Below we have discussed about the steps of obtaining unsecured credit cards:

1. First, you will have to contact the credit card company of your choice. Ask any of their customer service representatives about the minimum credit rating you will need to have for obtaining the credit card. This will allow you to understand whether you’ll be eligible for obtaining a credit card from that company or not.
2. The next step should be buying the FICO scores. Any credit card company will pull the FICO scores of an individual applying for a credit card. You can compare your FICO score with the minimum credit rating requirement of the company in which you are applying for the card.
3. If you find that your credit score is not making you eligible for getting an unsecured card, you should take steps for increasing your credit rating. One way of doing that is by paying the balances on all your existing cards. Credit score can also be increased by settling the disputing errors in the credit report.
4. If your effort of boosting the credit score does not yield good enough result you can request a friend or a family member of yours for consigning with you. The consigner must possess a credit rating meeting or exceeding the guidelines of the credit card company.

Keeping my current limitations and needs in mind, I’ve been mulling over how to make it through the barrier and into the promised land of credit card rewards. I don’t want to spend any more than I have to, and if I were to be honest, I’d say that I don’t want to spend at all. So here then, are some solutions I’ve come up with that Lex Luthor and/or Wile. E. Coyote would be proud of, depending on your tastes in imaginary bad guys. Please laugh maniacally to yourself before proceeding.

Buying coins

I know, on paper this sounds pretty dumb. Why would anyone want to buy coins? But hear me out. You can buy $1 coins from the US Mint at face value, without even paying for shipping but you have to do so in quantities of 250 or 500. See where I’m going with this? I’m spending money and it will be reflected in my credit card, but I haven’t really spent any money. The US mint requests that you don’t deposit it in a bank, but they can’t (and don’t) police it, so that’s one option to get myself those juicy, tasty credit card rewards.

Pre-paid purchases

This one’s an easy one to figure out. It’s the end of the year, the festive season is upon us so go pick out some gift cards or just basically go wherever you like to spend money. Walmart or Sam’s Club are good places to go, if you ask me. You could also go to Amazon, but the basic idea is to go somewhere, just about anywhere so long as you make pre-paid purchases before the period of the credit card is up.

Make a donation

‘Tis the season to be jolly, so go ahead and make someone’s year. Make some charitable donations to whichever organization you’d like to. Now normally I’d make out a check, but because I want it to suit my purposes, I’ll be using my credit card for this one. What a brilliant idea! All I really have to do is to decide who to donate to and how to make these credit card donations before the end of this billing cycle. I don’t want to wait until the last minute and find out I’ll have to make it in the next cycle. That defeats the purpose of using the credit card, I’d rather make out a check in that case.

Read the fine print

Every card comes with tons of legal gobbledygook, make sure you read it through and through and clarify the stuff you don’t understand (because there’s always something in there someone doesn’t get), such as terms & conditions. Always ask for help when you’re in the dark.

Read through your monthly statement

Terms & conditions do keep on changing, if not on a monthly basis. Keep an eye on those due dates, add-on fees and any changes in interest rates you might not get. Check your statement online at any time if you want even greater control. Pay attention, it’s better than paying an unwanted fee.

Be heard

Customer service is a little more than lip service normally, but be heard every time you need something addressed. Discuss charges you don’t get with customer service and if you need something reduced or checked into, talk to customer service. They can be very helpful sometimes.

If it’s too good to be true, it probably is

Paranoia is healthy, be wary of that special offer you are being extended so enthusiastically. It’s not just special offers either, it’s special products like insurance or add-on cards or fraud protection that you need to protect against. Be on your guard, credit card companies never offer you something without their own benefit in mind.

Settle your bill in full, every time

Avoid the debt trap, pay your bill in full every single time. Credit cards are meant as a method of payment, not a method to live a lavish lifestyle. If you can afford, buy it. Don’t hyper-extend yourself unless you can avoid it, mountains of debt can be hard to get out of.

It’s not just an issue with awareness though, it’s an issue with behavioral patterns too. What you need to do is budget yourself and ensure you can pay in full every time because that is the one cardinal sin everyone commits. Avoid impulse spending and buy only what you can, not what you want. Your fat bank balance will be payment enough to satisfy you.

Get a Copy of Your Credit Report

Under current credit law, you are entitled to receive one copy of your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus (Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian) without any cost. Once you receive you rejection letter, find out which credit bureau provided information to the creditor.

Now, send a copy of your credit report and the rejection letter, along with a letter that mentions your personal details including name, address, Social Security, and so on, which makes it easier for the bureau to identify your account. Make sure you send these documents through certified mail that requires signature of the recipient on delivery (and you get the receipt). So, you will have a proof that the letter sent by you was received on the other hand.

Why Should I Check My Credit Report?

You must check your credit report for errors once every quarter. As pert the data released by United States Public Interest Research Group, around 80% of such reports have errors, and 25% among them are very grave causing credit card application denial. In case you find any error in your report, contact the respective bureau, in writing and ask them to fix the errors.

Ask The Credit Provider for Further Clarification

Many credit providers simply reject your application (literally without any reason), inform you about the source of credit data used by them (which they haven’t). If you find out, after you get a copy of your report, you score is completely okay, with good score and without any error, you must find more about the reason for rejection of your credit card application (and you have legal rights to do so). Under Section 615(b) of Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, you can write to the creditor asking specific reasons for such rejection.

If There’s an Error in Your Credit Report

If there are few errors in your report that needs to be fixed, get it corrected by the credit bureau, and send the corrected version to the credit provider. Send a letter along with the corrected version mentioning the issues (that are now fixed). However, this doesn’t guarantee that the issuer would change its decision.

In my case, I am depended on business credit cards to a large extent. I own several business websites, and most of the transactions involve online payment. Hence, I am left with very few payment options: credit card, debit card, business checks, and PayPal account.

Among these options, a business card is an obvious choice because it provides better protection as compared to other payment options. These cards also offers rewards and cash back benefits, which most debits cards don’t. Hence, along with making business payments, I save few bucks on every transaction.

Did You Know?: You can apply for a business credit card, even if you don’t own a small business. In fact, any one (American Citizen) can apply for this card using his/her Social Security Number. Why should you get one? Because it offers some benefits that other cards don’t.

Benefits

For business owners, though it’s not a must, having a card can help considerably. Here are some benefits of using a business credit card:

Differentiating between Business and Personal Expenses

This is one of the most important benefits you can have as a business owner by owning this card. Differentiating business from personal expenses becomes quite easier when you have separate card for both purposes.

Higher Credit Limit

Most business credit cards have limits higher than personal credit cards. This can be extremely important for start-ups, as it can serve as a temporary source of finance. Besides, not all vendors would accept payment through PayPal or other such accounts.

Rewards

Most business credit card offer rewards and cash back benefits. Hence, ever time you transact, you can receive cash, discount on air fares, restaurant bills, office supplies, and so on.

Automated Payments

For recurring expenses, you can easily set up automated payments on your business credit card. It is possible to do it with your checking account as well, but not all companies would accept payment from a personal account.

These benefits can be availed even if you don’t own a business. So, it’s better to go for a business credit card than a simple, usual card with limited benefits.

Standard Cards

This type of card can be extensively found in USA. If you own this credit card, you can make a purchase, and keep repaying for the item by making monthly minimum payments. If you repay the entire balance, or a part of it, you can use it for further purchase. Some of major providers of standard card in USA are MasterCard, Chase, American Express, and Discover.

Charge Cards

Unlike Standard Credit Cards, you have to repay the whole balance on the month preceding purchase, if you have a charge credit card. You cannot pay it in installments or monthly payments. One of the biggest advantages of using this card is you are not charged with any financial charges.

Limited Purpose Credit Card

The name says it all. These cards have limited use. Some kind of cards are used only at gas stations, while there are other cards which cannot be used anywhere except grocery stores.

Premium Cards

Apart from providing credit, some cards offer additional benefits to people with big pockets. These are one of the most luxurious types of credit cards in USA. Some of the benefits it offers are cash back facility, airline miles, reward points, discounts, and so on. This card is not available to everyone. Only the ones with high credit score can apply for Premium Cards. They have high credit balances.

Affinity Cards

This is one of the very uncommon types of credit cards in USA. An affinity card is given to people associated to specific company, organization, or a cause. Some amount of purchases made through these cards goes to the related organization, company, or the cause.

There are several types of credit cards in USA like Prepaid Cards, Secured Cards, Co-Branded Cards, Smart Cards, and so on. They are, however, not as poular as the above ones.

If you are amongst such people, let me tell you, if you go to a credit card debt settlement company, you would have to disclose every possible detail. Until then, they wouldn’t be able to derive a proper plan for you. However, if you still don’t feel safe or comfortable talking to them, here are few things you can do to keep reduce your debts, without having to contact such debt settlement company.

1.    Introductory Rate is a Temporary Luxury

No credit card company would provide you a card with 0% APR for lifetime. All such lucrative rates you see on TV commercials or posters are for limited period, usually for 6 months or a year. As soon as the introductory period ends, the APR increases radically. Even if you transfer your high interest balance to a lower one, make sure you repay the amount before such introductory period ends.

2.    Make Sure You Know What’s Written in Fine Print

Whenever you fill-up an application form or receive a welcome kit, either at the bottom, or behind the main information page, there would be some conditions mentioned in fine print. The reason why they use such diminutive fonts is they don’t want you to read any information mentioned there. It would have something like “You interest rate would be increased to x% if you don’t make payments on time” or other such things that are generally unacceptable by the consumer.

3.    Know What Factors Affects Your Score

Just being aware about what are the factors that affects your credit score would help you to maintain it. Did you know that every time a creditor (when you inquire about a loan) calls up the bureau, you lose 3 points from your score?

Even if you don’t seek help from credit card debt settlement companies, you can reduce your debt and improve your score by doing the above things.

Recently, we have heard economists being a lot optimistic about the economy and the job market. While there is no equipment for a common man to measure the GDP, one can quickly say, just by looking around, the employment rate is certainly not growing, not even gradually.

Many lost their jobs and many experienced a sharp cut in their income. They, however, had one thing in common. They didn’t have much saving and relied heavily on credit cards. And gradually, the minimum payment exceeded their income. Hence, we now see lots of people opting for debt management and debt consolidation plans.

Today, however, I would ask you to disregard all those methods and have a look at some very practical things you can do to eliminate credit card debt.

Is it possible to reduce the interest rates?

If holding the line for a few minutes doesn’t annoy you, call up your card provider and negotiate lower interest rates. Initially, like every company, they wouldn’t agree to it. However, if they are quite adamant about it, inform them that you’re quite unhappy with their service and you would switch to another card after paying this off. But it’s important to have competitor’s information with you while you talk to them. If they still don’t agree, threaten you will close the account. You are very likely to get a lowered interest rate by the end of this conversation.

Purge other expenses

Debt is definitely expensive than your entertainment. By this I mean, eliminate all other expenses to save and reduce your debts. Determine how much you need for your basic requirements, purge all other expenses for few months, and repay your debts completely. It’s not difficult one you start doing it.

Is it possible to generate an additional source of income?

Once you have reduced your monthly expenses, find new ways to earn money. Initially, one can start an online or other home based business. Actually, there are many other ways to generate a secondary. It just needs dedication and commitment. Money generated through this source can be used to repay your debts.

Transfer the balance to other credit card

It may not help you to eliminate your huge debt. It may, however, help you to avoid sinking deeper into the debts. Interest is an essential part of any credit card debt, and if you can successfully manage to reduce the rate, you can save considerable amount.

You definitely have many other expert opinions on how to reduce your credit cards debts. If you haven’t come across any, you can find millions online. But these tips would provide an added advantage. Get rid of your debts. Learn to tame that monster.

Along with repaying all the debts quickly, debt consolidation services also help an individual to get rid of irritating calls by creditors. However, before you avail such services, it’s important to know few things about debt consolidation service and loans offered by them.

By availing debt consolidation services, all your debts are covered under one loan, which provides you the benefit of making a single payment instead of many. When you contact a debt consolidation company, they usually conduct a debt counseling session to understand your financial condition and your repayment ability. Next, all your credit cards debts are repaid by credit card debt consolidation loans. You then have to repay this single loan, which is usually at a very lower interest rate.

This service is coupled with regular debt counseling sessions that help you to get your finances back on track and correct your credit score. Fees charged by them are quite lower. However, it is quite essential to conduct a self-research before choosing any debt consolidation company.

A good debt consolidation company provides various benefits like tailor-made repayment plans, monthly budget, credit rating improvement methods, lower fees, expert counseling, etc. They ensure you repay all your debts on time and assist you to lead debt-free life.

However, if you don’t conduct a proper research and select a fraudulent company, you will get deeper into the debt hole. Due to the increase in demand of such services, many deceptive debt management companies have emerged lately. These companies focus on making money, instead of helping you. Hence, it’s important to do your homework before going for it.

You can start by making a list of popular, reputed companies that offer credit card debt consolidation loans. Contact all of them and provide your details. Most of these companies offer free debt management counseling. Although every company will divulge a rosy picture to allure, you will immediately be able to differentiate between a genuine and a fake one. Select any of the genuine ones and get started immediately.

It’s true that credit card debt consolidation loans will help you to get rid of your debt faster than you could actually have without them. However, it still takes time. Hence, it’s quite crucial to be patient and persistent while paying your monthly amount.