Credit Cards · August 2026
Upgrade indexes all its cards but its application page renders empty
An AI agent ran five ordinary credit cards tasks on the public pages of Upgrade and scored what each page delivered.
Run 6 August 2026 · five tasks · public pages, logged out · Fintech
72/100
Mystery Agent score
Credit Cards · rank 14 of 25
Purchase APR
90Served as text
Card comparison
85Served as text
Pricing and terms
80Served as text
Welcome offer
88Served as text
Application page
15Automated reader declined
Summary
- Upgrade's llms.txt file lists more than 140 links, including direct entries for all three card tiers and the pre-approval landing page.
- An automated reader confirmed the Cash Rewards card's 1.5% flat cash back and its 14.99% to 29.99% APR on the tier page.
- The application page renders as a blank script shell with 91 characters of visible text and zero form fields.
Task by task
Each task is scored out of 100 on completion, answer quality and how directly the answer was reached. Each note describes what the page delivered, with a link to the page the answer was found on.
Task 01Purchase APRServed as text90 out of 100
The overview page states in plain text that Upgrade's Credit Lines carry APRs of 14.99% to 29.99% based on creditworthiness, noting that the lowest rates require enrolling in Autopay, with the same range repeated on every tier page.
Task 02Card comparisonServed as text85 out of 100
The Cash Rewards card earns unlimited 1.5% cash back with a $0 annual fee, while the Upgrade Select card carries a $39 annual fee and a higher 21.96% to 29.99% APR band aimed at thinner credit files.
Task 03Pricing and termsServed as text80 out of 100
The Help Center's Rates, Fees and Terms article for the Life Rewards Card lists an APR of 14.99% to 29.99%, a balance transfer fee up to 5%, and a foreign transaction fee up to 3%.
Task 04Welcome offerServed as text88 out of 100
Every card tier page states the same welcome offer plainly: a $200 bonus for opening a Rewards Checking Preferred account and completing three qualifying debit card transactions within 60 days of account opening.
Task 05Application pageAutomated reader declined15 out of 100
A plain fetch of the pre-approval application link returned 14,278 bytes that strip down to 91 characters of visible text, the page title plus a noscript notice, with zero input fields present.
Credit Lines feature Annual Percentage Rates of 14.99% to 29.99% based on creditworthiness.
The application page
What the account opening page states to a reader that runs no scripts.
14,278Bytes delivered
91Characters of visible text
0Form fields in the first response
After scripts runWhat an applicant needs
Strengths and opportunities
What is working
- Upgrade publishes a genuine llms.txt file with more than 140 links, including direct entries for all three Upgrade Card tiers, the Cash Back Rewards program terms, and the pre-approval landing page, giving an agent a legitimate index to work from.
- APR ranges, annual fees, and welcome bonus conditions are written in plain delivered HTML text across every card tier page, not hidden behind scripts, so four of the five jobs were answered from readable text within two or three hops.
- The Help Center carries a genuine per-card Rates, Fees and Terms section that lists APR, balance transfer fee, foreign transaction fee, and late fee together in one place, functioning as a lightweight rates disclosure without needing a PDF.
Opportunities
- Publish a single dedicated Rates and Fees page or Cardholder Agreement document per card, formatted as an explicit Schumer-style table, so the full disclosure lives at one URL instead of being split between a help center article and marketing-page footnotes.
- The application entry point atthe application path currently serves a blank JavaScript shell with 91 characters of visible text and no form fields. Serving even a lightweight prerendered version carrying the eligibility summary already published one page earlier, on the pre-approval landing page, would give agents something to read before the interactive form loads.
- Add an llms.txt entry that points straight to the Rates, Fees and Terms help article, since today it is only reachable by clicking through the card comparison pages into the Help Center rather than being indexed alongside the three card-tier links already listed.
Access
Every page the agent requested was delivered on the first attempt. An llms.txt file is published, which gives agent traffic a documented entry point.
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