Parents who want to build credit for their children have limited options. Most make their children authorized users on their credit cards, which can put their own credit in jeopardy if their kids can't control their own spending.
Business Insider's personal finance team compared FreeKick to the best credit builder loans and found it to be an industry leader that offers a credit-building alternative for parents. Parents can even use FreeKick for free, provided they fulfill certain requirements. Read on to learn how to build credit with FreeKick at no cost.
FreeKick Pros and Cons
Pros
- Builds credit for teens: Helps teens start building credit using savings instead of spending
- Identity protection: Offers identity protection for the whole family
- Lower pricing: Annual fees are $0—$149, which is less expensive than many other credit builder loans
Cons
- Limited flexibility: Only one payment option of a $600 loan paid over 12 months
- Requires savings: Requires $3,000 to be put away for at least a year in a savings account that doesn't generate interest
- Age limitation: Only available for people between the ages of 13 and 25
Open an Account
Starts at $1
$0 - $149 annually
- No additional fees
- No credit check
- Set it and forget it
- Only available for people between 14 and 25 years old
FreeKick accounts are available for people between 14 and 25 years old. When you sign up for FreeKick, you can choose one of two amounts to deposit in an FDIC-insured bank account: $1 or $3,000. Depositing $1 will result in $149 in annual fees, and depositing $3,000 will result in $0 in annual fees.
- No credit check needed
- No interest earned
- Costs between $0 to $149 annually depending on deposit amount
Compare FreeKick Credit Builder
15.51% to 15.92%
$25 to $150 monthly
N/A
$600 to $3,600
- Four different plans
- Customers eligible for Visa secured credit card
- No hard credit check
- Available in all 50 states
- Relatively high APRs for credit builder loan
- Only 24-month payment periods available
Self's credit builder loan is one of the few credit-builder loans available in all 50 states. Self offers four payment plans between $25 and $150 per month, all of which take 24 months to complete. Self doesn't perform a hard credit inquiry, and it reports to all three credit bureaus, but that's the bare minimum for a loan designed to build credit.
Self Credit Builder Account- No hard credit report pull
- Reports to all 3 bureaus
- Build credit AND savings
- Join over 1 million credit builders
- Unlock a Secured Credit Card after meeting eligibility criteria
- 24 months loan duration
$0
None
No Credit History, Poor
- No credit check required for approval
- No annual fee
- Build credit with responsible use
- No welcome bonus or rewards
- Requires a Chime checking account
- No ability to carry a balance
If you have a problematic credit history or none at all, the card offers a way to get the functionality of a credit card without having to undergo a standard credit check. The card can help you build credit by reporting activity on your account to the major credit bureaus. However, it doesn't earn rewards and can't be converted to an unsecured card, so it may not be your best option. The secured Chime Credit Builder Visa® Credit Card is issued by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A., Members FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used everywhere Visa credit cards are accepted. Please see the back of your card for its issuing bank.
Chime Credit Builder Secured Visa- No credit check required for approval
- No annual fee
- No welcome bonus or rewards
- Requires a Chime checking account
- No ability to carry a balance
$0-$6.95 monthly + optional $49.95 fee for retroactive reporting
- Rent reporting is free of charge
- Credit score monitoring
- $1M identity theft insurance
- Three-bureau rent reporting
- Utility and cell phone payments
- Doesn’t require landlord’s approval
- Poor customer service experience
- Cell phone and utility payments only reported to TransUnion
Self Rent Reporting reports your rent and other bills to the credit bureaus. This improves your payment history and as a result, your credit score, without needing to take on debt. One of the companies listed in our guide on the best rent reporting services, Self Rent Reporting stands out for offering several credit building perks under one competitive price.
Self Rent Reporting- Reports to all three credit bureaus
- Connects directly to your bank account
- Reports your rent, cell phone, electric, water and gas payments
- $49.95 optional fee for 24 months of retroactive rent and utilities reporting
- $6.95 per month
- Add two years of past payments
- Results vary. You may not receive an improved credit score. Not all lenders use scores impacted by rent/utility payments.
FreeKick Overview
FreeKick offers two services: a credit builder loan for young adults and a family identity theft protection service.
FreeKick's credit builder product is geared toward parents who want to give their children a head start on their credit-building journey when they're as young as 13. Operated by Austin Capital Bank, which also owns credit building company CreditStrong, FreeKick is one of few credit builder loans geared toward teens and parents of teens.
FreeKick's credit builder will appeal to parents who want to build credit for their teenagers and have at least $1,000 to spare. The service becomes less appealing once a consumer turns 18, as they'll start qualifying for other credit-building products like student credit cards. Once you turn 18, you'll also have access to credit builder loans that last longer than 12 months. However, young adults under 25 may still find some use in FreeKick's service as long as they have the money to put away.
FreeKick's identity theft protection service is for families and parents concerned about their children's credit. Consumers without children should consider looking elsewhere for their identity coverage.
How FreeKick Works
With annual fees ranging from $0 - $149 annually, the service comes cheaper than many other credit builder loans on the market. However, you trade cost for flexibility. You have one payment option: a $600 loan paid over 12 months. Additionally, you'll have to put $3,000 away for at least a year in a savings account that does not generate interest, making this a hard sell for most families.
The service is also only available for people between the ages of 13 to 25. Yet FreeKick can be a massive asset for its target customer. Young adults can drastically improve their credit score very early in life, making it easier to get favorable rates on future loans and credit cards. This is especially helpful as average credit scores for young adults tend to lag behind average scores of older consumers.
FreeKick's identity theft protection service is a newer service. It covers eight people, two adults, and up to six children under 25, for $149 annually with $1 deposit. With that price and the monitoring and identity recovery services it offers, FreeKick is competitive with the best identity protection services on the market.
Key Features of FreeKick
FreeKick has two distinct products: a credit builder loan for younger adults and an identity protection service.
FreeKick Credit Builder Loan
To sign your child up for a credit builder account with FreeKick, you need to make a $3,000 deposit with FreeKick in an FDIC-insured bank account.
Once you've established your account and made the deposit, FreeKick uses the money in that account to make payments on a $600 credit builder loan. Once that loan is paid off through $50 installments over 12 months, FreeKick returns the money, and you can renew the account for another year.
FreeKick works slightly differently depending on whether your child is a minor. While this won't change anything regarding your deposit, it will affect how your credit report will look.
If you sign your child up when they're a minor, you and your child will be co-borrowers (this does not affect your credit reports or scores). FreeKick works normally, using your deposit to pay off the credit builder loan, but it won't be able to report any information to the credit bureaus until you turn 18 (19 in Alabama).
FreeKick doesn't charge fees for early cancellations. However, if you cancel an account while your child is still a minor, FreeKick can't report anything, even after your child turns 18.
Once your child turns 18 and they activate credit reporting, FreeKick can report 24 months of prior payment history. While any payments before your child's 16th birthday won't be included, FreeKick will report the original payment date and cumulative loan amount. So if you signed your child up for FreeKick at age 13, by the time they turn 18, their credit report would show 24 months of reported payment history along with one big $2,400, five-year-old loan.
Once your child turns 18, each FreeKick renewal gets reported as a separate, one-year, $600 loan. Once you decide that you no longer need FreeKick or you need your deposit back, you can either choose not to renew FreeKick once the account ends or cancel the account and get your entire deposit back.
FreeKick Identity Protection Service
FreeKick's identity protection service is a recent addition. To access this service, users must make a $1 deposit into an FDIC-insured bank account. On top of this deposit, users pay $149 annually with $1 deposit. This buys identity protection for two adults and six children under the age of 25.
FreeKick's identity protection monitors various aspects of your identity including your credit score, credit report, and Social Security number. It also includes dark web monitoring and court records monitoring. FreeKick can also help you recover your identity with features such as lost wallet protection, white-glove credit restoration, and $1 million in identity theft insurance.
FreeKick Cost and Fees
FreeKick's credit builder loan doesn't cost anything as long as you make a $3,000 deposit, which you will get back in its entirety when you cancel FreeKick.
On the other hand, FreeKick's identity protection service costs $149 annually with $1 deposit.
FreeKick doesn't come with any additional costs. This means no cancellation fees, so you can cut the credit builder loan short if you need to withdraw your deposit. Note that cutting the loan short will limit payment history and age of accounts, two major factors in credit score calculations.
FreeKick Reviews and Ratings
There aren't any FreeKick-specific user reviews or app ratings available at this time. However, Austin Capital Bank, which owns FreeKick, is FDIC-insured and has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
FreeKick Alternatives
FreeKick has carved a niche for itself, giving a head start to people as young as 13. Teens at this age generally have very few options to build credit. However, when FreeKick users turn 18, they can have as many as 24 months of payment history and a $2,400 installment loan show up on their credit report.
Here's a breakdown of FreeKick compared to other credit builder loans:
| Company | Cost | Loan Amount | Payment Term |
| FreeKick | $0 - $149 annually | $600 | 12 months |
| Self | $25 to $150 monthly and 15.51% to 15.92% APR | $600 - $3,600 | 24 months |
| CreditStrong Instal | 15.51% - 15.73% APR | $1,152 - $1,344 | 24-48 months |
| DCU | 5.00% APR | $500 - $3,000 | 12-24 months |
| MoneyLion | $19.99 monthly membership fee and 5.99% to 29.99% APR | $1,000 | 12 months |
FreeKick vs. Self Credit Builder
Self Credit Builder is also designed to help people build credit and offers more flexibility in loan amounts and repayment terms, but Self is a more general credit-building tool for adults with limited credit history.
FreeKick is specifically geared toward building credit for minors and young adults with parental involvement. It also offers identity protection, which Self does not.
Parents and their teens may prefer FreeKick, while adults may prefer Self.
Read our Self Credit Builder review.
FreeKick vs. CreditStrong
CreditStrong credit builder, which, like, FreeKick, is a division of Austin Capital Bank, is offered to adults with limited credit history to help build credit and savings. You must be at least 18 years old to register.
CreditStrong offers eight different plans, with options to take a more traditional credit builder loan or to open a revolving credit line. FreeKick is designed specifically for parents who want to set up and guide their children's credit journey and education.
People under 18 cannot use CreditStrong, so FreeKick will be the right choice for parents building their children's credit.
Read our CreditStrong review.
Frequently Asked Questions About FreeKick
How effective is FreeKick?
FreeKick is extremely effective at building credit for teens, who have few options. It uses advanced technology and comprehensive services, like identity theft protection, to meet consumer needs.
Is FreeKick a legitimate company?
Yes, FreeKick is a legitimate company. Your deposit with FreeKick is FDIC-insured, so your money will be safe if the bank goes under.
Is FreeKick easy to use?
Yes, FreeKick is easy to use, with a user-friendly interface and easy-to-navigate features. Its plans are set up to be convenient for meeting your credit-building needs.
Why You Should Trust Us: How We Evaluated FreeKick
To rate and review identity theft protection services like FreeKick, we prioritize must-have features — fraud resolution, dark web monitoring, and credit monitoring — value for price, and customer service offerings. We then look for additional features, a Better Business Bureau rating, and any free trials.
Business Insider's personal finance team is editorially independent.
Read our full explanation of how we rate identity theft protection services.
