One Of my Goals Achieved

One of my goals post Bankruptucy was to get a credit card again. Yes I know some of you are gasping in horror~ a credit card?! But yes, one way to help kick up that FICO score is to get a credit card.

Before I even knew I had my discharge, I was getting "pre-approved" credit card offers for people with challenged credit. Most all of these offers were, to say the least, more than a bit ridiculous with their fees-application fee, yearly fee, monthly fee, credit review fee, to say the least. To top it off, you would be "offered" a credit amount of $500, of which over $250 would be "fees" payable to this particular bank. Needless to say, did not jump at the offers. I read the fine print, laughed and then shredded the "applications".

One of my personal goals was to get a credit card that was not a secured credit card or one with these outrageous fees. It's been 10 months since I had to get my new to me car, almost a year since my discharge and I've been paying the car note early and an extra $10 a month to boot. I did some web surfing on Bankrate.com and narrowed my choices down to two banks for people with "challenged credit". I ultimately ended up choosing one bank over another (and no it's not Capitol One, the bank everyone loves to hate) because of the card design. Well, that was part of it, the other part was the interest rate, the credit limit, you know, the fine print,those things you should read before signing on the dotted line. I did do my homework and research on that aspect. But yes the card design choice was the kicker. It tipped the bank in my favor. :)

I am now the proud (yes proud) recipient of a credit card with a $500 limit and a yearly fee of $39 with an annual interest rate of 14.9 %. I feel like I have come full circle. I remember my very first credit card had a limit of $500. That was a long time ago, a very long time ago.

I guess the point of this post is that even in these tough economic times, with a discharged bankruptcy, you can qualify for consumer credit again. You have to be good, pay your bills on time, not go into collections on any account, and keep trying.

Don't kid yourselves, it's not like I'm going or went out and splurged with that new found credit card. Here is what I bought, $35 worth of special dog food for a finicky dog and $29 on a bottle of whiskey to make hot toddy's to help fight this cold. I also signed up for instant bill paying and paid $75 to the account today (forgetting that I had an annual fee, I'll make another payment tomorrow).