Bad Credit Credit Cards

Let’s imagine you have had a poor credit history – perhaps you have defaulted on loan or mortgage payments, have had county court judgments served against you or any other bad debts. These situations may not even be your fault – you may have lost your job, or your business may have collapsed. You will most likely find that you are incapable of getting a loan due to this history, and you will most likely be rejected if you apply for a credit card.  Banks and financial institutions have easy access to an individual’s credit history; in fact you can even check your own credit rating at Credit Expert. However you may still have the need for a credit card – these are useful products for many individuals wanting to purchase items that they want to pay off over a period of time. Anyway we all need some form of plastic in this modern world – to shop online, to pay in a shop, mail order and so on. All is not lost however, and there are companies that specialize in offering ‘bad credit credit cards’ – that is a credit card that is available to those with a poor credit history. There are a couple of disadvantages with the cards over a normal credit card – the APR is usually higher and the balance offered may be fairly low. But these are not major problems and beggars can’t be choosers! Plus you will rebuild your credit rating (as long as you keep up payments) and you can increase your balance limit as time goes on.

During hard financial times such as the present; people are tightening their belts as much as possible. For people that have a lot of debt – perhaps credit cards, personal loans, car repayments, furniture / TV etc payment plans – it can be especially difficult. All these different bills to be paid at all different time of the month, at all different interest rates. Hard to keep track of and suffocating in many ways, not to mention highly stressful. In these times it makes sense to look at getting one of the consolidation loans available out there. Effectively these are a larger loan to cover all your outstanding loans and debts. The lender gives you enough money to pay back all the other debts, and then you owe only to the lender. So all your payments are ‘consolidated’ into one monthly payment, the amount of which you know upfront. Usually in these cases, the APR interest rate you pay is significantly lower than most other loans and debts such as credit cards, so you also save significantly on your repayments.

So – to round up; if you have significant debts spread across a number of different products and lenders, think about getting a debt consolidation loan to reduce your payments and this will help you manage your outgoings as you will have only one monthly payment.

However if your debts are so bad that you can no longer pay, you may have to enter a debt management programme. This will be managed by a debt solutions company; and they will talk to your creditors and ensure that they come to a mutually agreeable situation regarding the partial or full repayment or your debts over a period of time. The debt company may well get your interest frozen on your debts, so that at least the debts will not increase.

Prepaid cards are another alternative to credit cards and debit cards. They are ideal for individuals who cannot get a credit card and they have all the features of a payment card, without the credit line. So you don’t actually borrow any money – the money is yours and you load the card up with funds though cash, wages or another card. Apart from that, prepaid cards can be used as any card; so you can shop online, withdraw cash at the cashpoint, use them to pay in a shop and so on. Compare prepaid cards here.