Credit Cards for People with Bad Credit

by Darwin on January 23, 2017

What is Credit

Credit is being able to buy a product or service but the actual payment is deferred until a future date and there must be trust that the payment will be made at that date. In order to get credit, you must first have a credit history and that credit history must be favorable. Unfortunately, everyone does not have such a favorable credit history. In fact, some people have no history at all while others may have such a history but not a good one. No history is called a flat file while not so good history is called bad credit.

 

Bad credit affects your FICO score and causes lenders not to extend you credit for such things as loans, mortgages and of course, credit cards.

 

Bad credit can be a nightmare but fortunately, there is help out there that can get your credit back on track. If you think your credit is so bad that you can’t get a credit card, think again. There are a lot of companies out there that will grant you access to a credit card, all you have to do is to know where to look and what to look for. Unfortunately, there are a lot of different types of credit cards like:

 

  • Standard credit cards (unsecured) – These are credit cards that are not connected to any kind of collateral.
  • Secured credit cards – These cards are connected to some type of collateral like a mortgage or a loan.
  • Prepaid credit cards – These cards have to be financed, meaning you put money on them.

These are only the tip of the iceberg and there are more types of credit cards than this. You want to take your time when searching for a card to fix your bad credit and preferably you want a card with no annual fee and cash-back rewards. If you can only qualify for a card with an annual fee and that is your only option then you should give this some serious thought before proceeding.

 

If you search online for credit cards for people with bad credit you will come up with a huge result, most of which are sites with no information but who are advertising various cards. This is not a good place to start and you should first find sites that offer actual information on the subject first.

 

Credit Cards That Can Help

The Capital One Secured MasterCard has no annual fee and credit building benefits and reporting to the three main credit bureaus. The USAA Secured Card Platinum Visa can help you build your credit and you can establish your own credit limit. The Credit One Bank Unsecured Visa Credit Card is similar to the USAA card and the Capital one card combined in that you can rebuild credit and they report to the three main credit bureaus.

 

The above credit cards a good place to start but if you don’t find that any of those cards fit your needs, you can go directly to the source and visit the mainstream credit card companies to see what they have to offer.

 

The top five credit card companies that have 2016 best credit cards are:

  1. Visa
  2. MasterCard
  3. Chase
  4. American Express
  5. Discover
  6. Citibank

Each of these companies have programs, usually through third parties, offering credit cards to people with bad credit. Two sites that can get you started on getting the right credit card for you are Card Ratings and The Simple Dollar.

 

In conclusion, building good credit from bad credit can be a long road to go down but it can be done. Once you get a credit card, be sure to use it wisely and that your usage is reported to the three main credit bureaus. Paying off your existing debts using your credit card and paying on time can help you to fix your credit and raise your FICO score.

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