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CardLore

Has someone like me done this?

CardLore is where people in India write down what really happened with their credit cards, so the next person doesn't have to guess.

Read the storiesWrite yours
  • Approved
  • Rejected
  • Fee waived
  • Reward never came
  • Limit increased
  • Upgrade denied
  • Still waiting
  • Stopped working

You're 19. No credit history. A bank just said no.

So you look for help, and the internet hands you a list.

The 10 best credit cards for students

CardLore hands you a person instead. Someone who was 19, had no credit history, got rejected twice and got approved six months later. With exactly what happened in between.

  1. First tryRejected

    Applied for a first card. No credit history, no salary slip.

  2. Two months onRejected

    Tried a different bank. Same answer, same week.

  3. Plan BApproved

    Got a secured card against a small FD and paid it in full every month.

  4. Six months laterApproved

    Approved for a regular card. No deposit this time.

An example of a story on CardLore.

Then you find another person. Then another. Then some strange bank behaviour, and a trick that stopped working. Suddenly it's been thirty minutes.

Soham Mayekar, who built CardLore

Hi, I'm Soham.

I built CardLore. Engineering student in Mumbai.

People ask me why I built a website about credit cards. Here's the honest answer.

I got my first card at 13, a teen payments app I found through a YouTube ad. At 18, no bank had a reason to say yes to me. No credit history, no salary. So I started with a secured card and paid it in full every single month.

When the unsecured cards finally came, I noticed something. Almost none of what helped me came from a bank's website. It came from strangers. A reply buried in a Reddit thread. A message in a group chat. Someone who had been there first and bothered to write it down.

The best card advice I ever got wasn’t advice. It was someone saying “this happened to me.”

Those stories deserved better than being scattered and lost. So I built CardLore, a place where they stay, signed by the people they happened to.

What I hope you find here

Someone who started where you are, what happened next, and the card that fits you. Then, when you’re ready, write yours. Someone like you is already looking for it.

What CardLore stands for

  • Dead lore is still lore.

    Rejections, cashback that stopped, rewards that never came. Someone is about to try the exact same thing, so it all stays up.

  • No clue. Let's find out.

    Nobody here pretends to be the authority. People try things, write down what happened, and slowly there's an answer.

  • Someone like you, first.

    Set your age, work, credit history and city once, and every list shows people who started where you are.

  • You read, you decide.

    Nobody here tells you which card is best or what your chances are. You read what happened to people, and you decide.

I came here looking for an answer.I stayed because I found a story.Then another.Then something weird.Then I had a story of my own.

Write what happenedRead the stories

The fine print, in plain words

Card fees, forex, lounge access and rewards are what each issuer publishes. A card's picture on its own page is the issuer's design, shown only to identify it. Terms change without notice, so the bank's own page is always the last word.

CardLore isn't affiliated with any bank or card network. If you represent an issuer and want something removed, tell us and it comes down.

Nothing here is financial advice. It's people telling you what happened to them. Outcomes differ for reasons nobody here can see.

Anything marked as an example, including the story on this page, was written to show how CardLore works. It isn't a real person's experience.