A Secured Card for Anybody

Here is a Secured Card for Almost Everybody

http://www.asecuredcard.com/

In case your credit was ruined during the Great Recession, using a secured credit card is often a good way to help boost your standing.

That is, if you're able to get a secured card.  Read or listen on!

Not everyone may be immediately eligible, particularly if you have a recent bankruptcy on your record. A reader of my blog who recently emerged from bankruptcy wrote to me after she and her husband were denied secured credit cards from Citibank. That, at least in my mind, raised several questions: Are people emerging from bankruptcy unable to obtain a secured card? Are there other situations where you’re likely to end up denied? And is the passing of time the only option for the huge numbers of people whose credit has been ruined in the recession?

Secured credit cards appear to pose minimal risk to the card issuer. After all, the cardholder is required to put a certain amount of money into a bank account, say $250 or $500, which is used as collateral. And the available amount of credit is often equal to the amount on deposit. By using these cards strategically, a person with poor credit can speed up the recovery process by demonstrating positive behavior: charging only small amounts and paying off their balance each month.

You need to dilute the negative information on your credit report, and there is no better way to do that compared to a secured card. Some banks want to be sure that the bankruptcy is well behind the applicant, and, in some cases, penalize them a bit for getting into trouble.  These companies should not be in the business of penalizing – they are in the business of making money on lending it, based on risk factors.  Within secured cards, there is little risk, being that the consumer is borrowing their own money.

I do know that many credit card issuers do deny a secured card based on credit standing.  However, there is one that I am aware of that does not and does not charge exorbitant fees to do it: 

www.asecuredcard.com. 

          1.    NO CREDIT CHECK REQUIRED!
 
          2.  The interest rate, at present, is Prime plus 6.5% Variable APR.  It is not an Introductory rate.

          3.  No upfront or monthly fees:  Just a flat $50 annual fee.

          4.  There are 4 ways to fund your deposit. 

          5.  Accepted everywhere you see the VISA logo.

          6. They report to all 3 bureaus!

          7.  Choose your credit limit from $200 to $3,000.

There is one caveat in the use of ANY credit card:  Do not charge more than 50% of the limit or have more than 50% as a balance at any one time, if you want to maximize your credit scoring benefits.

UNUSED Charge cards COULD Decrease your CREDIT SCORE

A standard practice by banks to cancel inactive accounts could cost consumers a lower credit score
.
When Chase unexpectedly closed down Kevin Hicks’ credit card, his credit score fell by 60 points.

“My credit history with them was 12 years,” said Koslicky. “Once they canceled my card, the system looks at your next card that you've opened and that’s only four years.”

Not only did closing his oldest card decrease his credit rating, but with its $23,000 limit, closing it significantly impacted his debt to credit ratio.
So, he called Chase and was told the account was closed due to inactivity. He hadn’t used it in months.

“In the wake of the financial meltdown during the last couple of years… they’ve been cutting credit cards across the board,” said Jacob Gibson, with the financial website NerdWallet.

Gibson says prior to the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 or CARD Act, banks were allowed to charge customers for the privilege of carrying unused credit cards, but since they can no longer charge, they’re reluctant to keep those inactive accounts open.

“They are definitely in the business of penalizing inactivity,” said Gibson. “They don’t want you to have one of their cards that you’re not likely to use because they don’t make money.”

His advice, if you have a card with a high limit or long history, utilize it for small purchases every so often. Also, evaluate the standard 45 day notice banks should send before closing the account.

“If you get this notice, you just need one charge to keep your account open,” said Gibson.

However, Koslicky says he never received that notice from Chase.

“The idea that you’re indeed being responsible looking to develop your credit and not use your old cards, and that they’ll come along and systematically terminate these cards, that’s pretty devastating

While Chase wouldn’t discuss its policy on eliminating long-standing, non-delinquent accounts without notice to the customer or thought on their credit history, they said “it’s standard for the banking industry and nothing new.”

BAD CREDIT REPAIR

Less-than-perfect credit repair is often a constant necessity inside lives of numerous consumers as low credit can become a problem for just about any consumer irrespective of their stage in life, so when it comes to increasing a bad credit score, there are numerous repair practices that can be greatly helpful or actions that consumers may need to avoid when they are attempting to rebuild their credit that could be detrimental to the forward progress of establishing an even better financial life. While low credit score repair can easily be intricate and can obviously be highly individualized for just a specific consumer, in terms of the methods they implement to increase their bad credit score, there are several basic practices that consumers can implement that could help them establish a better history of credit and there are also blunders that consumers need to avoid that can cause them to take a step back.

Those things that consumers need to avoid when rebuilding their credit score will, again, be specific to their own personal situation as some errors that consumers may make when trying to repair their less-than-perfect credit score could be necessary in other cases. For example, consumers that are looking to erase debts, which are the 1st step a person must take before repairing their bad credit, could lead some to a debt repayment plan that may require a consumer to shut out credit card accounts as a way to help them meet affordable repayment options so as to avoid defaulting. Usually, closing accounts is but one practice that's not advised by counselors as this will lower a consumer’s credit utilization ratio, meaning they will have less available credit in terms of the amount of debt they owe.

Yet, there are also other mistakes that consumers may make aside from the very common problem of closing out an account, like a credit card account, but an article on CardRatings.com also makes reference to this topic and points out that some consumers should avoid maxing out credit cards, making late payments, opening new accounts, and avoiding getting rid of credit, again like a credit card, that may have a long credit history. Understandably, when individuals are in need of less-than-perfect credit repair options, the longer their history of credit is, the larger the likelihood they are going to have the ability to more easily repair their credit score, as a consumer’s history which may have a few bad credit stains that have led to a lower credit worthiness will be outweighed if better credit items are included in this background, when the totality of their credit history is reviewed, it can help to possess lengthier history when using a particular card to help repair unfavorable credit ratings.

e-mail address theft

With the possible theft of millions of email addresses from an advertising company, several large companies have started warning customers to anticipate fraudulent emails that make an effort to coax account login information from them.

Companies behind such brands as Chase, Citi and Best Buy said over the weekend that hackers may have learned their email addresses because of a security breach at a Dallas-based company called Epsilon that manages email communications.

The email addresses could possibly be used to target spam. It's also a normal tactic among online fraudsters to transmit emails to random people, purporting to be from a large bank and asking them to login in at a site that appears like the bank's site. Instead, the fraudulent site captures their login information and uses it to access the real account.

The data breach could make these so-called "phishing" attacks more efficient, by allowing the fraudsters to target individuals who actually have an account with the bank.

David Jevans, chairman and founder of the non-profit Anti-Phishing Working Group, said criminals are already leaving indiscriminate phishing towards more intelligent attacks known as "spear phishing," which depend on having more intimate knowledge of the victims.

"This data breach is going to facilitate that in a big way. Now they know which institution people bank with, they know their name and they have their email address," said Jevans, who is also the CEO of security company IronKey Inc.

"You're not going to see typical phishing where 90 percent of it ends up in spam traps and is easily detected. This is likely to be highly targeted," he added. On the list of affected are financial-service companies such as Capital One Financial Corp., Barclays Bank, U.S. Bancorp, Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Ameriprise Financial Inc. and retailers including Best Buy Co., TiVo Inc., Walgreen Co. and Kroger Co.

The College Board, the not-for-profit organization that runs the SATs, also warned that a hacker may have obtained student email addresses.

Walt Disney Co.'s travel subsidiary, Disney Destinations, sent emails warning customers on Sunday. Hotel chain Marriott International Inc. issued a similar warning.