Bad Credit, Credit Card
“Bad credit card card” is used to refer to credit cards that can be obtained even with a bad credit rating. The bad credit card cards provide opportunity to people (with bad credit rating) to improve their credit rating. In that sense, bad credit credit cards act as rescuer for such people. So, bad credit credit cards also act as necessary a training ground for people who have not been able to control their spending urge in the past.
Bad credit card cards are commonly known as secured credit cards. The bad credit card card (or secured credit cards) requires the individual to open up an account with the credit card supplier and maintain some cash balance in the account. Why is that required? Well, credit cards are a business for the credit card suppliers; so how can they trust someone who has defaulted on his/her payments in the past? After all, a business is about profits and such risks are a threat to profits. The bank or the credit card supplier will generally pay interest on the balance in your account. However, it’s best to check this with the bad credit card card supplier/bank. The credit limit on the bad credit card card is determined by the cash balance in the account and is generally between 50-100% of the cash balance. These bad credit card cards are also referred to as debit cards, owing to the fact that they work less in a credit-giving manner and more in a debit-giving manner.
There are plenty of bad credit card cards available in the market. When searching for the bad credit card card that is best suited to you, you should consider 4 things in particular: the minimum balance that you are required to maintain in the bank account, the credit limit that you will receive (i.e. the percentage of your bank account balance that you are allowed to spend on your bad credit card card), the fees/other-charges applicable to the procurement of bad credit card card and the rate of interest that you will receive on the balance in your bank account. An ideal bad credit card card would have no fee/other-charges associated with it and would require zero or a very small amount as minimum bank balance. It would also have something like 90-100% of bank balance as its credit limit. Moreover, an ideal bad credit card card would also offer a good interest rate on the bank balance.
Bad credit card cards are really a good concept that provides respite to people with bad credit rating by letting them enjoy the benefits of credit cards while they mend their credit rating.
Your Credits Ccore - How You Can Improve It
Your credit score is a very important in any financial transaction that you make or intend making in future. So it’s good you know what exactly your score is, understand its meaning and learn how you can improve it if it’s not good enough.
If you have ever borrow money or utilized credit before it has a score that reflects how well you handle the credit giving to you in the past. The credit score is determine by amount of credit you have, how much money you owe and whether you made payments on time or not.
Your credit score serves as predictor of how likely you are to repay any credit giving to you to your would be creditor or lender. If you usually make payments on time you will surely have good credit history and it will make it easy for you to get loan from banks or credit unions. Otherwise, you will find it difficult to get any institution for that matter to trust you. If that’s your case – it don’t have to be the end of the road. In this article you will learn about what you can do to improve your credit score.
Make sure you pay your bills on time. Failure to do this will have negative impact on your credit score.
Make sure you always meet up with the minimum monthly payment on your card if you can’t always pay the balances of your credit card each month.
Make sure that you don’t exceed your monthly limit. If you can keep to 50% of your limit or less it’s better.
Make sure you do away with account you don’t use most especially accounts with high annual fees and high interest rates.
Credit Cards: - Types And What You Need To Know About Them
Still discussing on types of credit card – in this article we will be discussing about other types of credit cards like Balance transfer credit cards, low interest credit cards, airline mile credit cards, and reward credit cards among others. Let’s start with Balance credit card.
Balance credit cards are unsecured standard cards designed to allow consumers to save money in interest charges by transferring higher interest credit card balance onto a lower interest rate credit card.
Low interest credit cards are other types of non secured standard credit card. They offer either low introductory APR that change to a higher rate after a certain period of time or a low fixed rate. You can take advantage of the low introductory APRs to make larger purchases for now and pay them off several months later.
Air Mile Credit cards are cards that are good for people that travel frequently or planning to go on vacation. It’s a form of reward card that allow you opportunity of obtaining a free airline ticket. You will need to accumulate specified air miles before you can be entitled to free ticket. All accumulated mile points will be based on dollar amount of your credit card purchases over a period of time based on predetermined point level.
Specialty credit cards are other set of standard non-secure cards designed specifically for individual business users and students with unique and special needs.
Make sure that you study the terms of any of the card that you pick very well to avoid risking your credit rating. Also, when you pick any of the reward cards make sure you study the forms and offers very well because credit card issuing companies do offer different reward programs and their promotional offers often change. So make sure you thoroughly look over the card’s terms and conditions of each specific card before applying.
Shopping For New Credit Card: - Important Tips To Consider
When you are ready to take a new credit card there are lots of factors you need to consider. Among these factors is a credit card term. You need to choose the plan terms that best fit and suit your financial needs. You need to consider plan terms like free period or grace period, annual percentage rate (APR), annual membership or participation fee, transaction fee among others.
It’s very important that you understand each of the credit card plan terms before you accept the card to avoid putting yourself in financial bondage. For example if your issuing company did not give free period and you are unable to pay on time your account will be charged and it will ends up adding to your debt.
There are several cases of card theft in recent days so it’s advisable that you keep your card very well to avoid unauthorized use. Also don’t give away your card information where you aren’t feeling secure. Another way to avoid lost or unauthorized use of your card is to only carry the card you think you will use. And in case of lost of your card you need to call issuer and inform them of the lost quickly. So keeping separate records of each of your account number, expiration date and issuer contact information is very important as well.
It’s very important that you reconciliate your account when you get statement of account from your card issuer. In other to reconcile your account successfully you need to keep record of receipts where possible and personal note where you don’t have receipt. Most likely you will discover errors which could have been added to your statement without you noticing it.
Keeping the above tips in mind will help you while shopping for new card and using it as well.
Your Personal Credit Report: - How You Can Correct Errors
People that compile your personal credit reports are human be like me and you, they can make mistake while compiling your reports from various sources. Thus, requesting for a copy of your report often is very important. It will allow you to know what they compile about you. You will be able to discover unfavorable information, request for corrections before they started spreading non-accurate information about you.
When you get a copy of your personal report, determine the status of your credit file. Study the information in it very well and attempt to remove all unfavorable information in it. All your credit history may not be contained in one file from a firm. So if possible get from other firms too. Some information may be duplicated, or not included in the other file.
You need to note of your full name, social security number, current and previous addresses, spouse’s name, and date of birth and make sure that they are correct because they are points used in identifying you. Also, make sure that merchants name, credit account number, date opened, date closed, high credit limit, highest amount of credit used, and repayment history are correct, current and accurate.
After studying the file carefully if you notice any error, write out exact error and the way you think it should be listed. You will find a space on the right-hand side of your report where you may protest any item in your report that you feel incorrect. You will have to attach photocopies along with pertinent information to proof your claim and send it to bureau by mail. When the bureau gets your message they will investigate and send you result of their investigation. You will have to exercise patience during this period because it may take bureau some time to complete their investigation.
How To Get Credit Card Of Your Choice
It’s very easy to get a new major credit card of your choice these days. The most important thing has always been the state of your credit rating. Since your credit will be rated on your relationship with lending companies and banks, it’s very possible for you to improve or even build up your credit ratings with banks.
If you make sure that once you get loan you always make payments by the agreed time, sooner, you can move to another credit procurement program like getting Visa or Master card from all major banks you’ve borrowed from. These will be possible for you because they already know more about your credit rating. As a matter of fact they have record of your transactions with them. Once you are able to get card from these banks you’ve been dealing with before, it will be easy for you to get credit card from any other banks that provides same service.
What most people that are dying to get new credit cards don’t know is that most of these banks are also looking for new customers. They are always ready to do everything legitimate to get you because they know they will profit from you. That is why most of them offer preferential interest rate. Providing that you have kept to your repayment agreements on all loans and cards, there is no reason why you should be refused any cards for which you apply.
Once you’ve achieve good credit rating, credit card companies, banks, and other lending companies will see you as a good risk. Thus, you will find it easy to get card from them anytime. Also you will be surprise at series of offers you will be getting from several other credit card companies that will also want you to have card from them. They will trust you because they must have got every detail of your credit rating from your former bank. That exactly is the main reason why building your credit rating from scratch is very important.
Errors On Your Credit Card: - What You Have To Do
The fact that the agency that compiles or can compile information about you is not one will make it almost impossible for you not to encounter problem in future. When you apply for credit in bank, stores or any lending company you may be denied. This does not mean the agency you filed errors on your reports with haven’t make changes, it’s likely that the bank or store you are trying to deal with have another report about you, possibly from another agency.
So anytime that you are denied credit, you have the right to know why you were turned down! If the bank or stores used a credit report agency, they must provide you with the name and address of the agency that supplied them with the report.
Once you have the contact information of the agency involved, you should make an appointment to visit the credit agency, so that you can review your report, find out information that is causing you to be denied credit, and make corrections if you have enough evidence to proof.
When you are visiting the agency make sure that you present yourself very well. You must dress modestly as your appearance will surely tell the agency staff more about you. If possible take a friend along with you to be a witness to whatever it’s said. You have to be very careful when you get to be bureau, don’t let the representative of the credit bureau confuse you with unnecessary terms or even upset you in any way. If there is anything you don’t understand, ask to have it explained again.
Don’t be afraid to demand explanation where you feel the agency is wrong. If there is any information in the report that is not true, point it out, and have it investigated by the agency. Once the agency correct the error you have right to demand that the bureau send correct copies of your report to all creditors who have received the incorrect reports before.
Do’s and Don’t of Credit Card Game
If you are not feeling comfortable with the service you are getting from your issuing company or any of their terms – make sure you complaint. Don’t die in silence. Because of the competition most of this companies are facing they will be forced to answer your complaint, and as a matter of fact make adjustment where possible. For example if you’ve been getting high interest fee you can have it lowered by just making your request to your issuing company.
You are free to shop around when you are thinking of getting a new card. Why should you be forced to one company you don’t feel you are comfortable with when there are lots of them out there. Shop around – you can get whatever you want. You can get interest rate you want, grace period or even a card without annual fee charge. So go out there, compare the rates, and terms of several cards before you make your choice. The choice you make today will surely determine your credit report tomorrow somehow.
Most card holders are careless when it comes to checking their credit report with the credit bureau or agencies involved. If you pay your balance on time and don’t carry balance often you have to make sure that your card issuing company reports your performance to bureau on time. You may possibly want to get loan in future and your present credit performance will help you a lot in getting approval on time.
Bad spending habit is one of the viruses that have infected most of card users in recent years. As a matter of fact, use of internet has even made it easy for every card user to get anything they want within minutes. So may find it impossible to control their spending. Most of the website even makes it so easy that you will not even know when you are giving them your card information.
There is a way out – make sure that you keep your card away most of the time. Most especially when you are accessing internet and when you are going out. If it’s a must that you carry card because of emergencies, take only one along. However, you can reduce or even stop the bad spending virus if you stop buying things on impulse. If you are to buy anything at all make plan for it in advance.
Credit Report Agencies: - Effects on Your Personal Credit
Credit reporting agencies are organizations that help credit card companies, loan companies, banks, and departmental stores in the country to ascertain the credit worthiness of their would be clients. They provide these companies information about those who are good credit risk and those who are not.
They receive most information about consumers from loan companies, credit card companies, banks, credit and lending sources. In this report you will their will be information on your occupation, place of employment, residence record, court and arrest records, income status, details on payment of your past and present bills and loans.
Once they have detail information from these sources, they into give it to any organizations in need of it when requested. Though they keep on file information concerning you and your credit, they don’t make final judgments as to your credit worthiness. The decision is up to the credit card companies or any lender which you are dealing with.
Whenever you apply for new credit card, loan or any form of credit from any sources lenders will base their acceptance or rejection of your application on your personal credit report. If your credit report shows you’ve been reliable in the past, then you will most likely get the credit card or loan you apply for. However, if you have in one way or the other defaulted on particular account or you were constantly late in making payments, it will likely be impossible for you to get the credit you applied for.
You can get a copy of this report from credit bureau because it’s your personal credit file and you have absolute right to know what is in it. You have right to know exact information they are giving out concerning your name and credit worthiness. If the report is not good enough or you can proof to yourself that it’s all about your past, you can change it. You can build your new credit worthiness. It’s possible.
Credit Rating: - How You Are Scored
Getting approval for any type of loan depends on your credit rating. If you have average credit rating, you will find it almost impossible to get approved. It’s possible to get good rating or even improve you credit rating. Most companies almost use same rating system and if you are able to know more about it you should be able to have better credit score.
Your age is the first factor which it’s almost impossible to do anything about. Yes it’s possible to lie, but don’t because it will make things more difficult for you in future if the creditor get to know. If you are between 24 to 64 years of age you will get one point. Any age bellow or above that will score you zero point.
If you are married you have chance of adding extra point to your score. If not, you still score zero as most creditors see you as a higher risk. Also if you have no dependant you will score zero. But if you have between one to three you will add to your points. Here is how it works – if you have no dependant creditors believe you can skip town and not pay off your credit.
Creditors will also want to know more about your root. They will want to know where you live. Owning a home with a big fat mortgage or even without mortgage will give you more points. How long you stay in your present or previous residence also adds more points to your score. If you’ve move so often you will score zero point. However, if you’ve stayed up to 5 years before moving, you will surely get more point. It shows you are a good risk to them.
Other factors that will add to your point are your years on job (the longer the better), kind of job, your monthly income, present debt status, previous credit history and your saving or checking account.
Alternatives to Credit Cards
Are you one of those people who only ever got a credit card for the convenience of being able to pay without cash, or because you weren’t aware of any other easy way to borrow money? Millions of us are, thanks to the unavoidable advertising of the credit card industry, and few people realise just how many alternatives to credit cards there are. Let’s take a look at a few.
Debit Cards.
Debit cards are often used in many European countries, but are relatively unheard of elsewhere. Basically, they’re just like credit cards and are accepted everywhere credit cards are accepted – the only difference is that they take any money you spend directly from your bank account, instead of you getting a bill at the end of the month. You should be aware, though, that you aren’t as well-protected from fraud with a debit card as you would be with a credit card.
Pre-Paid Credit Cards.
These are cards that work just like credit cards, except that you can’t have a negative balance – you have to put money on the card before you can spend it. That means that you ‘top-up’ the card, like you would a mobile phone. This is good if you want to know how much you’re spending, not to mention that you can even give the cards to children. They’re also safer than debit cards, since someone who stole the card could only spend whatever money was on it at the time.
Bank Overdrafts.
A good bank overdraft, used together with a credit card, can be a far better way of borrowing money than using a credit card. Your overdraft limit is set by the bank according to how much you gets paid into your account each month, and you don’t need to pay it off until you want to.
Basically, it just gives your account the facility to go into minus numbers, if you want it to. Many banks charge relatively high interest rates for overdrafts, but rarely as high as a credit card – and they will give much better rates for good customers.
Real Loans.
When you’re buying one big thing at a fixed price (like a car), or you’re going to spend all the money on one type of thing (home improvements, for example), it’s worth budgeting it all out and going to a bank or another loan company. They’ll be able to lend you the money at a much better rate than a credit card would, simply because they know why you’re taking the loan and can set regular monthly payments for you to repay it.
Credit Unions.
Credit unions are like banks, only more local. They are co-operative, owned by their members and run by the community, and are a great place to borrow money. This is because there are limits in law on how much interest credit unions can charge, and they don’t need to make a profit for owners or shareholders, because they don’t have any. It’s well worth checking if there’s one in your area.
Buy Now Pay Later – Disadvantages of credit card using credit card and how to get over it
Credit cards offer you so many advantages. With credit card you can purchase several things you need to make yourself more comfortable. But despite all the advantages that comes with holding a credit card it can create a lot of problems for you if you are not careful.
It create a lot of problems for some people if you are not careful you can end up incurring high finance and interest charges that will make it almost impossible to repay back your bill and thus, lead you to huge credit card debt you may never get out. However, it’s possible for you to stay clear of debt if you can follow few tips provided in this article and that of your finance consultant.
Consulting your financial advisor is very important when you are thinking of applying for credit card. You can both reason together on your financial needs.
When you get the card make sure you keep every receipts and compare them with your monthly bill, there may be discrepancies which can drown you in debt if you don’t discover it. Once you discover any, report to your credit card company immediately.
Giving your credit card to friends and family is one of the ways to incure more debt. So keep your credit card away from friends, families and strangers.
Make sure you don’t owe than you can repay at the end of the month as it can damage your credit and hurt your chances of getting credit in future. See credit card as loan you have to pay back. You can avoid this by paying your bill on time, if possible, pay it every month.
One of the mistake most card holders makes is paying of one credit card with another. It’s a complete bad habit. It will surely lead you to more debt, and you may find it difficult to get out of it.
Avoid High Interest Charge on Your Credit Card
There is a credit term call grace period – it’s a period within which you may pay your bill without being charged interest. It’s usually a period of 25-30days before interest kicks in. Recently, most issuing companies are eliminating this grace period and instead offering a low fixed interest rate. The question now is – which one is better between grace period and low fixed interest rate?
It will be a bit difficult to have one answer that will favour everybody. Some prefer paying their bills in full within the normal grace period. To this group of people the grace period will be better. It will be advisable for them to shop for grace period cards and avoid no-grace-period cards.
Some banks do charge interest from the day they process your charge slip when you use your card to get cash. If you normally pay your bill in full you still need to shop for card that offers very low interest rate plus grace period, if you are to avoid interest charges on your account. However, for those that usually carry a balance each month, the low interest rate will be good for them. If you are in this group you can even shop for institutions that periodically offer cards with no fee for the first year.
Most issuing company often offers “premium” credit cards such as “goldcards” and Premier VISA. They are fancy cards that come with travel insurance benefit and extra protection when your card is lost or stolen. These institutions will rarely use the highly annual service fees which you will be subjected to as their marketing point. So it’s advisable to beware of these cards. There is no reason for paying such high service fees. As a matter of fact it did not really worth it if you can have a lower interest or grace period card.
5 important Credit Card Plan Terms You Must Consider
Credit card companies keeps pushing hard to get more customers daily by giving “pre-approved” card offers to would be clients through mail. Chances are you’ve gotten one of this offers in your mail in recent days. Such promotion has being in existences long before now. Though getting such card is good to some extent and getting one will be helpful however, you don’t have to rush getting one without considering the plan terms associated very well.
There are lots of plan terms that you really need to study very well while shopping for credit card if you are not ready to put yourself in financial prison. These terms affect your overall cost. In this article we will take a look at some of this credit card plan terms you need to consider before choosing a company to deal with. Get a cup of coffee while we discuss each of terms you need to consider.
Consider a company that gives “free period” or grace period over others. Because without free period, the card issuer may impose finance charge from the date you use your card or from the date each transaction is posted to your account. Free period allow you to pay back your balance in full before due date in other to avoid finance charges and it’s usually mail at least 14 days before the due date, giving you enough time to pay.
Another very important term to take note of is APR (Annual Percentage Rate) which is the measure of the cost of credit, expressed as a yearly rate. APR often changes when there is a change in interest rates or other economic indicators. Still companies must disclose this before you open the account and on your account statements.
Apart from the annual percentage rate, you need to consider how much the issuer’s charges for membership fee. The annual membership or participation fees varies, it’s often between $25 and $100.
You also need to know about method issuers will use in calculating your finance charge if you don’t have a free period, or if you are expected to pay for purchases over time. Knowing this will help you keep your finance charge low by measuring your buying patterns and paying back on time.
Some card issuing companies charges transaction fees and other minor charges when you make late payment, get advance cash with the card or exceed your credit limit. As a matter of fact some even charge monthly fee whether or not you use the card.
Why Credit Cards are a Bad Idea
Credit cards are just so convenient, aren’t they? There’s no need to carry any money with you ever again: you can just take one with you to the shop and pay the exact amount just by handing it over. If you haven’t been paid yet, then you don’t need to worry, because the money will still be there.
When you shop on the Internet or over the phone, it’s the only good way to do it – what else are you going to do, post a cheque? Like anything convenient, though, credit cards have a flip side – in fact, they have lots.
Can You Keep Track?
When you walk into that shop and hand over the card, the money is taken from the card, and the card goes back into your wallet. You still have all the things you started with – there’s no less money in your purse or wallet to remind you of what you’ve spent.
Everyone has a tendency to underestimate what they spend, and smaller amounts can add up quickly on a credit card without you even noticing. It’s like taking the way phone bills work and applying it to everything you buy – and that can’t be a good idea.
Money For Nothing.
Using credit cards is a great way of losing a percentage of your income to a credit card company in exchange for nothing. The moment you run a balance, you’re paying them interest. Not only that, but you’re paying your credit card bill as soon as you get your wages, so you don’t have the chance to earn any interest on them from your bank. When you think about it, you’re losing out twice over – and for what?
Designed to Keep You in Debt.
Your credit cards are trying to keep you using them and paying interest. You will find it very difficult to pay off all your credit cards once you have them. The company will do everything they can to stop you paying before you’ve paid them lots of interest. The more debt you show you can pay back, the more they’ll try to offer you, until they get you to the point where you can’t pay.
The Lie in the Name.
Credit cards are called credit cards to avoid saying what they really are: debt! You will do much better in all things connected to credit cards if you always remember this simple mantra: credit cards are debt cards. Use the word debt as often as you can whenever you talk about credit cards.
But Sometimes You Can’t Avoid Them.
When you need money in an emergency and you just don’t have any, there’s no doubting that credit cards can be useful. They are also a very useful way of proving to credit rating agencies that you can handle debt, and this will be taken into consideration when you apply for car loans or a mortgage.
Just remember that whenever you handle credit cards, you’re playing with fire. Do everything you can to keep your use of them to a minimum, and you’ll have a much better financial life.
