Bad Credit Card
 

The Continental Finance MasterCard is unbelievable.

And at their discretion, they raise your limit... This is really sad.

This is how big the fine print really should be.

They bump you $100 at a time, zapping $25 a pop, up to a max of $2000, from which they've extracted $500 off the top!

So, does anybody actually have this card? :whofart:

Or is it some sort of intelligence test (if you apply, you fail ...) ...

Those go out preapproved almost immediately upon discharge of a bankruptcy. Sometimes they just do random zipcode drops. yes people take them to reestablish a revolving credit line. it sucks but it is what it is.

Money costs more if you're financially desperate.

No one is forced, gun to head, to take on loans like this. I've been financially desperate; been chronically hungry with $80 to cover living expenses for three months; there are still choices. One of them is not to borrow money on terrible terms when you know you have no hope of repaying it. I hope people coming out of bankruptcy would get some financial counseling to help them avoid stuff like this.

most of them don't. usually the same day they will get preapproved cards with $500 limits from capital one, juniper, and providian. believe it are not, the best thing they can do is take them, bite the bullet on the terms, use them, and pay them off each time.

it is easy to get back to a 700 credit score within 18 months of a bankruptcy with the right stategy.

1. Take crappy credit cards (preferably from 4 diffferent companies)
2. make 3 months payments. go to select department stores and get their cards (all you need is to show a current card with visa or mastercard)
3. use each of these every month for something small, pay it off when the bill arrives.
4. after one year either lease or purchase a new (reasonably priced) car from dealership. Has to be new so that you get the advertised pricing tiers. If you refuse to buy new, just take a small loan from your bank or credit union on your current vehicle. make payments for at least one year before paying it off.
5. either open HELOC (and keep balance below 40%) or refi mortgage and pay for one year.
6. pull credit report. You should be hovering around 700.
7. keep pulling your report every 6 months or so for 5-7 years because some of your creditors probably sold the paper before you filed bankruptcy and the new creditors will occasionally pop up as delinquent until you file dispute and they will be removed.

That's the point orthodoc: in order to rebuild their credit rating (and lets face it it's difficult to live in the west without using credit) they have to use those cards. That's how they're sold to them.

The credit card company is taking a risk, loaning money to somebody with bad credit, aren't they?

Credit card companies don't care about the risk. They make enough back it's worth it. Credit card companies are the debil, and prey on people who ARE financially desperate. Kudos to you, orthodoc, for being smarter than most, but I don't think we should FULLY fling poo on those who have been caught up in the mess.

But they are taking a risk. Let's just acknowledge that. They give you money, on the hope that they'll get it back someday.

I didn't say they weren't taking a risk. I said they don't care; the benefits far outweigh the risks, for them, or they wouldn't inundate those folks with these "valuable credit accessories."

But surely you would agree that someone who just declared bankruptcy shouldn't be given a card with a good rate and a high limit, right?

So should those people not be given any chance to rehabilitate their credit? I'll agree that their marketing strategies are incredibly unethical, especially to young people who haven't declared bankruptcy yet. But at the same time, some people who have fallen on hard times would really appreciate the chance to rebuild their credit via some sort of plan like lookout's, even if it's on unpleasant terms. And it can't be on pleasant terms, because a lot of people who have fallen on hard times of their own making would really appreciate the chance to spend several thousand more dollars they'll never pay back.

Agreed, but with a $100 limit and a reasonable fee, rather than $300 and charge $250 in fees, would work. I think they are predatory.