Secured Credit Cards: Rebuild Your Credit On-line
Obtaining good credit when you don’t have any at all can be a daunting task. If you have credit but it’s a disaster it can be even worse. There are a lot of reasons why you might have bad credit – bankruptcy or divorce just to name a few – but you can always begin to rebuild your credit, and Prepaid Credit Cards can play an important role in doing just that.
Check out these steps that will help you turn bad credit or no credit at all into good, solid credit:
1) Get a checking and savings account. Banks and credit agencies like to know that you have both. A checking account shows them that you have the tools you need to pay your bills, and a savings account shows them that you are thinking toward the future.
2) Pull your own credit report. If you are young, or you have no credit history, or if you are new to the United States, you may have no credit history on file. If you’ve had credit problems in the past, most likely they’ll be on the report. You can get a free credit history from any of the three large credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) on-line; just Google “credit report” and find one that is free and with no strings attached.
3) Make sure that all of the basic information on your credit report is complete and accurate. The report will list information such as phone number, address, a second address if you’ve been at your current address for less than two years, date of birth, Social Security number and so on. Instructions for getting this information corrected will be included with the report.
4) Check credit references and information on your report and make sure it is accurate. You often can find bad credit references that are inaccurate or wrong. Look for accounts that don’t belong to you. If you find errors, dispute them by writing to the issuing credit bureau. Information on writing to correct or dispute information on your credit report will be included with the report when you receive it.
5) Apply for a prepaid credit card. Prepaid or “secured” credit cards work just like secured loans, and you can get one regardless of your credit history. The issuer of a prepaid credit card will require you to deposit a small amount of money into an account, and then they will issue you a credit card with a spending limit close to your deposit amount. Shop for your prepaid credit card on-line – you can compare offers, find the best one for you, apply and gain acceptance all on-line.
6) Use your new card wisely and responsibly. Don’t charge any more on your new card than you can pay off completely every month, and make sure that you pay your bills on time, every time. Once you have demonstrated your ability to pay diligently for twelve or so months, call the issuer, make sure that they are reporting your good credit to the credit agencies, and request that your account be changed to a standard account.
Bad or insufficient credit can haunt you at times when you need the trouble the least. Using the steps outlined above you can begin today to establish good credit so that it will be available when you really need it.
