Can’t Qualify for a Credit Card?
If you can’t qualify for a traditional credit card, you do have other options.
Let’s face it, bad things happen to good people and sometimes those bad things affect our credit. If you find yourself in the position of not being able to qualify for a credit card, life can get pretty hard. After all, you can’t even rent a car without a credit card. So what can you do if your credit isn’t perfect and you need a credit card but don’t qualify for one? Follow our advice.
Secured Credit Cards
If you can’t qualify for a traditional credit card, that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a credit card in your wallet. Secured credit cards can be a great way to rebuild your credit. Just make sure that you don’t have to prepay expensive fees for the card. The only thing you should have to pay for with a secured credit card is the credit card deposit, and that should go into an interest-bearing savings account for you.
Visa and MasterCard Gift Cards
Many secured credit cards have a high deposit requirement. If you just can’t swing that right now, you might want to look into a Visa, MasterCard or Discover gift card. These look just like regular credit cards and you can use them anywhere credit cards are accepted (such as car rental facilities).
If you do opt for the gift cards, make sure that you find one that doesn’t incur a monthly fee if you don’t use all of the balance during a given month. Some companies will charge a monthly fee against the balance of the card if the funds on the card aren’t used in a certain period of time.
It’s also important to note that gift cards do not affect your credit rating. You will not be establishing credit by using a gift card, you will simply be giving yourself the convenience of having a credit card number on hand.
Repair Your Credit
Once you have your temporary credit card needs taken care of, it’s time to start working hard towards repairing your credit. There are a number of steps you can take to repair your credit, the trick is knowing where to start.
For help with repairing your credit, visit these websites:
This is a great website that can really help you improve your credit.
This is a good article with five ways to improve your credit.