Friday, November 25, 2011

Understanding Secured Credit Cards

By Carole Ashley


Each time you apply for a credit card or loan, every inquiry from the lender will be recorded on your credit report, and too many inquiries will tell a potential lender that you are a risky customer just shopping for credit.

So a secured credit card may just be the thing for you since it is secured by a deposit account owned by the cardholder. The deposit consists of 100-200% of the total amount of credit that you want, and it is held in a special savings account.

Know that the cardholders of secured credit cards would still have to make regular payments, and if they don't, then the card issuer can recover the full cost of the purchases paid to the merchants out of the deposits.

Usually, the issuers of secured credit cards consider that if the cardholder does not make his payment, the account should be paid anyway before the security is released instead of taking money from the security to pay the balance. This is quite a risk for the cardholder because the cards is not cancelled and the balance does not set off the deposit.

It is sad how easy it is to find that such advantage at first glance is nothing more than just a financial move to let interest to continue, accumulating on the unpaid balance for considerable periods of time which total charges often exceed the original deposit and leading the cardholders not only to lose their deposit but after that with additional debt that may become a nightmare to pay.

This is actually a condition that is described in most secured credit card agreements, but many people do not read it or if they do, they don't understand it very well.

So it's very important that you ask questions so you will understand everything, because secured credit cards are the most viable option for people who do not have good credit.

In fact, secured credit cards are the best option for rebuilding or cleaning up your credit history report, particularly if Visa or MasterCard endorses them, but always bearing in mind fees charged for secured credit cards more often may exceed those standard fees charged for ordinary non-secured credit cards.




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