Have questions?
Kikoff is a credit-building service that can help you build credit safely and responsibly. Kikoff is designed to target key credit factors by giving customers access to a Kikoff tradeline and a monthly Kikoff plan (which your Kikoff tradeline is used to finance). Let’s break it down:
- Build payment history: Make affordable monthly payments without interest or fees to build your payment history. We’ll report each of your payments to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
- Lower your credit utilization: Your Kikoff tradeline and your monthly plan work together to help lower your overall credit utilization
- Average account age: The longer an account is in good standing, the better—so keeping your Kikoff account healthy can help your credit profile age gracefully.
Your Kikoff tradeline is not a credit card or traditional loan. It’s a secure, revolving line of credit that is intended exclusively for credit-building — not for everyday purchases like gas or groceries. Your Kikoff tradeline is essentially a payment method: you’ll use it to finance the cost of your monthly Kikoff plan, and then pay back that cost each month with your personal debit card or bank account.
The Kikoff Secured Credit Card — Qualified customers with Kikoff Premium or Ultimate plans are invited to apply for the Kikoff Secured Credit Card after their first month with Kikoff*. The Kikoff Secured Credit Card works like a debit card, with powerful perks that can help you build extra credit on everyday purchases — plus $0 ATM withdrawals within the Allpoints network, fee-free overdraft protection, & even early payday for qualified customers. Learn more here.
*Kikoff Inc. is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking Services provided by Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC. The Kikoff Mastercard® is issued by Coastal Community Bank pursuant to a license by Mastercard International Incorporated.
Kikoff customers with credit under 600 who make consistent on-time payments grow their credit by an average of +84 points2. In addition to strengthening key credit factors, Kikoff also helps customers establish positive financial habits and improve credit literacy, helping them qualify for auto financing, mortgages, credit cards, personal loans, and more.
[2] Average first-year credit score impact of +84 points (VantageScore 3.0) between Jan-2023 & Jan-2024 for Kikoff Credit Account customers who started with a score below 600; who paid on-time; and who had no delinquencies or collections added to their credit profile during the period. Late payments may negatively impact your credit score. Individual results may vary.
- There are no hidden fees to use Kikoff, aka no interest, late fees, or other sneaky fees associated with your account.
- Using the Kikoff Secured Credit Card, you can access your funds without any additional fees from over 55,000 ATMs in the Allpoint network. These ATMs are conveniently located in Walgreens, Target, CVS, and more. Any ATMs outside of the Allpoints network will be subject to a $2.50 Kikoff fee in addition to any ATM fees.
Kikoff is an official data furnisher to the 3 major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Kikoff reports your accounts at the start of every month.
- Kikoff reports to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
- The Kikoff Secured Credit Card (offered to qualified customers with Kikoff Premium and Ultimate plans) reports to Equifax, Experian and TransUnion after your first deposit of $50 or more.
Yes, we have both Android and iOS apps with over 150k+ 5-star reviews. Our app is the best way to get important updates about your credit progress and ensure you’re getting the most out of your Kikoff plan. Download the app here.
There’s no physical card associated with the Kikoff tradeline or your monthly credit-building plan.
However, qualified customers with Kikoff Premium or Ultimate plans can apply for the Kikoff Secured Credit Card after their first month with Kikoff*. Kikoff Secured Credit Card funds are not connected to your Kikoff tradeline. After connecting your Kikoff Secured Credit Card to your bank account, make a deposit of $50 or more to request a physical Kikoff Secured Credit Card. Most Kikoff Secured Credit Cards arrive within ten business days. Learn more here.
*Kikoff Inc. is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking Services provided by Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC. The Kikoff Mastercard® is issued by Coastal Community Bank pursuant to a license by Mastercard International Incorporated.
Signing up for Kikoff gives you access to a Kikoff tradeline, which lets you finance one of our monthly credit-building plans by making low monthly payments over time.
If you're interested in building credit with everyday purchases like groceries and gas, try the Kikoff Secured Credit Card. It functions like a debit card, but builds credit with every transaction.
Kikoff products address all the major factors of your credit score: payment history, credit utilization, account age, and credit mix. Together, these factors make up 90% of your credit score.
Payment history (35%) is the single most important factor in your score. It looks at whether you’ve paid past credit bills on time. Kikoff and the Kikoff Secured Credit Card both build your payment history — and your credit.
Credit Utilization (30%) is how much credit you’re using divided by your credit limit. The lower this ratio, the better. Responsibly using your Kikoff tradeline can help you maintain low credit utilization.
Account age (15%) is the average age of all your credit accounts.
Credit Mix (10%) means you can manage different types of credit products, such as a car loan, credit card, student loan, etc. Signing up for Kikoff helps diversify your credit mix.
It can take up to 6 weeks for your Kikoff activity to show up on your credit report, depending on which day of the month you signed up. Kikoff reports everyone’s payments at the end of every month, which can take up to 2 weeks to be processed by the credit bureaus and added to your credit report.
We’re officially recognized by the major credit bureaus, and Silicon Valley’s biggest investors trust (and have invested in) Kikoff. But don’t just take our word for it — we’ve helped over one million people build credit, and we have over 150k+ 5-star reviews across our mobile apps (iOS + Android).
Kikoff is 100% committed to your data privacy and security. We use state-of-art encryption in all data transmissions. We use your data to verify your identity with the credit bureaus and to comply with federal laws. We will never share or sell your data to third parties without explicit consent.
We’ve experienced firsthand how scary credit building can be, especially for those who can’t afford to take chances with it — that’s why we built a tool that strives to bring financial opportunity to everyone.
There are no hard credit checks to sign up for Kikoff.
Credit utilization refers to how much of your credit limit you are using at any given time. You can figure out your credit utilization rate yourself by dividing your total account balance by your total credit limit. To make it easy and convenient, we calculate this for you directly on your Kikoff dashboard.
Most experts recommend keeping your overall credit card utilization below 15%, which suggests to creditors that you can use credit responsibly. To help you build credit quickly, new customers typically see less than 15% utilization on their Kikoff balance (considered an excellent utilization rate).
Kikoff is available in all 50 states.
Kikoff's dispute tool is free for anyone to use. After making an account, you can access your credit report from Equifax for free and use the dispute tool to flag any errors and send them to Equifax for review.
Of course! We want you to be in control of your finances, and you are always welcome to cancel your Kikoff account at any time.
Note: If you’ve already made a payment to Kikoff, closing your account could negatively affect the average account age of your overall credit profile. Keeping your account open and continuing to make your monthly plan payments helps you continue to build credit over time.



