There are many sources where you can file a first time credit card application. These include banks, credit companies and other agencies. The Internet is the easiest way to locate your preferred credit card company.
When applying for a credit card, most companies need information such as name, age, address, social security number, any former address of yours, occupation, employer, and annual household income. These details are adequate for the credit company to verify your credit history, which is the major criterion for approval or rejection. Annual percentage rate (APR) often varies with your credit score. That is, a high score will get you a low APR.
Most first credit card application forms contain certain clauses written in fine print. Company salesmen are often outspoken about the advantages of their transactions. But these fine prints often carry conditions that are disadvantageous to you. One important thing to check is the APR. Most credit companies tempt you with a low initial APR score. Remember that it is the long term APR you should weigh most, not the short term.
A US citizen who is 18 years of age or older (the limit is lower in some states) has the legal right to demand a credit card with any US bank. Generally, credit card providers do not want a bank account to get a card. It is also possible to request many credit cards at a time. But multiple applications can affect the credit score negatively.
With great competition existing in the credit card market, most credit card providers look for an easy means to attract new businesses. They provide special gifts on many occasions such as Christmas and holiday shopping seasons.
Don’t let them fool you. All those solicitations you receive in the mail for credit card applications are meant to reel you in and hook you. Big time. In addition, new bankruptcy laws in the US and higher monthly minimum payment requirements are in place to help stem defaults on loans and to force consumers to pay down debt quicker. All of this sounds great, but credit card companies want to keep you in debt as long as possible. Please read on for all the stimulating details.
If you have had problems in the past paying down debt, do not think for a moment that you will have it any easier in the future. Thanks to legislation introduced by Congress and signed by the president earlier in 2005, filing for bankruptcy to escape debt has become more difficult. Much more so. In addition, credit card companies have raised your monthly minimum payment levels, in some cases doubling the minimum amount you must pay. Consider this last step a side issue related to the new bankruptcy legislation; the credit card companies are not legally obligated to raise minimums but they were pressured into doing so in exchange for passage of the new bankruptcy law.
Do not even think for a moment that credit card companies want you to get out of debt.
For starters, credit card rates have been rising steadily for over two years. As the prime rate goes up, your credit card interest rate goes up. Unless, of course, you have a fixed rate and you have been paying your bills on time. However, one late payment and, uh oh, you are in big trouble.
If you are late making a payment, even just once, you will likely be hit with a one time late fee charge of $29 or $39. In addition, that “sweet rate” you negotiated last year may automatically disappear. Zero percent financing can quickly turn into an 18.9% interest rate in no time and enforced retroactively too. Even “lower rate” cards with annual percentage rates of 10%, 12%, or more, can suddenly reflect rates of 24.9%, 29%, 35%, or even higher!
This is all perfectly legal too!
Read your credit card disclosure agreement – as if anyone even bothers to do so – for all the boring details. Exceptions and rules are the name of the game; there is a trap laying wide open for you to step on.
The next area of socking it to you is an old one: annual fees. Yes, they are back; for years, credit card companies — in order to remain competitive — waived annual fees. Originally, it was one small way for them to extract some cash from you: you paid them something every year even if you paid off your card monthly.
If you are like me, the whole concept of charging someone to access credit is absurd. Companies make a mint off of high interest rates as it is; throwing another fee on top of things is both apparent and transparent! Now, annual fees are back. Oh, sure, credit card companies must notify you in writing of these changes before they are put in place, but they certainly hope you won’t cancel your account in response to the “new” fee or that you will forget the notice completely and simply pay the fee. Do they think that we are stupid? I believe so!
There are two other areas where credit card companies attempt to pull a fast one on consumers: your payment due date and payment mailing address.
Your payment due date, which may have been “static” for years, could suddenly have been moved up. This means that if you are used to paying off your Visa card on the 24th of the month, it may suddenly have been moved to the 16th the following month. Without notifying you of the change either!
The address where you send your money may have changed too. Is this a big deal? It certainly is if you mail your payments in. Let’s say that you live in New Jersey and your XYZ Bank card payment goes to a South Hackensack post office. If you mail your payment in five days before the due date, you probably allowed enough time for your payment to get to the bank. Warning: Watch out that their payment address hasn’t suddenly been moved to Ohio. Your next payment will likely end up being late.
Oh, so you pay online? Don’t think that the bank credits your money immediately either. I have seen it take five days for money to electronically leave my checking account and be wired to another bank’s account. The post office moves a live check faster than that!
A moved payment due date and a changed payment address are designed to make your payments late so that the credit card company can charge you a late fee and raise your rates.
This is perfectly legal as well. Is it ethical? Hey, we’re talking about the financial services industry. What else do you expect?
Financial institutions make money off of consumers through interest rates and fee services. Please do not think for a moment that any credit card company has your best interests at heart. They don’t; they are in business to please their shareholders. Get informed and take action when one of these “perfectly legal” practices is pulled on you. You can get fees canceled and have your credit card rate lowered if you complain; back it all up in writing in order to preserve your rights.
A savvy consumer is an informed consumer; learn what tricks credit card companies use and fight back. Annually order free credit reports from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax to make sure that unfavorable reports from creditors have not been unfairly tagged to your record. Visit the Federal Trade Commission’s site at [http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm] for the best way to obtain credit reports.
Credit card application processing refers to data capturing, checking and verification. Reviewing and processing of a paper-based credit card application normally takes less than one week. But an online application is processed in less than two minutes. Once sanctioned, it normally takes a week to 10 days to obtain your credit card. It is important to note that there are application processing fees.
A credit card application processing system is tailored to meet the needs of your application processing requirements. There are manual and automated application processing systems. Many banks and financial agencies use manual solutions for handling the application, billing, payment and other functions. But the manual processing has some disadvantages such as extended application turnaround time, nonsystematic means of credit decisions, and inconsistent credit limit.
Automated systems are designed to automate the basic application processing and sanction process for the credit card business. Several software packages are available for automated processing services. Their common characteristics of automated processing include handling of paper-based or web-based applications, data capture and validation, exporting of data onto credit scoring platforms, archiving and storage of applications, safe online review and approval processes, and a mailroom facility for accepting, de-enveloping and sorting applications.
Credit card applications are available on the Internet. Many sales executives also provide them. Filling out an application is not a difficult task. You just need to complete several fields for which you already know the details such as name, address, annual income, occupation, etc. If you fill out all the required information, then there is no chance of rejecting the application by the issuer.
The credit rating is the most significant part of the application processing. A credit rating is maintained by the credit card bureaus, and it depends on the information received from various credit issuers over a period of time. A bad rating results in the rejection of the credit card application.
With the credit card industry developing at such unprecedented rate, more and more people are experiencing the so-called credit card hype. In fact, in the U.S. alone, the average household gets to receive at least two credit card applications in a day.
What happens next is that consumers have the propensity to get into information overload, and so, they do not have any time to meticulously scrutinize each application that they receive.
Moreover, because of having too many credit card application forms thriving on the mailboxes every single day, they find it hard to make clear choices. In fact, according to some surveys, 75% of credit card users admit that they do not read the fine print at all.
That is why when the information technology had taken its fair share in the industry, things were definitely better. This is because the credit card industry, along with the consumers, is so overwhelmed with the fact that everything can come on an instant using the Internet.
For this reason, the online credit approval programs of most credit card companies seem to be the most practical technique that was ever created. Many people find it feasible to use online credit card approvals than to exert extra effort to personally apply for credit, only to find out that they will be rejected in the end.
The Concept behind the Screen
Online credit approvals works the same way as the typical application forms. The only difference is that these things are not hard copies.
However, one of the best things about this program is that it lets the consumers have the time to analyze the credit card offers and see if it will work for them.
Basically, there is nothing special about online credit card approval. The interested person just have to supply the necessary information on the online application form, wait for a few minutes (usually within 60 seconds), and, when approved, the consumer just have to wait for his or her card.
But the best thing about it is that the bank can instantly check on a particular person’s identity and credit score. If ever the score meets the requirement, instant approval will be provided and the credit card will be processed as soon as possible.
So for those who wish to know the advantages of having an online credit card approval, here is a list of some possible benefits that they can get from this program:
1. No messy applications
With online credit card approval, people can almost be sure of a safe and smooth transaction. There are no too many papers to trash or too many brochures to pile. Everything is done in just a few minutes and the status is instantly known if the application was approved or not.
2. Instant verification and comparison
There is no better way to get the best deal from a credit card but to have it compared to the others. In this way, the interested person can see the difference among credit cards, which gives him the ability to identify the best credit card deal.
3. Numerous benefits from the issuing bank
With this program, consumers can easily tap the available exclusive benefits provided for online applicants. There are instances wherein the banks will instantly give their new credit card users some amount from the credit line that they have provided.
These are just a few of the many benefits that consumers can get with online credit card approval. It is the best thing the credit card industry could ever have.
Indeed, with online credit card approval, there is nothing in the world that money would not have a value for it. Online credit card approval simply makes great things possible.
I can still remember seven years ago when I applied for an American Express card online. It took more than one month for me to get approved. Nowadays it’s a lot different. With instant approval, you usually receive notice via email of your acceptance within seconds of completing an online card application. If you have a good to excellent credit record you can even get an easy approval credit card with guaranteed 10,000 limit or an easy instant approval student card, but what happens if have a bad credit score? Are you doomed to pay all your purchases in cash? Certainly not so don’t despair.
The first alternative for people with bad credit score is to get a “secure card.” There are some major card issuers which requires applicants to make a deposit or what we call “secure cards.” If you have a bad paying history, the most logical thing to do is save a little money to be used later on to “pre pay” a card. A secure card is a no credit card because the amount you can charge against the card is determined by the amount of your deposit. If you deposit, for example, $5,000, then you can charge up to $5,000 only. Hence, there is no actual “credit” being extended. Typically, these cards are marketed as no credit credit cards because of the fast, easy instant card approval.
The second alternative is to search for a “bad credit credit plastic” and find an easy approval unsecured credit, but they should try to resolve their bad credit issues and prevent further damage to their credit score.
While there are plenty of bad credit credit plastic choices available, they can do more harm than good if not used wisely. This is one way for a consumer to repair his damaged reputation by making up to date payments on his bad card and eventually upgrading to the real credit card in the future. And also a bad card charges a higher interest rate because of the increased risk to the issuer.
The third option is to apply for a debit card. Debit cards are cards that can be used depending on how much money the user transfers to the specific card. Consequently, the risk of running up credit card debt is nil. There are also no finance charges to contend with, only minimal fees for application, start-up and ATM card.
Credit cards for bad credit score were designed to rebuild credit that had been damaged. For those with no credit or poor credit there are secured credit cards, bad credit credit cards and debit cards but there are also unsecured cards that can be used for this purpose. These cards generally come with low credit lines (around $300) and additional fees. This kind of card will not allow you to on shopping sprees but it will certainly help you restore your damaged credit history. If you’re disciplined and pay all your bills on time you can ask for a credit increase after a while with an end goal of upgrading to an easy approval credit card with guaranteed 10,000 limit. Isn’t that wonderful? But in the meantime let’s concern ourselves with finding easy approval credit card applications with bad credit score.