Have you totally messed up you credit? Did you lose your job or just get done with a messy and costly divorce? Did you have a huge medical emergency that put you into the figurative depths of the debt world? Or did you just not pay attention to your finances and now that you are finally becoming responsible you have realized that you have horrid credit? Well do not fret. Thanks to the credit card industry you can still get a credit cards with bad credit.

I want to help people that have bad credit because once upon a time I had very bad credit. The first time I checked my credit score it was like 520. I couldn't get credit cards and I certainly couldn't get loans. I couldn't even get cell phones or satelite television. I dug out of this hole and I did it primariliy because I found some bad credit credit cards that helped my to build back up my credit.

When you have bad credit, card companies don't want to take a risk on you. I tried and tried and tried some more to find a card but I got denied again and again. I finally started doing a ton of reading online to discover that what I really needed to do was get a secured card. The stuff that I read claimed that I would only have to get a credit card for bad credit once and my score would be raised enough to get a better card in the future.

This is one of the few areas of the lending world where there are several legit tools for people with bad credit. If your debt load is horrible and you can not qualify for a normal credit card you can get a secured credit card. With a secured credit card you send in money and then you can only spend that amount. What is the point? The point is that they still report to the credit bureaus so it appears as though you are fixing your credit and repaying the card.

Once I had used the secured card for like six months, I started getting credit card offers in the mail. I picked the best one and applied for it. Holy smokes I was approved and that led to me establishing a solid credit history.

When I got my secured card, I simply searched online for 'credit cards bad credit' and found a slew of offers. None of these cards provide the best deal ever. Interest rates aren't that great and you have to pay annual fees. You also have to put down a security deposit. However, looking back this was the smartest financial decision I've made.

Another thing that you can often do is to go to your bank and ask for a card with just a few hundred dollars on it.  Over time you can user it a lot and pay it off each month and build up a really good credit history.  They are only risking a few hundred bucks but they can get you as a customer for life so it is usually a good deal for everyone involved. 

The next thing you can do is to go and pay off a lot of your debt.  Pay off your defaulted debt and ask for forgiveness and see if they will write a letter to the credit bureaus.  You can also see if you can get a co-signer.  If you are able to get a cosigner you will be able to get a real credit card and get a good low interest rate as well. 

Why is a co-signer so good when getting a loan or credit cards for bad credit?  Well if someone if to cosign on your loan then the bank is assuming that you will not rip off you dad or your neighbor and therefore it is a safer loan.  The bank also is able to go after the cosigner, thereby giving the bank a second option of recourse if they have to come after you to get paid back.

Sometimes people that have no credit or bad credit still get offered credit cards if they enroll in school. This generally happens because kids that enroll in school are either getting money from parents or they are taking out student loans. Either way they have access to money and card companies can get a piece of that money by getting student to put things on their cards.

Enrolling in school will surprisingly start making card offers magically show up in the mail. Ok maybe it's not magic - card companies watch to see who is taking out loans and signing up for classes.

This is one of the few ways that you can find a credit card for people with bad credit that won't cost you a security deposit. If I had taken care of the first cards I got I never would have had to get the secured card in the first place.

The secured card I decided to use when I had bad credit was the Orchard Bank secured Mastercard. I had to give a $200 deposit and the agreement was I had to make on-time payments for a year before I got it back. I made my payments on-time and was given my money back. I still have that card today although I don't really use it anymore. I have much better cards now but it helps your credit to keep old credit lines open.

I honestly had a really hard time dealing with my bad credit, but I got over it. I had to read a lot and talk to a bunch of people before I fully understood what needed to be done to fix my credit situation. Honestly, looking back, it was pretty difficult. I'm glad I went through that though because I'm now a much stronger person.

The hardest part about having bad credit is that you can't take control of your finances. Let's say that you're a home owner stuck with a terrible interest rate on your home loan. You can't do a refinance mortgage loan because the bank thinks you're high risk. That kind of thing will make you crazy.

As a business owner, you can't get unsecured business loans because you're too high of a risk. You can't get a cell phone, again, because you're too high of a risk. You can't get satelite television because you're too high of a risk.

I finally decided to take control of my financial life and that meant fixing my credit score. I now have fantastic credit but it took almost 7 years to get there. Back in the day I couldn't get a $5000 loan, now I have credit cards that have $20000 limits. There's no way I ever could have gotten a $20000 loan, not even for a car. I've come a long way, but have a long way to go. At least now I'm focused on my finances and am going to make them better and better every day.

Once you have solid credit, you don't have to get junk loans anymore. You can take out low interest personal loans and other low interest loans.

Overall guys I would love to see you improve your credit. Get yourself a credit card with bad credit and improve the situation. Take care of business! Stop messing around with paying bills late. Commit to yourself to be a person that always pays your bills on time and you'll be a lot better off. Please take some steps today because honestly life gets a lot easier once you have taken care of business.