There are a lot of credit cards out there and each them has their own limits, policies, rewards and offers. Some are better than others but have you ever encountered a credit card that totally stunk? I have. When I was new to credit and didn't know any better, I got a card from Credit One. Not Capital One, Credit One. They are a bank in Las Vegas that only deals with credit cards, no other banking services. The annual fee for this card is a whopping $75 and they take it right out the first week that you get the card, so you're actually starting out with $225 in credit, not $300. They charge a transaction fee just for paying your bill, which no other card does. They also take 10 days to post your payment so that you will certainly have a late fee. This card blows and doesn't have a rewards program. It is a total joke and I closed it without even waiting a year because I couldn't wait to wash my hands of that shady little company. Have you guys come across any crappy credit cards?
The worst credit card I had was a Capitol One card. It was several years ago during my rebuilding stage. I don't remember the exact terms, but I do remember that I paid an outrageous APR and annual fee. It left a bad taste in my mouth for Capitol One. I cringe when I see or hear one of their TV commercials.
The worst card I had was a Canadian Tire Mastercard. I had only one complaint with it and that was the short bill date to payment date. I was frequently having to call them and tell them that my bill arrived on or after it was due. Eventually I got fed up and didn't activate the new card when it arrived. This was in the day before internet payments were an option and was one of the original non air miles rewards cars which is why I was interested but if it takes a week to mail me the bill and you allow only 10 days to pay it - well, the late payments are your fault.
Wow, it is so scummy to give 10 days to pay a bill that takes a week to mail. But the internet hasn't fixed that problem when it comes to Credit One. They offer online payments and they STILL take 10 days to credit your online payment so that you'll definitely owe a late fee unless you cover yourself by paying two or three weeks in advance. I'm so glad to be rid of that ghetto, janky ,worthless card.
First Premier Bank is listed as one of those "second chance to re-build credit" places but there are a lot of steps involved. Even if they contact you first with a "pre-approval", they will deduct fees but if they are paid within a certain amount of time, the fees are reimbursed. Then there are late fees. Unless you mail payment the minute you receive a statement, there will be late fees. Even paying off the balance is sheer hell. Wells Fargo is bad because if you've had a strong payment history prior to the recession, they speak to you really bad. Even if you try to work out something so that you don't starve, they want your grocery money too!
Oh geez, I had one of those cards as well when I was younger. I had racked up a lot of bills while I was in school, and at one point I paid them all off (with a loan from my folks) and closed all my cards. But for about a year or two afterwards I had a tough time getting any decent cards, so I got one of these just for an emergency. I didn't even keep it a year, and closed it down because before the year was up I had a better card from another bank. Honestly, these cards are a waste of time, you could simply have stashed that $80 plus whatever you would be paying in interest on the card using it for a year, and built up an emergency $300 stash yourself. All those are doing are putting you $80 more dollars in the hole.
I don't use credit cards, but I can tell you about a debit card I once used and it was crazy stupid. I used to have a rush card and it has it's perks, but they charge you a dollar for every transaction you make. That is crazy; so for example, If you make 10 transactions, that's 10 dollars gone from your card additional. They want you to upgrade to the premier service where you just pay a 10 dollar a month service fee. I only used this card to transport funds!
I was tricked by advertising cute women to make a debit card in my first year of college and I've never heard from them again, nor have I ever used any of their services. Which is kind of weird, hope there aren't any annual fees or so. That would really suck, but for them actually, they never announced anything so its not my fault.
That's crazy. Have you tried the Walmart Bluebird card? It's supposed to have very low fees and a lot of free features. It's kind of like a second chance checking account.
