Archive for April, 2011
Credit cards for bad credit are one of the best methods available to overcome your financial black marks. Having a poor score for whatever reasons can be a serious problem for individuals trying to re-gain financial stability and secure loans for mortgages or other long term financial investments. Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK suffer from negative credit ratings with 6% of the population having to make rent or mortgage payments using these cards in 2010 alone. The average UK adult has over 30 thousand pounds of unpaid debt and more than four million people missed a monthly card payment in 2010. With such dramatic figures it is not surprising that more than 10% of the adult UK population has some form of bad credit rating in their financial history. The good news is that there are credit cards for that are specifically designed to help those with poor credit ratings get back financial stability.
A poor credit history is likely to prevent individuals from getting most unsecured loans, credit cards and also will often prevent an individual from successfully applying for a mortgage. Due to the recession increasing the cost of living, prepay cards for bad credit are becoming increasingly prevalent as a means to repair ratings as they offer a number of advantages in building credit history.
Credit cards for poor scores are the best way to repair credit ratings, provided you keep up with the payments, as they show that individuals have regained control of their finances and are exercising good financial monitoring on a regular basis. There are of course downsides to using cards for bad credit which will become apparent as we discuss the pros and cons of these cards.
The advantages of credit cards for bad credit
The key advantage of cards that aim to improve your rating is that you can show a financial stability history to future creditors. This allows you to slowly improve your reputation over the course of months, or years, if you have a particularly bad credit rating to begin with. Gaining a good repayment reputation will encourage creditors to trust you with in the future and therefore you are much more likely to receive mortgages and other unsecured loans.
Other advantages of cards aimed at those with poor credit history are that they are essentially the same as those for normal cards. You get the freedom to make payments immediately for purchases and bills, and get to spend money you otherwise wouldn’t have. In this respect cards for bad credit work in much the same way to normal credit cards.
The disadvantages of credit cards for poor credit history
Cards for poor credit obviously come with severe disadvantages as the companies providing them must secure debt against the risks of non-payment that bad credit entails. For this reason cards for lower scoring citizens will typically have a very high APR (Annual Percentage Rate). The average rate is typically over 20% so if for any reason you fail to make a payment you need to be prepared for a large additional fee. The other disadvantages are that you typically do not receive any of the benefits that other cards offer which takes away some of the advantages of having a credit card.
So should I use credit cards for bad credit?
Cards for bad credit are one of the easiest ways to absolve yourself of bad credit so should consider applying for one if you are secure in your current finances and will predominantly be using it as a means to improve your credit rating; rather than as a means to support yourself or cover unpaid bills.
It may be a shock for you to hear this but there are almost 60 million American people who are not in the position to get credit. And this is why there is a tremendous need for prepaid credit cards.
Shocking no doubt, but also very true
This large number of Americans who do not meet the qualifying criteria to avail of credit mainly consists of the people who are young as well as members of minority groups and unbanked people. These people are almost always faced with one big dilemma – how do they build their credit score if nobody wants to give them the opportunity?
But, there is a solution that is offered to this and it comes from the very same companies that do not offer the people.
The solution lies in the form of prepaid credit cards
There are a huge variety of these prepaid cards that are available. These have been designed so that they can be used as per the needs of various market segments.
These cards are of real great value as they have been made just to meet the needs of those people who fail to meet the qualifying criteria for getting a regular card. Or in other cases, people who have once been eligible for applying for credit cards, but no longer qualify now as they have now lost their credit because they have defaulted in their payments and other kinds of reasons.
There are many advantages to having cards that are prepaid
Having a prepaid card is really great for anyone who does not have a regular credit card or for people who do not have any kind of a credit history or for those people whose credit history is insufficient. In fact this type of a card is also ideal for a person who has a credit rating which has been tarnished.
These types of cards are just awesome as they are a very good and highly effective way of slowly but surely building up a good credit score. Now, this is not going to take place overnight, so do not be misled. But, you can bet that, given time, if you play your cards right, this will definitely help improve your credit rating.
Also you can use these prepaid cards just like you would use any normal credit card to make various kinds of purchases like: buying things online, reserving hotel rooms, purchasing tickets for flights, etc.
Let’s face it, in today’s society everyone wants everything and they want it fast. We are a materialistic culture. The truth is majority of people in this country live way above their means, driving cars they can barely afford just so they can look good to others I suppose. What is the true reason behind wanting more material things? Does it really make you feel like a better person at the root of it all, is it a form of self fulfillment or an endless need for a more self gratifying urgency? Credit cards make it affordable to buy things that we normally would not be able to buy. I personally do not have any credit cards, but I have on occasion taken out a payday loan to help me with a large purchase, which leads me to another subject entirely.
I have been reamed on several occasions for using a payday advance, yes I know it certainly doesn’t sound like the classiest thing, I am not bragging about my use of payday loans, but I’m always hearing or reading bad reviews about how expensive the fees and interest are. But how is it any different than getting a credit card really? Do you consider yourself to be a more sophisticated individual because you have a credit card, when in reality it really is no different than a pay day loan. If someone is going to badger me about taking out a payday loan, consider this, if you have a credit card with a limit of $5000 with an interest rate of 29% (which is very common) you will pay around $1500 of interest in a year. So please people stop your judgments on people who chose to borrow from a payday loan company, which is essentially no different than a credit card company. I have no credit cards and have personally taken out quite a few payday loans, and am in a better financial position than most of my friends who have high limit credit cards. I know it sounds ridiculous, but most people are living way above their means with limits of $15,000 dollars when all they can afford is $1000 dollars a month or less.
Like I said I am not bragging about my pay day loan use, but I have all my loans paid off now, and have actually built up my credit doing so. I know I am the exception to the rule, but if you can be responsible about borrowing money, you can actually improve your credit status. So think carefully when borrowing money, and please please please don’t think you are better than me just because you carry around a ton of credit card in your back pocket! Posers!
Credit cards, cash advances, pay day loans, etc… there are all essentially the same. Manage your money and keep track of your finances and you will be fine. If you are looking at using a check advance or a cash advance take your time and do your research, compare your findings and chose what is best for you.
Chetan Kapur – Accomplishing Good Works In Business And Community
Mr. Chetan Kapur has had the honor of attending school in India and the United States at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s learned an important lesson from his time spent in both countries; integrity is the highest quality a person can have. It has been said that “integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching.” It is very true, because even though we are often in the spotlight while working on our careers or working within our communities, integrity means being true even without recognition or accolades.
Chetan Kapur Dedicates Himself To Others
Chetan Kapur spends his time split between business ventures, community service, and a number of hobbies. He has had the opportunity to function as director (and founder for certain companies) in successful organizations across different industries while at the same time dedicating his time and efforts with charitable organizations such as Unicef, Hope Worldwide, Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and Action Against Hunger, and many more. To relax, Chetan Kapur can be found swimming, bowling, and playing table tennis.
Life Is More Than Business For Chetan Kapur
Many successful professionals in the business world, including graduates of the Wharton School, focus strictly on their careers. Yet, in the end, integrity is key. Good works outside of the business world enrich our lives and help our community. Chetan Kapur has always maintained that a well-rounded individual of integrity is equally comfortable at the head of a business venture as they are helping out their neighbors.
The traditional method of market research and assessing the needs/wants of a customer are all based around what the company or producer thinks the customer wants or needs.
When faced with existing data on customer demographics or product characteristics, companies make marketing, and indeed product development decisions, on what they think customers need-the problem being that the customer’s needs can be different at different times or different places.
Even after exhaustive market research into test marketing, collating customer feed-back, as well as interviews and surveys, the results are not necessarily going to tell the whole picture, that is: if that product or service is actually suitable for the “job” the customer requires.
The situation or ‘job’ required, as opposed to the segmentation of customers (as in age, postcode or income), should be the defining method of market suitability.
Clearly defining the ‘job’ that a customer is trying to do, will allow the product to better fit the reason it is being bought or ‘hired’. Once this understanding is in place, the whole picture of functional, emotional as well as the social experience around the purchase of the product will be more obvious, and the use of the four P’s:
Product, Promotion, Price, Place, can then assist with the development of the business plan.
The conclusion that customers don’t actually know what they want or need is often used to market products or services that are outside the accepted traditional customer base, some with spectacular results.
The success of the Nintendo’s Wii gaming machine has been due to the company looking outside the traditional market of adolescent boys, to see where they could expand their appeal.
Repositioning themselves as a health and lifestyle choice, overnight they increased their revenue growth by 89.8%.
This was due to the wider marketing approach to include almost everyone in the healthy, active lifestyle choice, (the need) while at the same time being fun (the emotional want).
This has expanded to the aged care industry, which now have Wii machines as part of their rehabilitation and recreation programs, an unexpected bonus for the residents and undoubtedly, Nintendo.
This all points to the fact that customers/consumers are not interested in the expensive Research & Development, or how clever or technologically advanced the product or service is, or how wonderful the company tells you the product or service is.
If it fails to complete a basic ‘job’ which the customer requires, then it is irrelevant and will not succeed, no matter how expensive it has been to get the product or service to the market place.