Introduction

The recent economic crisis has affected the British taxpayer in a number of ways. Many have seen their disposable income dwindle, whereas others have been forced to cancel subscriptions and memberships in a hope to soften the blow of the increased cost of living.

Credit cards

Credit Crunch vs. Credit History

One aspect of people’s finances that has been indirectly affected by the recession is their credit history. This is because; when money is tight, any unexpected expenses such as car breakdowns or boiler call-outs can break the budget and force important bills to go unpaid. When this happens, the provider will often give you a few days to recover the arrears on the account prior to reporting a missed payment to credit reference agencies. If, you are still unable to pay having received notification from the provider, this will then be reported to credit reference agencies as a missed payment which will ultimately have a negative effect on your credit score.

Getting Approved for Credit

Having a poor credit score will affect your chances of being approved for credit in the future; it will also mean that you’re likely to have to pay over the odds for your credit. This is because lenders (both credit card and loan lenders) work on a risk-assessed basis, therefore if they are lending to high credit risk customers (those with bad credit) – the rates they offer have to be higher, if they are lending to low credit risk customer (those with good credit) the rates offered will be lower.

In order to recover their credit history, many look to apply for credit cards. However they are often left confused when presented with the sheer range of credit cards on offer these days. Low rate, foreign usage, reward points, cashback cards, 0% purchase and 0% balance transfer are just a few of the terms that you are likely to be confronted with when in search of credit cards.

Bad credit

The Credit Builder Credit Card

However, when you have a poor credit history, there is only one credit card you should really be looking at and this is the ‘credit builder’. These are readily available from a range of providers who specialise in offering credit to those who have been refused elsewhere.

These cards will come with higher rates of interest; however they will help to improve your credit history providing you manage them immaculately. One way of avoiding these high interest rates is to pay the full balance off at the end of the month

Conclusion

So the simple answer is; yes, you can get a credit card with bad credit. The only problem is; you will have to pay higher rates for the privilege. However, if you can prove you are able to manage the credit, and never miss payments or exceed the credit limit – it will go a long way to improving your credit history.

This article has been written by Jason Scott on behalf of Guarantor Loans Online.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 14th, 2013 at 6:12 am and is filed under Bad Credit, Credit, Credit Card. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.