Internet with no credit check
Most providers pull your credit before they'll connect you, and ask for a deposit if the file is thin. A handful don't check at all — and in 2026 they're no longer the slow, embarrassing option.
NOW Internet is the best no-credit-check plan in the country: $30/mo all-in for unlimited 100 Mbps on Xfinity's cable network, billed monthly, cancel whenever. If it isn't available where you live, Mint's Home MINTernet is the 5G alternative — cheaper still if you need a phone line, but it wants the year up front.
The options, ranked
Why ISPs check your credit at all
Postpaid internet is a small loan. The provider hands you a gateway worth a couple of hundred dollars, gives you a month of service, and bills you afterwards — so it wants some evidence you'll pay. A thin or damaged credit file usually doesn't mean rejection; it means a deposit, typically $50 to $100, refunded after a year of on-time payments, or a requirement to enroll in autopay.
Prepaid plans invert the risk. You pay before you use the service, so there's nothing to underwrite and no reason to run a check. That's the entire mechanism behind every plan on this list — not a special program for people with bad credit, just a different billing model that happens to skip the credit bureau.
What you give up
Speed ceilings are the main one: expect 100 to 400 Mbps down and 20 to 55 up, not gigabit fiber. You'll also self-install, sometimes on refurbished equipment limited to a single outlet, and you'll miss the reward cards and bundle discounts that live on the postpaid side. Some prepaid plans sit outside their parent brand's money-back guarantee, so check your out before you pay for a long term.
What you don't give up is worth naming too: no contract, no early-termination fee, no promotional rate that doubles in month 13, and — on the plans above — taxes and equipment already inside the advertised price. For a lot of households that's a better deal than what a good credit score would have bought them.
If you'd rather have a postpaid plan
Three things reliably reduce or remove a deposit. Ask whether enrolling in autopay and paperless billing waives it — it often does. Ask whether you can bring your own modem, which cuts the equipment the provider is risking. And ask whether a prior account in good standing with the same company counts, because it usually does even if your credit file has since changed.
It's also worth checking assistance programs before you settle. Several providers run low-cost plans for households on federal benefits, and those are postpaid, cheaper than everything on this page, and don't hinge on credit either. See the low-income internet options.
Watch out for these
The bottom line
No credit check no longer means bad internet. Start with NOW if Comcast serves your address, because $30 all-in on a wired connection billed monthly is the lowest-risk, best-value option available. Look at Mint if you're outside that footprint or you want a phone line in the same price. And if you qualify for an assistance program, check that first — it will beat both.
Maya has reviewed home internet plans for a decade and tests every service on the same connected household to compare real-world performance — no provider pays for placement.