Individuals with problematic credit histories often suffer unfairly from high mortgage, insurance, and car loan rates. On top of that, they have difficulty getting approved for credit cards. The whole situation can get extremely frustrating. Frequently, I get emails from consumers wondering what they can do to rebuild their credit. The first thing I tell them is to get a credit card designed for people with bad credit. The second thing I tell them is written in bold: READ THE FINE PRINT.
Another area that you may be aware of where your credit score can make a big difference is the rental market. You may find yourself hard pressed to rent an apartment with an abysmal credit score. In some tight rental markets, your score doesn't even have to be all that bad. If the market is tight, landlords can afford to be more selective, and one of the criteria they'll use to help select renters is their credit score. Experience has shown that, as with insurance, there is a correlation between the reliability of a renter and their credit score. The lower the credit score, the more the landlord has to worry about. On top of all these other things, a low credit score will of course make it more expensive to get credit of all kinds; from auto loans to mortgages. With the recent shakeup in the sub prime mortgage market, prospective borrowers may find it difficult to secure a mortgage if their credit score strays too low.
"Bad Credit" Credit Card #1: This credit card charges a very low interest rate for an unsecured credit card. However, your first fine print glimpse reveals that there is a one time setup fee of $29. Not too bad. So far, since the next charge is a one time fee of $95. So far, we're up to $124 in expenses. That's got to be it, right? No. Add in another $48 for the annual fee and $6 per month in account maintenance fees. That's brings the cost of your new credit card to $244 the first year, and $120 each additional year. This is no small change, and a card such as this should be considered only if you cannot be accepted for a better unsecured credit card for bad credit.
The bigger and scarier issue that we uncovered while researching these companies is what we consider Fraud, misrepresentation, and false advertising. We found one company that charged about $20,000 to build a company with credit. We had some hope in them as they seemed to be the only company that utilized an advanced methodology when building business credit. Unfortunately, when we searched further we found that the owner of this company is a defendant in a $100,000,000 lawsuit and has had newspaper articles written in major newspapers that highlighted his companies questionable practices. These articles have caused major credit bureaus to key in on his business practices, will DnB be one of them? Do you really want to be associated with a company that can lose everything in a lawsuit who has a target on their back for questionable practices?
If your balances are high, simply paying them down can have a dramatic, positive effect on your credit score. Reducing high balances on revolving accounts will go a long way toward fixing a low score. This has an effect on 2 key components of your score; credit utilization percentage and total outstanding debt. Together, these 2 factors account for about 40% of your credit score, so you can see how optimizing them will help fix your credit score. The credit utilization score indicates someone's available revolving credit as a percentage of their total revolving credit. For example, if you have 4 credit cards with limits totaling $20,000, and you owe $10,000 on them, you have a 50% credit utilization score. Something else that is affected by high balances that's not actually part of your credit score, but does affect you ability to get a mortgage is your debt to income ratio. Although your amount of total debt is a very large part of your credit score, the actual debt to income ratio isn't. Typically, lenders want to see both a high credit score and a total debt to income ratio of less than 36%. They'll use these when calculating how much home you're able to afford, and if they'll extend financing to you at all.. In the opinion of many financial advisors, 36% is way too high and leaves precious little room for error down the road. A figure of 20 - 22% is a more conservative number many experts are far more comfortable with.
Clearly, there are substantial difference between "bad credit" credit cards. Of the three offers we have examined, only one doesn't take you to the cleaners. In fact, "bad credit" credit card #3 provides great value. All positive changes to your credit history and credit score will translate into lower loan rates, lower credit card interest rates, lower insurance rates, and ultimately, thousands of dollars in savings. The path to rebuilding credit has its costs, but in the long term, rebuilding your credit with a "bad credit" credit card is the fastest and most cost-efficient way to correct the often unfortunate circumstances that have damaged your credit in the first place.
Another area that you may be aware of where your credit score can make a big difference is the rental market. You may find yourself hard pressed to rent an apartment with an abysmal credit score. In some tight rental markets, your score doesn't even have to be all that bad. If the market is tight, landlords can afford to be more selective, and one of the criteria they'll use to help select renters is their credit score. Experience has shown that, as with insurance, there is a correlation between the reliability of a renter and their credit score. The lower the credit score, the more the landlord has to worry about. On top of all these other things, a low credit score will of course make it more expensive to get credit of all kinds; from auto loans to mortgages. With the recent shakeup in the sub prime mortgage market, prospective borrowers may find it difficult to secure a mortgage if their credit score strays too low.
"Bad Credit" Credit Card #1: This credit card charges a very low interest rate for an unsecured credit card. However, your first fine print glimpse reveals that there is a one time setup fee of $29. Not too bad. So far, since the next charge is a one time fee of $95. So far, we're up to $124 in expenses. That's got to be it, right? No. Add in another $48 for the annual fee and $6 per month in account maintenance fees. That's brings the cost of your new credit card to $244 the first year, and $120 each additional year. This is no small change, and a card such as this should be considered only if you cannot be accepted for a better unsecured credit card for bad credit.
The bigger and scarier issue that we uncovered while researching these companies is what we consider Fraud, misrepresentation, and false advertising. We found one company that charged about $20,000 to build a company with credit. We had some hope in them as they seemed to be the only company that utilized an advanced methodology when building business credit. Unfortunately, when we searched further we found that the owner of this company is a defendant in a $100,000,000 lawsuit and has had newspaper articles written in major newspapers that highlighted his companies questionable practices. These articles have caused major credit bureaus to key in on his business practices, will DnB be one of them? Do you really want to be associated with a company that can lose everything in a lawsuit who has a target on their back for questionable practices?
If your balances are high, simply paying them down can have a dramatic, positive effect on your credit score. Reducing high balances on revolving accounts will go a long way toward fixing a low score. This has an effect on 2 key components of your score; credit utilization percentage and total outstanding debt. Together, these 2 factors account for about 40% of your credit score, so you can see how optimizing them will help fix your credit score. The credit utilization score indicates someone's available revolving credit as a percentage of their total revolving credit. For example, if you have 4 credit cards with limits totaling $20,000, and you owe $10,000 on them, you have a 50% credit utilization score. Something else that is affected by high balances that's not actually part of your credit score, but does affect you ability to get a mortgage is your debt to income ratio. Although your amount of total debt is a very large part of your credit score, the actual debt to income ratio isn't. Typically, lenders want to see both a high credit score and a total debt to income ratio of less than 36%. They'll use these when calculating how much home you're able to afford, and if they'll extend financing to you at all.. In the opinion of many financial advisors, 36% is way too high and leaves precious little room for error down the road. A figure of 20 - 22% is a more conservative number many experts are far more comfortable with.
Clearly, there are substantial difference between "bad credit" credit cards. Of the three offers we have examined, only one doesn't take you to the cleaners. In fact, "bad credit" credit card #3 provides great value. All positive changes to your credit history and credit score will translate into lower loan rates, lower credit card interest rates, lower insurance rates, and ultimately, thousands of dollars in savings. The path to rebuilding credit has its costs, but in the long term, rebuilding your credit with a "bad credit" credit card is the fastest and most cost-efficient way to correct the often unfortunate circumstances that have damaged your credit in the first place.
About the Author:
Frank Miller has a Debt Consolidation Blog & Finance, these are some of the articles: The 3 Strategies To Finding Hard Cash Lenders To Provides Funds For Your Real Estate Offers You have full permission to reprint this article provided this box is kept unchanged.
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