If you are in the market for a new credit card but you know that your credit score is not in the best shape, or if you don’t happen to have much of a credit history at all, here are some things you can do to boost your numbers and improve your chances of being approved:

Be Choosy When Applying

Instead of submitting an application for every credit card offer that comes your way, only apply for lines of credit you are likely to be approved for. This will require that you do a bit of research first but it is well worth the time and effort – if you have your application rejected from several lenders over a short period of time it will have a negative impact upon you credit profile.

Stability and Security

If you move around a lot or switch jobs frequently, it will likely have an impact upon your chances for acquiring a credit card. Lenders look more favorably upon you if you can be considered “secure and stable,” meaning that you have resided at the same address and worked for the same company for a period of time.

Check For Errors

Your credit profile is an essential key to determining whether or not your application will be approved. Therefore it is extremely important to know what type of information appears on your credit profile and to periodically check that it is accurate. Should you discover an error, contact the agency immediately and issue a request for it to be corrected.

Cultivate Good Credit

It is essential to prove to lenders that you can be responsible when it comes to managing credit. They determine your creditworthiness based upon your prior borrowing behavior and pay especially close attention to whether or not you are capable of repaying what you owe on time. This is why it is important to consciously build up your credit history slowly over time.

Spend Less Than Your Limit

Lenders and credit scoring agencies consider maxing out your credit card to be an indication of financial distress, so take care to keep your debts well below your allotted limit. Additionally, being mindful your limit will keep you conscious when spending and reduces the chances of you accruing penalty charges for going over your limit which will cause the termination of any special introductory rates and offers you may be taking advantage of.

Submit Your Payments On Time

Paying all of your bills on time every single month is the very best way to demonstrate to your lender that you are capable of managing your finances responsibly. Even if you only pay the minimum amount, as long as you refrain from paying late or missing a payment altogether you can avoid taking a hit to your credit score. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you think that you will be unable to make a payment, contact your lender and let them know as soon as possible to try to negotiate different terms – either an alternate payment date or minimum amount.

If you are in the market for a new credit card but you know that your credit score is not in the best shape, or if you don’t happen to have much of a credit history at all, here are some things you can do to boost your numbers and improve your chances of being approved:

Be Choosy When Applying

Instead of submitting an application for every credit card offer that comes your way, only apply for lines of credit you are likely to be approved for. This will require that you do a bit of research first but it is well worth the time and effort – if you have your application rejected from several lenders over a short period of time it will have a negative impact upon you credit profile.

Stability and Security

If you move around a lot or switch jobs frequently, it will likely have an impact upon your chances for acquiring a credit card. Lenders look more favorably upon you if you can be considered “secure and stable,” meaning that you have resided at the same address and worked for the same company for a period of time.

Check For Errors

Your credit profile is an essential key to determining whether or not your application will be approved. Therefore it is extremely important to know what type of information appears on your credit profile and to periodically check that it is accurate. Should you discover an error, contact the agency immediately and issue a request for it to be corrected.

Cultivate Good Credit

It is essential to prove to lenders that you can be responsible when it comes to managing credit. They determine your creditworthiness based upon your prior borrowing behavior and pay especially close attention to whether or not you are capable of repaying what you owe on time. This is why it is important to consciously build up your credit history slowly over time.

Spend Less Than Your Limit

Lenders and credit scoring agencies consider maxing out your credit card to be an indication of financial distress, so take care to keep your debts well below your allotted limit. Additionally, being mindful your limit will keep you conscious when spending and reduces the chances of you accruing penalty charges for going over your limit which will cause the termination of any special introductory rates and offers you may be taking advantage of.

Submit Your Payments On Time

Paying all of your bills on time every single month is the very best way to demonstrate to your lender that you are capable of managing your finances responsibly. Even if you only pay the minimum amount, as long as you refrain from paying late or missing a payment altogether you can avoid taking a hit to your credit score. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you think that you will be unable to make a payment, contact your lender and let them know as soon as possible to try to negotiate different terms – either an alternate payment date or minimum amount.

Many people do not realize this, but bad credit can also affect you ability to get an apartment.  Landlords usually check candidates credit scores to gauge your ability to pay your rent on time.  Credit requirements vary by landlord. So, even with a steady job, with a six figure salary, or if you have a perfect rental history, some landlords may still reject your rental application if you have bad credit.

Here are some tips on how to rent an apartment with if you have a bad credit history.

Get recommendations:

Getting referrals from people or businesses, with which you have had previous positive financial dealings, can go a long way to counter your bad credit. A flattering recommendation from your previous landlord that clearly demonstrates all your rental payments were paid is a great way to show a new landlord that despite your poor credit rating you have an excellent history of paying your rent.

You can also provide letters from current or previous employers, stating your annual salary and length of employment.  Letters and statements from you bank can be used to indicate your savings and spending patterns.

If there are extenuating circumstancesthat contributed to your poor credit score, like medical bills, job loss due to downsizing or layoffs or divorce,write a letter that explains yourreasons for missing payments, outlines your plans to improveyour credit score, and most importantly, substantiates you ability to manage monthly rent payments.

Pay past due balances

You are more likely to get you rental application denied if you have unpaid past due balances to previous landlords or utility companies.  So if possible, try to pay those off, before you start submitting apartment applications.  This goes for any other short-term debts like cell phones or cable bills. Once you have paid off these bills, gets a settlement letter,stating the account has been paid in full. Keep in mind, if it’s a credit card account without annual fees, you may want to keep the paid-off card open, as it will play a positive role in bringing up your credit score.

Another good idea is to collectpayment records of all your billsfor the past 90 days, and provide this to the new landlord.

Get a cosigner

Another option,to improve your chances of getting an apartment with bad credit, is to get a cosigner.  Having the financial backing of an outside party increases your chances of approval and can even influence the terms of your agreement.  Remember that the point of having a co-signor is to compensate for you deficient credit worthiness.Make sure your consignor is someone with good to excellent credit history.  Keep in mind,if you become late or delinquent in your futurerent payments, both parties will see missed payment in their individual credit reports.  Even worse, the landlord can legally hold the co-signor responsible for the value of the lease, if you are evicted.  So be sure to ask someone you have a longstanding historyand positive rapport with, like a family member or a close friend.

Most of that progress is being attributed to greater credit card transparency brought about by the Credit CARD Act of 2009 and lower interest rates by the Federal Reserve. In addition to those things, secured credit cards are proving really helpful in getting credit disabled cardholders back on their financial feet.

Secured credit cards allow you to build a new relationship with credit card issuers. Previously, the relationship may have been rocky, but secured credit cards allow you to build a new relationship built on trust with credit card issuers. Secure credit cards work like this: the consumer puts up a security deposit which is equal to the credit card’s spending limit. The security deposit is used as a protective measure in case the consumer happens to not pay the bill. Having a security deposit ensures the banks that you are not as high of a risk as they presume.

After the consumer pays the security deposit, then they are given a credit card which they can use like a traditional unsecured credit card. The card can be used to make purchases anywhere a normal credit card can be used. In order for things to go smoothly, all the consumer has to do is commit to on-time bill payments and their credit score will increase. Just make sure to double check that the issuer of the secured credit card reports the information to the main credit card reporting agencies, so your payment history on the card can be reflected on your credit score.

Approval for a secured credit card can take up to a month. Banks use this time period as a gage, because if you can go a month without the money that you put down as a security deposit, then you can afford to pay it back. Here are some good secure credit cards if you’re in the market for one:

1. Orchard Bank Classic MasterCard and Classic Visa
   This card requires a larger deposit, but gives a 7.90% APR, and a cash advance rate of 21% APR.
2. Capital One Secured MasterCard
   If you have mediocre to good credit, this card may approve you for a credit limit that is higher than the security deposit. Staying with Capital One and making on-time payments, can be beneficial as they frequently consider their secured cardholders for unsecured credit cards.
3. Citi Secured Card
   This credit card has a $29 annual fee, but one of the greatest anti-fraud secured credit cards on the market. With 18 months of on-time payments and Citi may consider you for their unsecured credit card.

Secured credit cards are the way to go if you’re attempting to fix your broken credit. Changes in the industry have made secure credit more appealing to customers and they are one of the quickest ways to prove your worth to credit card issuers.

While a credit report does not precisely reveal a credit score, it provides consumers with enough information to surmise whether or not their scored is in good or bad shape. So in order to deduce your general score situation, you must first and foremost:

• Review Your Report

Everyone is entitled to receive, free of charge, a print out of their credit report annually. It is essential to routinely examine your credit report whether or not you plan on applying for credit cards, a loan or a mortgage in the near future.  A large part of being financially responsible entails looking over your report while paying specific attention to the following:

• Payment History

Have you established a record of paying your bills on time? The longer and more consistent a history you have of on-time payments, the higher your credit score will be.

• Note the number of inquiries

Every time a creditor requests to review your credit report, your score takes a slight hit, so it makes sense that lenders don’t particularly like to see too many inquiries logged on your report. Be mindful of this to make sure that you don’t apply to open lines of credit unless you really want to carry that card

• Keep your eyes peeled for mistakes

Go over every bit of information on your report carefully and make note of anything that seems strange. If you find something you think may be a mistake or fraudulent, call the reporting agency immediately so you can go about correcting the situation.

Keeping on top of your credit report is the most effective way to gauge the health of your credit score. Identify the mistakes, if any, and then do what you can to fix them. Sooner or later, you’ll be glad you did.

Meeting the Minimum is Not Enough

Bad habits are hard to break, and cultivating the habit of just making the minimum payment on your outstanding credit card balance each month is one of the worst financial moves you can make. Minimum payments usually amount to a meager 2 to 3% of the entire outstanding balance so paying that amount only will result you in paying for a longer period of time and shelling out more money overall as interest accrues.

Avalanche!

One very effective way of paying down credit cards debt that spans multiple cards is by employing a tactic known as “avalanching.” This is how it works – organize your cards from the one with the highest APR to the one with the lowest APR. Don’t get caught up worrying about the balance on each, just focus on their interest rates. Make the monthly minimum payments (on time!) to all of them except for the one with the highest APR, for that card make the minimum monthly payment plus whatever else you can possibly manage to tack on until that card in completely paid off. Then move on to aggressively paying down whichever card has the next-highest  APR while maintaining minimum monthly payments on the others until you have paid down all of your outstanding credit card debt.

Talk Terms With Your Creditors

If you are seriously financially strapped and can’t handle making even minimum monthly payments at the moment, call your creditors ASAP and let them know your situation. Call them before you simply stop paying, they will be a lot more likely to be willing to negotiate different payment terms if you have not yet defaulted on your loans. Request a new and lower repayment schedule, ask them to reduce your interest rate and, if need be, appeal to their desire to be repaid.

Drop the “bankruptcy” bomb if you think it will make a difference, as in hinting that you may find yourself with no choice but to declare it unless you rearrange your financial house a little. In almost all cases creditors will do whatever they can to protect themselves from having to take a total loss.

Be Realistic When Repaying

While it’s crucial to pay more than just the minimum monthly payment as outlined by your credit card company when trying to pay off outstanding balances, it’s equally important to not get too carried away when writing that check to your creditors. If your repayment plan is more aggressive than your budget can realistically handle, you run the risk of digging yourself even deeper into debt and having to bail yourself out by using your credit cards should you run out of money by the end of the month. Be sure when you calculate what you plan how much to put towards your credit card bill each month that you leave enough left over for your day-to-day expenses such as groceries, gas, etc, to avoid getting stuck in a cycle of accumulating new debt just as fast as you are eliminating old debt.  If you have the money, don’t delay pay that balance off in full, Procrastination is the biggest cause of abundant debt and unwanted financial burdens.

Set Money Aside For Savings

Even though the interest accruing on your outstanding credit card balances is much greater than anything you can earn on any type of savings account, don’t abandon saving altogether in favor of getting debt-free faster. Establishing an emergency fund is imperative to securing a debt-free future. Your emergency fund is there for you to rely upon lest you fall upon difficult financial times, and having one will lessen any reliance you may feel for your credit cards should you find yourself in personal economic peril. Ideally, the monies in your emergency fund will alleviate the financial stress until you get back on track financially and prevent you from making things worse by increasing your credit card debt while you are down and out.

Develop Good Habits and Break the Bad

If you are able to train yourself to pay your bills on time, congratulations! But even if you pull yourself out of debt that way, unless you address the poor money management skills that got your into debt in the first place, you haven’t really made any lasting headway. Keep an eye on your credit score. Draw up a budget. Live well within your means. Stifle that urge to splurge and chronically overspend. All those things and more will contribute to you being a financially responsible individual in the future. Be extremely cautious and control your urge to spend your money on designer brand clothing.

These are three key components to getting – and staying – out of debt. Maintaining a debt-free existence is well worth the trouble. Besides, once you’ve done all the hard work of eliminating your outstanding balances, you won’t want to do it again!

While a pre-paid credit card is not a credit card, it can be helpful when booking a hotel or renting a car, which all require a credit card number for reservation security. Securing a hotel doesn’t require any credit whatsoever, but for reasons such as this people without a credit card can find themselves behind the times.

For educational purposes, it’s best to take the word ‘credit’ out of the pre-paid credit card. Pre-paid credit cards ring up at the cashier like gift cards, deducting the purchase price from your balance. It is up to the consumer to refill their card when funds are running low, but be careful when checking funds, as it comes with a price as well. Some pre-paid cards charge $2 for a balance inquiry.

Because pre-paid cards are not real credit cards, it would make sense that the credit-card issuer would not charge a pre-paid account holder any fees. But that is not the case, because the pre-paid card is a card issued by the bank, it is subject to a heap of banking fees. Even though, you “load” the money on a pre-paid card, you can still be charged overdraft fees, if you make a purchase that your account can’t cover.

In spite of the fees, many people are still pulled in by the pre-paid credit card allure. This is for a variety of reasons, but it could be due to the fact that when you don’t have a credit card in the new millennium, many doors seem to close in your face. If you do decide to get a pre-paid credit card, remember that it is not a credit card — it’s a costly gift card. Also, if you go down the route of pre-paid credit card, read the fine print over at least three times, and remember the fees that are associated with card — from sign up fees, to “loading” fees, ATM withdrawal fees, and customer service fees.

Pre-paid Cards of Note:

Mango Mastercard. This card doesn’t require an activation fee or direct deposit fee, and offers a $20 sign-on bonus.

UPside Visa.This card requires negligible signup fees. There is a monthly charge though, if you “load” over $500 to your card monthly, then your account will be deducted $0.99 a month. For any deposits under that there is a $2.99 monthly surcharge.

Departmental store or gas station credit cards

These cards report credit to each of the 3 bureaus and hence they could become the last resort to rebuild credit history especially if no reputable credit card issuer is approving cards for you. However, the fees on the cards could add to your debt and any outstanding debt would meet with excessive interest. It is important not to make new expenses on these cards as long as you don’t pay off the old. It is also important to keep the outstanding balance at less than 20% of the credit limit at all times.

Credit tracking

Some bad credit history credit cards offer credit tracking facility which will allow you to constantly monitor your credit score and ensure that it is growing in the right direction. Not only will it motivate card holders with bad credit, it will also immediately show the effect of positive spending and payment habits on the credit score. There are other tools too like minimum monthly payment limits and calculators which will help you figure out the timelines by which you will be free of debt.

Refundable security deposits

Bad credit history credit cards also come with the option of refundable security deposits. The biggest advantage of such a deposit is that it lowers the risk for the card issuer and therefore allows you to get more favorable terms like lower interest rate and a higher credit limit to the tune of $3000. Having a credit limit could allow you improve your credit score, especially if you have the discipline to keep your outstanding balance low at all times. Moreover, consistent payments on time will qualify you for future increases in the credit line without actually adding to the security deposit, which is a step in the positive direction.

Fees waiver

In order to attract credit card customers some card issuers waive off excess fees such as application fees, processing fees, annual fees etc. which offers a great relief and saving in excess of $100 in some cases for the card holders.

Tools to manage finances

Bad credit history credit cards could help you repay your debt and build your credit score. The tools include email messages and alerts that will constantly remind you of upcoming payment dates and minimum monthly payments. Besides, you can contact 24 X 7, customer service to understand more about the repayment plans and how you can get rid of the debt at the earliest. Lowering your debt by talking to experienced customer service representatives will help you build credit scores over a period of time.

Reputed retail chains waive off fee

Some reputed retail chains offer prepaid cards without minimum balance requirement and issuance fees. Moreover, in some cases, there isn’t any credit check or bank account required either. This will help card holders who are starting from scratch to build a credit history and improve their credit score from the lowest point of 300. The activation can be done online without any fee. Moreover, some prepaid cards even allow free cash withdrawal from across hundreds of ATMs thus waiving off the cash advance fee. Moreover, prepaid cards have also been issued without penalty fees, overdraft fees or even transaction fees on US purchases. Therefore individuals with low or no credit history should look for prepaid cards with minimum fee requirements with the waivers mentioned above.

Using the prepaid card

A prepaid visa card could be used in the same way as any normal credit card. You can swipe the card at hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and departmental stores for your purchases thus getting rid of cash transactions for your convenience. Moreover, these prepaid cards will also help you make online purchases and avail discounts available online through deals offered from time to time. Thus you get the benefit of a credit card, without having to worry about being late on bill payments or exceeding the credit limits. You will also get features like free check writing and online bill payment services which will make utility bill payments extremely easy for you.

Incentives

Prepaid cards also come with incentives that will let you make valuable savings especially when you are looking to rebuild your credit history. Some prepaid cards will waive off the monthly fees for all those months when you have made more than 30 purchases with the card. Similarly, you will get cash bonuses ranging between $25 and $50 from time to time when you make direct deposits in your prepaid card account. There are other incentives like free direct deposit, 1% cash back on gas purchases and sometimes even added $10 bonuses for direct deposits under certain terms and conditions. All these incentives could help you in making savings while you improve your credit score.  Some prepaid cards even forward a part of your purchase to charitable organizations. Card holders of prepaid cards will receive a free savings account in some cases with APY of around 5% which is an added incentive. The card funds are FDIC insured in most cases too.