Secured credit cards are great for repairing credit and establishing credit history but you have to keep several things in mind when selecting a secured card.
Basically a secured credit card holds a deposited amount that is equal or a large part of your credit limit. These are great products if you can get a good one but in the past several years secured cards have gotten to look similar to subprime credit cards. You can also get the information about ‘credit without’ income ( also known as ‘Kredit ohne Schufa’ in German language).
Another surprising trend is that some secured credit cards are no longer paying for the customers interest rates, and many are charging higher interest rates and are levying more fees.
If you want to be a savvy secured credit card shopper here are several things that you have to look out for to ensure that you get the best card for your financial circumstance.
Make sure they report your account to the credit bureaus. The main objective of opening a secured card is to establish some sort of credit history, or to help your credit score. Unfortunately some credit issuers don’t report good behavior to the credit bureaus.
Make sure that you ask the credit issuers whether they report your activity to the credit bureaus; you will run into credit issuing companies those only report late or missed payments but don’t report activity when you’ve made your payments on time therefore the card will not build a good credit record for you.
Make sure you get a secured credit card and not a pre-paid debit card that advertises itself as a secured credit card.
Find out if the card has a credit line. Upon approval some secured credit cards will give you a small credit line based on your deposit. For example if you have a $500 deposit, they will give you a small credit line of $250 for a total of $750 to draw upon.