Secured Credit Card Marketing Scams

Have you seen secured credit card ads online, in the newspaper or on television? The ones that say no credit or bad credit o.k.? Watch out for those types of credit cards. They are led to make you believe that you can re-establish your credit history, or build your credit up. A secured credit card requires you to open a savings account and maintain it as security for your credit line. The secured credit card company requires that your savings account deposit be between one hundred dollars or up into thousands of dollars. Your credit line is usually based on a 50 to 100 percent of that amount. You may also have to pay application and processing fees just to get the card. Make sure before you apply for a secured credit card, ask for the total amount of fees, and make sure that they will be refunded if you are denied the card. Other secured credit card scams are a 900 number service instead of a toll free 800 number. You will be billed for any calls made to this 900 customer service number. Steer clear of any and all of these types of cards. Read the fine print

and ask questions. If they are reluctant to answer your questions then you should not get a credit card with them. Most secured credit card scams fail to include that they have a 900 customer service phone number, a required security deposit, application and processing fees, and certain requirements just to get the card. Most annual fees for a secured credit cards are much higher than the normal interest on any other type of card. To avoid being scammed on a secured credit card always look for these phrases in their advertisements. Offers easy credit, no one is turned down, a 900 number, or clean up your credit history for free. Most likely these are all scams and should be avoided.