loyalty program?!
Who in this company thought reasonable customers would pay $96 a year for a 1.5% cash back card?!
Way to go Petal, you sure know how to alienate loyal customers!
If you’re considering getting this card, DON’T, their business model can’t be trusted if they’re willing to play with something so sensitive as your credit score.
There’s a million other options in the credit card market, so do yourself a favor and avoid dealing with this company.

Like many others have said about this card I also got the same email stating that they were changing from petal 2 with no fees to the pedal 1 rise. Never missed or had a late payment with them. I'm just gonna have to pay off the balance and close the account because if people let them do this due to a business decision then what's to stop them from making another decision to change their fees. Had them for 2 years and now they pull this crap.

I’ve been with Petal for over four years. They’ve changed my account twice. I was just notified that this last change will require me to pay a monthly or annual fee. Which I’m not ok with. The only option I have is to close the account, which hurts your credit score. I cannot believe that a company that market’s its purpose on building credit is going to hurt my credit in the long run. Definitely stay away from this company.

Bait and Switch Business Tactics
I was happy with my Petal card until this past month when I was notified that my Petal card (no fees, lowest interest rate) was being now will charge me $8 per month and increase my interest rate. I have never had a late payment, and per transaction fee. No reason for this. And the only way to opt out of this change is to close the account, which will ding my credit score. Now wants to force me to pay fees and use the card at a higher interest rate for no reason seems like shady business to me. But can never get a hold of them when I call. Shady, shady, shady.

Bait & Switch. Notified that no fee card was being changed to monthly fee. Closed account, which hurts credit score. Petal kept my rewards balance. Alissa Heinerscheid level decision-making by Petal.

I am compelled to express my profound disappointment with the recent changes made by Petal regarding their once-promising credit card. As a longtime customer, I had trusted the company to provide a valuable financial tool, only to be met with a mediocre card that now comes with additional fees. This review serves as a cautionary tale for those considering their services.