Credit Cards

What is an Unsecured Credit Card?

Unsecured credit cards is a revolving loan which you (should) make payments on every month. It will have minimum payments due, but since the minimum payment is so small, if you pay only the minimum payment you are on the road to bankruptcy. Unsecured cards do report both positive and negative reports to the bureaus, so they are great at building credit.

How do I use Unsecured and Secured Cards?

It is best not to carry more than 30% on any card. Scores are built on not just reported payments, but a low debt to credit ratio. You want to pay the cards each month, and make sure they don’t get out of hand.

You do not need to use your plastic to help establish good credit. While the use of them is important, they may close your account if inactive. If not used it will show a 0 balance and on time payments. Store the plastic away, or cut them up if you can’t trust yourself not to go over the 30% make missed payments, or let your debt get out of hand.

Credit Cards to Avoid!

It is my opinion, if an institution has one really bad card, beware of all of them! The cards below are generally considered bad choices. It is better to use one of the secured cards listed than one of these. When the secure card builds your credit you can get a decent card.

• Applied Bank
• Arvest Bank
• Aspire Visa
• Cerulean
• Continental Finance
• CorTrust Bank
• CreditOne – ALL (They try to make themselves sound like “Capital One”. It is not.
• Fifth Third Bank
• Fingerhut
• First Access
• First Premier
• New Millennium
• Primor
• Premier – (Possibly the worst of the worst)
• Regions
• Secured Matrix
• Surge
• Synchrony Bank (many, many “store” cards are Synchrony Bank)
• Total Visa
• US Bank College
• Verve
• Wells Fargo
• ANY THAT WORKS IN JUST ONE CHAIN OF STORES

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