Building your credit???

Question

is it better to get a credi card from a department store like old navy to start off to build my credi i have none at all. or get the secured credit card?

Answer 1

Having firsthand knowledge from working in the credit card industry and using them myself, I would say that secured credit cards are the best option for many reasons.

1. They're the easiest to get because a deposit that's used as collateral is placed upfront. For example, if you deposit $200, then your limit is $200, and so on. There are some "unsecured" credit cards out there that offer low limits, but they charge outrageous fees before the card is even sent, at least with a secured card although you have to put money upfront, at some point later on, you get the deposit back.

2. There's no difference between the two. If you have bad credit, it very unlikely that you will even get approved for a credit card, let alone one with a high limit. With a secured card, you can "custom build" a high limit credit card. And one it's upgraded to a regular card, the leftover deposit could be used to start up an emergency fund.

3. The deposit gives you an incentive to take care of your credit. Since you would have to put money up, it's certain that in order to get it back, you would take care of it the best way possible, right? Well, a secured card teaches you how to use it the right way, since you have something at stake.

I posted several links to some secured cards that should help. In my personal experience, Bank of America offers the best overall secured card

Answer 2

I've looked into secured cards, definetly best!

For one store cards are tough to obtain, people say "just get a store card!", well, it's not that easy, they're quite picky about who they qualify. (especially these days with the nationwide credit disaters)

And they're interest rates (mostly for new comers w/little to no or bad credit) are insanly high.

And they affect your credit whenever applying, especially if you don't take no for an answer and try to get one here, there, everywhere. You'll kill your credit before you even establish any.