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Monday, December 15, 2008

Credit Cards To Rebuild Credit

By Dan Moskel

You can use a credit card to help rebuild your credit score. This card will help you build a positive payment history and will improve your ratio of available credit to debt; both these factors are heavily weighed in your credit score.

When you have a damaged score you will be faced with a sub prime interest rate. This means you will have an interest rate around 19%.

It is still important to remove bad credit items from your credit report. However it has been learned that after a bad credit item ages 4 years it will damage your score much less.

With your card you are going to have to pay an annual fee and around 19% APR. This is called a sub prime credit card because it is designed for individuals with a damaged credit history.

Your card will have a credit limit around $300. The other alternative is to get a secured credit card.

A secured card you will have to put a deposit down and the amount of your deposit is the credit line on your card. This card will report to the credit bureaus however it will not give you the same benefit as an unsecured card.

With an unsecured card it will be instant approval and your payments and balance will be reported to all major credit bureaus. It is important to double check and make sure your credit card will report to all three credit bureaus.

Another tip to help you get the most benefit to your credit is to keep your balance at roughly 10% of your credit limit. For example a credit limit of $300 you will want to keep the monthly balance at $30.

This shows the credit bureaus that you do have available credit; this is called your available credit to debt ratio. In addition it shows the bureaus that you do use your credit.

There is one other option that we strongly discourage and that is a shopping or catalog card. This is a credit card that is only able to make purchases through a catalog or a website online. We discourage this option because there is often a large down payment required and the card typically only reports to one credit bureau.

A prepaid card is another option. This is a good choice if you are unable to open a checking account because this card will work just like a bank account.

In sum we suggest a sub prime unsecured credit card to help rebuild your credit score. It will create a positive payment history and build positive credit.

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