If your credit is poor then a prepaid credit card or bad credit card can help you to overcome many of the problems associated with having no card at all. However, you must stick to your prepayment agreement or you really will have shot yourself in the foot.
The majority of people had their card revoked for not being able to meet the monthly repayments. The majority of people would also love to get a second chance because they believe they have learned a hard lesson. I know, because I was one of these people. At one time I had twelve cards and I was not managing any of them properly. Even though I had court judgments against me on some of these, and came to a low monthly payment agreement on others, I was still able to get a bad credit card and a prepaid credit card was also offered to me by several firms.
I had no idea of the importance of a credit card to modern life until I had none. Try to book a hotel by telephone, or book a show or even a vacation online without a card. Tro to book a vacation, hotel room or a flight with any card of some kind. Impossible! If you even enter a hotel and let the receptionist know that you are paying cash you will regarded as some sort of freak from outer space for not having a card to use, perhaps even a terrorist.
“No Credit Card Sir? Do you have some means of identification such as a passport? We don’t want the paintings stolen, do we?”Well may you laugh, but that is almost exactly what was said to me when I booked my wife and I into a Toronto hotel: We were told that if we stole anything from our room, particularly the paintings, that they would have no other means of billing us for them.
We had our passports, but we cut our intended week stay to one night because of this. Then I tried another hotel, and guess what happened there? Yes, you got it! Same thing! Eventually I made the decision that this was it, and I applied for a bad credit card which was immediately given to me without any investigation or problems, and I still have it now. Even though I have gold cards now I will never forget these days when the best feeling I ever had was to be given this bas credit card, and I still keep to remind me of my weaknesses.
I had a very poor credit record then, possibly as you have now, and that’s why I can probably understand your feelings now. Believe me, all is not lost. With a prepaid credit card you can pay things you can’t pay with cash: online purchases, hotel bookings, shows and anything else that you cannot do without a card. When I applied for a bad credit card I got it without any problems: the credit limit was only equivalent to $500, but that was fine for hotel bills and theater bookings.
The companies that provide these cards know the score, so they don’t carry out pointless credit checks – they simply offer you the card and then it’s up to you. It is just like being given a new start in life – but you have to take it. The interest rates might be higher than normal, but they will have less of an impact if you pay your bill in time.
If you have to make online bookings such as flights and hotel rooms, or sometimes even pay these bills in front of your business colleagues (Look, Bill’s using cash – his credit must be very poor’)then you won’t have that shame if you have a bad credit card or prepaid credit card.
Each one of these has specific advantages: the prepaid credit card costs money to use and the bad credit card charges a higher rate of interest. They wil contact you immediately you miss a payment, although you will be left alone if you manage your account as you should do.
In each case, you can pay the bill and pull it out in front of your buddies (the credit card!) without any embarrassment. There is no doubt whatsoever, and I can say this through personal experience, that if your credit is poor then you should at least have a prepaid credit card if not a bad credit card with enough credit on it to enable you live a normal life without the embarrassment of not being able to pay anything in any way except with cash.
So, if your credit is shot, make sure that when you pull it out it is something that your colleagues will not gasp at, but will not even notice: a card, whether that is a bad credit card or a prepaid credit card is immaterial. It’s what they expect to see, and that’s all you have to bother about.
There are other benefits of using a bad credit card or prepaid card if you have poor credit, so visit Pete’s site at Global Credit Guide to find out more about how you can resolve these problems once and for all.