Bad Credit Credit Cards – A Guide

A few of the writers here on the site have gone through some hard times, and I’m one of them. I have had a terrible credit score in the past and I know what it’s like to be turned down for loans and credit cards. I have also been able to overcome those problems in fact my credit score is now awesome. Getting out of the hole that I created for myself was really hard but looking back, it was one of the coolest and most worthwhile things I’ve done.

If you’re looking for bad credit credit cards, chances are you need to re-establish your credit. This article will serve as a guide that can help you to do that as soon as possible and before too long you’ll be able to get whatever cards you want.

Where To Start

When I started getting back on my feet, I soon realized that regular credit cards weren’t an option for me. I applied for three or four but could never get approved. After getting denied for all of those I had no idea where to turn so I started reading and learning a lot about credit. After digging around for a while I finally learned about secured credit cards. At first they annoyed me because you have to put down a deposit to get one. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to pay interest when you have given them a deposit. After a while I realized that it was a credit building tool and was a necessary step for me.

I ponied up $300 and was able to get a secured card. I made on-time payments for a few months and then decided to take out a second secured card. Within a few short months I started getting offers for unsecured cards and everything started building from there. I’ve been making on-time payments ever since and my credit score is now amazing – it’s getting close to 800.

There’s no shortage of bad credit cards around and I wasn’t sure exactly which one to get. I did quite a bit of research and chose the one with the lowest interest rate. I knew that I wouldn’t be using it forever so I wasn’t too concerned. I wanted to make sure that I chose a card from a reputable company and ended up finding one with HSBC that worked well for me. I now have cards with them, Chase, Bank of America, and American Express.

Credit cards for bad credit can be a great tool, but you want to transition as soon as possible. The interest you’ll pay on those cards is generally above 20%. The cards I have now run at about 13% and that’s a lot more reasonable.

If you have to start out with a card of this type, I would recommend following some simple guidelines:

1. Pay the card off entirely each month.
2. Get a new, unsecured card as soon as possible.
3. Request higher credit limits often, but never increase spending and pay your cards off entirely each month.
4. Negotiate better interest rates.
5. Never close open card accounts. The length of your credit history is an extremely important part of your credit score.
6. Shop around well before opening an account. Take a look at tons of offers.