Friday, December 5, 2008

Credit Cards To Help Rebuild Credit

By Dan Moskel

Getting a credit card to help rebuild your credit history is a very wise decision. A credit card can help you create a positive payment history.

However you will only qualify for a sub prime credit card if you have a damaged credit score. This means your card will have an interest rate around 19%.

It is still important to remove bad credit items from your credit report. However it has been learned that after a bad credit item ages 4 years it will damage your score much less.

With your card you are going to have to pay an annual fee and around 19% APR. This is called a sub prime credit card because it is designed for individuals with a damaged credit history.

You credit limit will be approximately $300. The other option is to get a secured credit card, however your credit score will not receive the same benefit.

With a secured card you will have to put an initial deposit down and how ever much your deposit is that will be your available credit. The benefit of a secured card is that they approve everyone.

Both of these cards offer online approval. However before you apply for any card double check and make sure that card does report monthly to all three bureaus.

A helpful tip to get the most positive credit built from your card is to keep your balance at 10% of your available credit. If your card has a credit limit of $300 it will help if you can keep your balance at around $30.

This will help because it shows; you use your credit, and use it responsibly. In addition having available credit will increase your available credit to debt ratio, this shows the bureaus that you are not in over your head.

There is one other option that we strongly discourage and that is a shopping or catalog card. This is a credit card that is only able to make purchases through a catalog or a website online. We discourage this option because there is often a large down payment required and the card typically only reports to one credit bureau.

A prepaid debit card is another option. We suggest this option to individuals in chexsystems because it will work just like a bank account.

In sum we suggest a sub prime unsecured credit card. This will give your credit score the most benefit because it will increase your ratio of available credit to debt and help you create a positive payment history. - 16089

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