Get Credit Cards with Bad Credit
58Obtaining Your Credit Report
Building your credit is tricky business, but it can be done if you follow these few steps. The most important part would be to obtain your credit report. Your credit score would also help. You can acquire your report and score through FreeCreditScore.com. I've had a membership with them for years, and it's essential if you ever want good credit. If you already have bad marks on your report, you can do one of two things.
- Dispute them online through FreeCreditScore.com (which works about half of the time).
- Resolve them by setting up a payment plan with the lending company or collection agency. You probably don't like to pay bills like me, so try disputing them first.
6 Steps to Better Credit
- Establish good credit history - The easiest way is to apply for a major credit card, or if that fails, apply for a secured credit card. Orchard Bank and First Premier Bank DO NOT check your credit history like other companies do. They're just handing these cards out to anyone on good faith. The best part about these companies is that they report to all three credit bureaus EVERY month.
- Don't apply for too much credit - It will lower your credit score. You don't want too many inquiries on your report so limit the number of times you apply in a 2 year period to about 2, maybe 3 if needed.
- Keep no more than 2 credit cards - Having more than 2 revolving accounts will LOWER your credit score. Cut and dry. MYTH: Having a lot of different open revolving credit accounts is good for your credit.
- Keep it under 29% - Don't run up more than 29% on your revolving credit accounts (credit cards). For an easy to read detailed illustration of how this works, sign up for freecreditreport.com. They have a great illustration tool and the first month is free. (We're not trying to spend any more money here)
- Try a bank loan - Don't take the money from the loan and go blow it on a new TV. Put it aside and pay your loan off over 6 months or so. This will put good marks on your credit report and when you're done paying it off, it will increase your score dramatically.
- Pay your bills early - This won't directly increase your credit score, but it will definitely decrease the chances of your payment being late. Being late one time (YES!! ONE TIME!!) WILL increase your APR and you could get a bad mark on your report. Also, you'll be paying alot more over time for those purchases you've already made.
So good luck with all your financial ventures. I hope that the information I put up here at least gives people a head start toward true financial freedom.
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Great advice. I had heard about getting a bank loan and using it to pay the bank back as a way of increasing your credit score.
To expand on that, if you can get a loan just based on your signature, like $100, do that and pay it back $25 each week. At the end you've established a rapport with your bank loan personnel, double the amount and pay it maybe over 2 months. Increase the amount a little each time maybe $100, $200, $400, Eventually, you will be able to get a substantial loan on your signature and based on the good credit habits you've established with your bank over a few months to a couple of years.
Thanks Cash for this hub and its timely advice.
thanks, great advice
ColdWarBaby 2 years ago
There is NO credit. There is ONLY debt. The entire system is based upon never ending debt.
The private banking system, the foundation of kapitalism, is legalized usury.
Every dollar that is printed by the privately owned federal reserve, the central bank, is put into circulation as a LOAN, with interest due.
No money is ever printed for the purpose of servicing the debt that is incurred for EVERY DOLLAR THAT IS CREATED. Please read that sentence again and think about it.
Those dollars are then loaned again, with interest, to us, so that we can buy all the useless crap we're up to our necks in, leaving us with no hope of ever being debt free.
Please people. Learn something about the reality of this so-called "economy". When you participate in the consumerist/kapitalist system, you become part of the problem, not the solution.
When the system is flush, the central bank floods the economy with "easy" credit, which reduces the value of the currency. That means the money that everyone has is suddenly worth less. As soon as enough people are deeply enough in debt, the old loans become due and new "credit" becomes unavailable.
It then becomes a simple matter for the banks to obtain massive amounts of real property for pennies on the dollar.
They do it in cycles and have been doing it for a long time.
If you would dig into the real history of the country, you would already know this.
If you have credit cards, destroy them and don't get more. If you don't have any, don't be stupid enough to get any.
Don't borrow money unless it's a matter of life or death.
If you can't pay for it, you probably don't NEED it.
“If the American people ever allow banks to issue their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations which will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property, until their children wake homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” – Thomas Jefferson