Debt Views

If you’re one of the millions looking to rebuild your credit out there, you may want to resort to a secured credit card. If you’re already familiar with the cards, that’s great! If you’re not, I’ll give you a quick cliff note version.

A secured card is just like a regular credit card but you’re going to have to place a deposit on the account before you can use it. Whatever you put on the card is what your credit limit will be. For example, if you place $500 on the card, you can only spend $500. The nice thing about these cards are that you still pay your bills like you would with a regular card but if you don’t pay your bill on time, they will dive into your account and take what they need.

The nice thing about these types of cards is that most of them do report to the credit card bureaus. You have to remember that if they don’t report to the bureaus, you’re not going to be able to build your credit up. There are scams out there that you want to look out for such as a card without a major logo. If the card doesn’t have a Visa or MasterCard logo, you’ll want to skip over it right away because you’re most likely asking for trouble.

How do I know if it’s reporting to the bureaus?

This question is fairly simple to answer. What I tell people when they are looking for a card is to call up the credit card company first. What you want to do is ask them all the questions you have and of course, they are going to give you answers that you need. If they don’t report to the bureaus, once again, look for another card because it won’t be worth your time.

(more…)

There are several ways you can boost your credit score. You can pay off your debt; transfer your balance, etc. But there is a way that few people think of and that is by using catalogs with instant credit. Using these catalogs with instant credit has its ins and outs and so must be used carefully. Before you use this method you need to know how your score is calculated and what your score represents to potential lenders.

Your credit score is the way a lender measures your risk as a potential borrower. They do this based on your borrowing history. Now an important element of this calculation is based on your outstanding revolving credit. This is known as the credit utilization score and the lower it is the better.

Increase your Available Credit

So, if you can’t pay down your outstanding debt quickly then you only have one other option to improve your credit score and that is by increasing your available revolving credit. This is called using catalogs with instant credit. When you receive the additional credit and it is reported to the credit reporting agencies, your credit score goes up. This may happen in as little as a month or two, which is really fast.

You see getting new credit cards, especially now may be a little difficult but you get the same effect when you use catalogues that offer instant credit. Usually you can only use the credit to buy merchandise from that catalog. That’s ok though, because you are not really going to buy all that merchandise, unless you are required to make a purchase with your membership.

Before you join any catalogs with instant credit, you need to find out whether the company reports to credit agencies. If this is so then your credit score will go up and usually in a quick time frame.

(more…)