Guaranteed Approval Credit Cards - What You Need To Know

There are lots of guaranteed approval credit cards online, but what you need to ask yourself before you even think of filling out an application is, how can they do this? A quick review of offers yielded very little in the way of information about terms and conditions, much less fees associated with applying for and being approved for the card.

If you are persistent and observant you will find this information however. For example the website http://www.creditcards.com/bad-credit.php lists a guaranteed approval credit card called First Premier Bank Gold MasterCard as their first choice for guaranteed approval credit cards. A very tiny hot link brings up the terms and conditions, which include the following fees: a $29 account setup fee, an $95 one-time program fee, a $48 annual fee, an $89 monthly servicing fee, a $25 each time your credit limit is increased (at their discretion, not yours, so theoretically you could get one of these fees every month if you pay your bill on time and they decide to ‘reward’ you with a higher limit), a $29 late payment fee, a $25 fee for delivery of your card, and a $7 fee for automatic payments taken from your bank account. So, before you even get the card in the mail, you’ve agreed to charges totaling $318, and that’s before you ever get or use the card.

That is the best guaranteed approval credit card listed there.

Most sites make this information very hard to find however, and instead push you to submit an application with all of your personal information, and your checking and savings account numbers and routing numbers. This means that before you ever get the card, you have most likely authorized the company to automatically deduct whatever exorbitant fees they charge directly from your bank account. And rest assured, they will do this immediately.

Nobody can guarantee approval of a credit card application unless they are packing the application itself with fees so horrendous they cover their losses should you be irresponsible with the card.

The fact is that almost all credit cards contain a clause in the account agreement giving the issuer to revoke the card without notice for any reason at any time. This means you can be approved for the card, pay your $300 or $400 or $500 in fees or whatever it is they charge you, and then within weeks of receiving the card they can revoke it, keep your money, and they will have fulfilled their end of the deal completely. You, however, will be out a large chunk of change, and you still won’t have a credit card.

Don’t apply for any card, ever, that does not disclose the terms right up front before you even see an application. Anything less than full disclosure is unacceptable. If you need to be assured you are guaranteed approval up front, you really are not ready for a credit card. It’s that simple.

One thing you could do instead though is write your congressperson and insist that this sort of practice be regulated into oblivion so that lenders of this sort (if you can call them lenders) cannot prey on persons who don’t understand the way credit works.

Ignore the application and send that letter to your congressperson instead. You can find his or her name and address at https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtmlv.