Everybody really seems to have fallen in love with prepaid credit cards; many going so far as to use them as an alternative to real credit cards. Most people think of prepaid credit cards as a sort of extension of retail gift cards and tend to treat them as such.
After all, you really only use your cards when you go out shopping at the same 7-8 locations anyway, so why not invest in a card that only allows you to spend the money you put on it and nothing else?
Because it may not be the best idea for your credit history, and it certainly won’t help you improve your credit score.
Like being stuck at the kid’s table
Those prepaid cards may seem like the right choice for your wallet, especially since anyone can pick one up, as opposed to having to qualify for a regular credit card. They also come with the same fraud protection as a “real” credit card.
But while it may seem like you’re doing your finances a favor, you’re actually not making any progress at all – especially if you’re trying your hand at credit repair to build your score up.
All prepaid credit cards operate like debit cards, which don’t show up on your credit report and so don’t affect your credit score in any way. In that sense, you’re essentially foregoing using real credit cards to help rebuild your credit and are planted yourself firmly at the kid’s table, while the rest of us use real credit cards to help rebuild our credit.
Stick to secured
Prepaid cards don’t help your credit rating in any way and are generally useless the minute they run out of cash, so why bother with a one-and-done space-waster in your wallet, when you can use a real credit card to keep paying your accounts and help build up positive credit?
Maybe some of the features of a prepaid card are just too enticing to pass up, or you don’t want to worry about a lot of the trouble credit cards can potentially bring to the table. If you want to work towards making real strides in your efforts at credit repair or debt relief, but don’t want to deal with some of the hassles of regular credit cards, consider trying a secured credit card.
Much like a prepaid card, a secured credit card requires a deposit before you can start using it, but unlike debit and prepaid cards, the money you use for purchases is loaned to you instead of taken out of a prepaid balance. The cards also report to the 3 major credit bureaus just like regular credit cards, meaning if your aim is to reestablish or build new credit, a secured credit card can help you do that.
You can inquire about them at any bank or credit union and use them to start building or repairing your credit profile now.
Tags: Credit, Credit Cards, Prepaid Credit, Prepaid Credit Cards
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