Secured credit cards are one of two types of credit cards. There are unsecured credit cards that generally only require your signature and a monthly interest rate, and perhaps an annual fee, and they will offer the consumer a designated line of credit. A secured credit card is much different, but it is an excellent way to create your credit history, or to build it back if, for instance, you have filed for bankruptcy in the past seven years or your credit is not looking so good.

Secured credit cards are easy to obtain by the general public because you are securing your line of credit with your own resources, usually with a savings deposit. This deposit will typically range from $500 to $1000, and your credit line with a secured credit card is then a percentage of that deposit, typically 50 to 100 percent. The issuing company will pay interest on your deposit, but in return there are application and processing fees associated with this type of card, sometimes totaling hundreds of dollars. Before you apply, be sure to find out what the total fees are and whether they will be refunded if you are denied a card. A secured card requires an annual fee and has a higher interest rate than an unsecured card.

Secured cards are usually easier to acquire because you are supplying the capital that you will be charging against, and this is the reason why they work well as a first credit card, or one you will be using to build your credit back up. You supply the capital and for the fees, they will manage your card and account for your transactions in a monthly statement for you.

Debit cards are a great example of how the secured credit card works. When you open an account at your neighborhood bank, they issue you checks and a debit card. You are welcome to use the debit card anywhere that credit cards are accepted as long as you have sufficient funds in your bank account. When your balance hits bottom you can no longer use your debit card until you replenish your account. It is this same principle with a secured credit card. As you run down your account you will periodically need to deposit more so you have the funds to make charges. These deposits are made by paying off the balance of the credit card in full each month. If you do not, you may forfeit your deposit and have the right to charge to the card revoked.

The process of a secured credit card is simple, but it is more costly when you include the fees, and for this reason, it is more inconvenient than an unsecured card. So to improve your credit history, keep your card with responsibility especially if you are planning any loans or investments in the future and will need record of good credit payments. Of course, keep in mind that the higher your credit score, the better your credit history will be. With a reputation of bad credit, your doors of opportunity will close quickly!

Copyright (c) Greg Aldrich

Greg Aldrich helps match consumers to the appropriate credit cards. His site, http://www.FindYourCard.com, allows anyone to compare credit cards sorted by features and apply online.

Keep Your Credit History Clean - Remove A Negative Credit Record From Your Credit Report

It can make a difference of up to 18% in loan repayment costs.
For example, on a 30-year, $150,000 fixed rate mortgage, a borrower with the best credit score, 760-850, will pay 5.59%, or $860 per month, while someone in the worst score range will pay 7.18%, or $1,016 per month.
This can make a big different to the household budget, so it’s to your advantage to keep your credit score as low as possible.

The 3 major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and Trans Union are similar and feature a “Credit Score”, which is derived from credit report information submitted to them about you.

Uner the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, a credit scoring system may not use characteristics such as race, sex, marital status, national origin or religion as factors, though they are allowed to use age.

Credit scores are determined by your bill-paying history, the number and type type of accounts you have, late payments, collection actions, and outstanding debt. The total number of points reflects how likely you are, statistically-speaking, to pay back a loan.

If you are denied credit, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act forces the creditor to tell you the specific reasons your loan application was denied if you ask within 60 days. Acceptable reasons include high balances on charge cards, or bad employment history. Unacceptable reasons include vague excuses such as “You didn’t meet our minimum standards”. Sometimes you can be denied credit because of information on a credit report. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires the creditor to give you the contact information of the credit report agency supplying the information. The credit reporting agency can give you the information on your report, but only the lender can tell you why this led to your application being refused.

However your credit report may include inaccurate or incomplete information (credit records). Identity theft is a growing problem, and can take up to a year to resolve. Nearly 10 million people fall victim to identity theft each year, costing consumers $5 billion and businesses $48 billion, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

In this situation you have to send letters to every one of the credit bureaus. Also learn your credit rights by familiarizing yourself with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA).

The FCRA gives you the right to dispute inaccuracies and omissions, and it requires credit bureaus to investigate your complaint (generally in thirty days), send you a prompt response and correct any errors. The law as well requires the source of inaccurate information (such as a bank) to correct the record at the credit bureaus to which it initially provided the erroneous information.

Consumers working on their credit reports say many times their letters are ignored by credit bureaus. Consumers say even with proof a credit record isn’t theirs, its removal from their credit report can take 3 or even 4 challenge letters, because the credit bureaus will have only corrected the facts in their own files and not updated the credit report.

Send your dispute letter by REGISTED MAIL. Credit companies will respond faster if they know you can prove you filed a complaint on a certain date. Keep a record of when you sent the dispute letters and what date you should expect a response. If you have received no defense to your claim after thirty to thirty seven days, send another registered letter requesting an updated credit report and demanding the disputed credit record be deleted.

If the bureaus don’t reply in the thirty days, it must be that the information they had on file was either inaccurate or unverifiable. In either case, based on data from the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the credit record must be immediately deleted from your credit report.

A few consumers have eliminated negative marks on credit reports just by going through this process of disputing credit records many times. Since some creditors will not take the time to respond, you can sometimes win by default. Usually a bit of progress will be made with each challenge.Remember, the credit bureau would like you to quit bothering them because if you are not disputing the credit report, they can legally carry on selling it as profitable information.

To obtain your credit score, correct your credit rating, or even avoid becoming a Victim of Identity Theft visit our website at www.credit-score-now.info

Frank Vanderlugt

A Business Credit Card

Every major credit card company provides business credit cards. Amex, Visa, Advanta, MasterCard, Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank, HSBC Bank, Discover, etc are some of the companies that provide business credit card products.

Business credit cards are primarily used to separate business and personal expenses. Business cards also help organizations cap employee spending unto pre-specified limits. They also help organizations optimize benefits for employees. For example, if a large number of employees shop at a particular retail store, the organization can negotiate a group rate discount on purchases made by their employees, and the benefits can be passed on to all the stakeholders, via credit cards. The credit card company can also generate itemized records of spending by all the employees, which can ease the tracking of employee spending.

Business credit cards also help extend the cash flow of small businesses that have fixed billing cycles and payout timelines. You can pay out cash to suppliers, business associates, vendors etc via credit card instead of using you cash account, and use the credit card billing cycle to pay the money back, after you have been repaid.

Flexible credit limits offered by business credit cards help small businesses ward off significant spikes due to increase in input costs, expenses towards unseen events, etc.

Business credit cards have two types of credit limits:

The Author is the webmaster of http://www.smallbusiness-creditcard.com This website lists the most popular
business credit cards for you to compare and apply online.