Posts tagged: no credit credit card

Getting a No Credit Credit Card

Even in what is becoming a very tight lending market, it’s still not that hard to get a no credit credit card. Mastercard and Visa, through all their licensed lenders, offer a variety of unsecured, prepaid, and secured credit cards with no credit for people who are either working to establish or repair their credit.

There are even times when one licensee will offer basically identical cards, but one happens to be Visa and the other Mastercard. For example, First Premier Bank offers the Centennial Visa or Mastercard designed specifically for people with no credit. They’re offering benefits such as:

  • 24 hour account access via telephone (but no mention of internet account access until I dug deeper into the terms; then I found out you could pay $3.95 one time fee to have online account access)
  • Low APR on purchases (further investigation revealed that it’s 9.9% – not great, but I’ve seen much worse)
  • Monthly reporting to four major credit agencies (this is the big one – you need them to talk to the credit bureaus if you want to see your credit score steadily climb)
  • A response to your application within 60 seconds (actually this is very fast, so at least you’ll no right away if you’re approved or not)

I had to dig a little deeper to find the fees associated with the card, and I found them to be fairly standard compared to what you’d see with most credit cards with no credit. Right up front you’re going to pay an account setup fee of $29.00, a “program fee” of $95, and an annual fee of $48. They put all those charges on your card immediately, and you’ll begin making payments and accruing interest on that balance from day one.

That can be pretty annoying, but it’s not uncommon in the lending world. It’s almost like this card provider is charging closing costs like you’d have on a home loan, and rolling the closing costs right onto the balance. Maybe the way to go with a card like this is to save up a couple hundred bucks and think of it as ‘buying’ the credit card, so you can pay off that initial balance immediately.

A couple of fees you might not think of beforehand (since you might be new to the credit world, looking for a credit card with no credit check and all that), are the over-limit fee and the late fee. They’re each $29, so you want to avoid those at all cost.

This card offer is pretty typical. It’s expensive, but if you use it right it gets the job done and helps you improve your credit score.

Finding a No Credit Check Credit Card

Part of becoming an adult is establishing your credit. As much as we’d all love never having to borrow money for anything we need, that’s just not realistic. If you want to own a home or a car, you probably have to have credit (well, I supposed you don’t have to borrow for cars, but most people aren’t willing to save enough to buy the car they want, and they’re not willing to drive the car they could actually pay cash for). So you’re going to need some credit, which means you need to use the right tools to help you start building your credibility as a borrower. A no credit check credit card is going to be one of those tools.

Let’s be clear about what credit cards with no credit check are. They’re not high limit cards; they’re very low limit. They’re not fee free cards, they almost always come with fees. And they’re usually not unsecured cards; they’re usually prepaid or secured. So, you’re going to be paying for this credit building tool, and it’s not going to be glamorous. We’re not talking about an Amex Black card you see the rich folks and the celebrities walking around with.

Essentially what’s happening here is the credit card provider is saying “you have no experience with credit, and there’s no proof or even evidence that lending to you is a good idea. We’ll give you a card that allows you to borrow up to the amount you keep on deposit with us, and then we’ll watch how you use it. If you’re smart about it we’ll start to bump up your privileges with the card and eventually allow you to use the card beyond the amount of your security deposit.”

This is one of the real ironies of building up your credit with a no credit credit card. The more effectively you do it, the more easy it becomes to bury yourself in credit card debt. Don’t make that mistake. I personally don’t think it’s a bad idea to have a couple of credit cards with high limits, but you want them there strictly for emergencies. There’s no reason at all to get in the habit of actually using these cards or carrying a balance.

So yes, you need credit, and getting credit cards with no credit can help you make your name with the credit agencies. You really just need to be so careful about how you do it because credit can either be your best friend or your absolute worst enemy, and you get to decide which.