How do you get credit cards that fit your current bad credit situation?
Research the cards available, and within the same 2 week period, apply for several to see if you can qualify for the better rate cards first. If you can’t, and only when you really can afford it, apply for a credit card for those with less than perfect credit.
However do check for the interest rate, whether they will charge you an application fee, annual fee, or similar. This “fee” should be counted as part of the interest rate they are going to charge you. If not, be prepared to calculate this yourself.
Most poor credit card offers do have a much smaller “charge limit” to their cards, so be prepared for this as well.
I applied for, and received, a credit card to improve my credit rating. I was in the low 600’s, and I found a credit card that accepted applications from people with less than perfect credit.I applied to Capital One and received a card with a $2,000 credit limit and an annual interest rate of 18.99%. There was no annual fee, and the card pays back 1% of my purchases in rewards. My credit score is now in the high 600’s, thanks to my Capital One credit card.
Posted by: Marcie
The benefit of having a card like this is it allows you to rebuild your credit. But if you don’t take care of the things that put you in this situation to begin with, you won’t really recover and it’s likely you won’t benefit from this type of card.
Due a long period (well over a year) of unemployment, I had defaulted on three credit cards.After four or five years, I received an offer for a low-limit credit card. The literature I got in the mail pushed the idea of raising my credit score by charging small purchases and paying them off.
The companies that I had defaulted on had ceased dunning me, so it seemed like a good time to try and repair my credit.
It was a Visa card and I used the paper application that had arrived in the mail. The application was approved for a $300 limit, which was fine for its intended purpose. The interest rate was 22%, a little higher than most cards at that time, but I didn’t care since I intended to pay it off each month, as the credit card company’s offer encouraged me to do.
However, within a month I started getting dunning phone calls again from the companies that I had defaulted on. Their logic was that, since I had gotten a new card, I must have the money to pay the thousands that I owed them. This was definitely not the case. It was an immense hassle and put me far behind at trying to avoid bankruptcy. So, in hindsight, I’m sorry that I did it and would not do it again.
Posted by: Jenni
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