People who have bad credit often need credit cards for various tasks such as paying bills online or shopping on Ebay or other web based stores. It can be difficult to get a credit card when you have a poor credit history, however cards for bad credit do exist and you can get them with a little effort. You may have to put up a security deposit or deal with a higher interest rate than you’d like, and we’ll cover all the various aspects of credit and bank cards for bad credit, how to get them and how to keep out of trouble with them.

First, let’s talk about conventional credit cards and what it takes to apply and be approved for them. Visa cards for bad credit, Mastercards or Discover are difficult to get with poor credit but very easy to get with borderline or no credit. A common myth is that no credit is worse than having bad credit and this is not the case. There are many companies willing to start someone with no credit score out with a small line of credit and raise it soon after proving that they are responsible and can handle having a credit card, with the bill paid on time.

With unsecured cards for bad credit, your credit history must be two things. First, it must be borderline bad credit, which means half bad and half good, and the negative information must be older than a year. If both of these factors are present then you may find that you can get approved for a credit card with a small credit limit, especially if you meet the other requirements such as income and debt to income ratio which we will discuss in a moment. Credit cards for people with bad credit aren’t easy to get so if you do get approved make sure that you are responsible with the card.

There are a couple of things that affect your credit score other than your credit history. One of these is your debt to income ratio, or the amount of debt you owe as opposed to your income. Your montly debt to income ratio should be 35% or lower to not have it affect your credit score. Another thing that can make or break a credit card application and put a stamp of approval on a borderline application is a good income. If you have a decent income, or if you and your spouses combined incomes are 50,000 or more per year than you have a better chance of getting approved.

If you find that you cannot get approved for a regular credit card then you might try secured credit cards for bad credit. A secured credit card is a card that requires that you put up a cash bond as collateral against your line of credit. This line of credit will usually be exactly the same as your cash deposit, or in some cases the financial institution may only require partially secured, which means that you pay a certain cash amount as your deposit, but that your credit limit is higher than the secured amount that you put up.