Before you start putting in applications for a credit card, do you know what you are going to be able to get? The types of credit card offerings you can be approved for will depend immensely on the kind of credit history you have.
While you could put through a lot of applications, hoping one gets approved, that too is going to have a negative impact on your credit record.
The better option is to take a completely different route and know your credit history first.
Once you take a look at your credit history you may see things are not as great as you would like them to be.
You're not alone.
Everyone hits a couple of bumps and snags in their credit history and those can play out to be a big pain in the backside when you want a new and beautiful rewards credit card with great perks.
Deal with the fact that you may not be getting that card right away.
As a matter of fact, if your credit is bad enough, you will likely only be able to get bad credit credit cards, which are cards that have higher interest rates and lower limits.
It's a start.
You can build from there.
If you're not sure what is causing your bad credit score here are a couple of possibilities Bankruptcy If you have filed a bankruptcy, it will be on your credit report for at least the next 4 years.
That's a pretty big ding to overcome and you may just have to work on keeping the newer credit records looking good until that one disappears.
Late Payments Many people think missing a payment or two here and there is OK as long as they catch up eventually.
The credit card companies disagree.
They look at a missed or late payment as a show of your lack of responsibility with their money.
Just one or two late payments can cause a big ding on your credit record.
Too Many Accounts How many credit cards do you have in your wallet? If you aren't sure or have to think about it to count up to the number, you have too many.
Too many open lines of credit make credit card companies uncomfortable.
They don't know if you are going to suddenly charge to all the accounts and then be unable to pay off what you owe them.
All those accounts also reflect negatively on your credit rating.
Take out the credit cards you are not using and close the accounts attached to them.
That means calling up the company and asking the account be officially closed.
Once you begin the process of recovering your credit rating, you will notice the offers you get are no longer just for those bad credit credit cards, but also the rewards credit cards and benefits cards you had been hoping for.