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Guaranteed Approval Credit Cards - What You Need
To Know
There are lots of
guaranteed approval credit cards online, but what you need to
ask yourself before you even think of filling out an application is,
how can they do this? A quick review of offers yielded very little
in the way of information about terms and conditions, much less fees
associated with applying for and being approved for the card.
If you are persistent and observant you will find this
information however. For example the website
http://www.creditcards.com/bad-credit.php lists a guaranteed
approval credit card called First Premier Bank Gold MasterCard as
their first choice for guaranteed approval credit cards. A very tiny
hot link brings up the terms and conditions, which include the
following fees: a $29 account setup fee, an $95 one-time program
fee, a $48 annual fee, an $89 monthly servicing fee, a $25 each time
your credit limit is increased (at their discretion, not yours, so
theoretically you could get one of these fees every month if you pay
your bill on time and they decide to ‘reward’ you with a higher
limit), a $29 late payment fee, a $25 fee for delivery of your card,
and a $7 fee for automatic payments taken from your bank account.
So, before you even get the card in the mail, you’ve agreed to
charges totaling $318, and that’s before you ever get or use the
card.
That is the best guaranteed approval credit card listed there.
Most sites make this information very hard to find however, and
instead push you to submit an application with all of your personal
information, and your checking and savings account numbers and
routing numbers. This means that before you ever get the card, you
have most likely authorized the company to automatically deduct
whatever exorbitant fees they charge directly from your bank
account. And rest assured, they will do this immediately.
Nobody can guarantee approval of a credit card application unless
they are packing the application itself with fees so horrendous they
cover their losses should you be irresponsible with the card.
The fact is that almost all credit cards contain a clause in the
account agreement giving the issuer to revoke the card without
notice for any reason at any time. This means you can be approved
for the card, pay your $300 or $400 or $500 in fees or whatever it
is they charge you, and then within weeks of receiving the card they
can revoke it, keep your money, and they will have fulfilled their
end of the deal completely. You, however, will be out a large chunk
of change, and you still won’t have a credit card.
Don’t apply for any card, ever, that does not disclose the terms
right up front before you even see an application. Anything less
than full disclosure is unacceptable. If you need to be assured you
are guaranteed approval up front, you really are not ready for a
credit card. It’s that simple.
One thing you could do instead though is write your
congressperson and insist that this sort of practice be regulated
into oblivion so that lenders of this sort (if you can call them
lenders) cannot prey on persons who don’t understand the way credit
works.
Ignore the application and send that letter to your
congressperson instead. You can find his or her name and address at
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtmlv.
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