Building Your Credit Score

If you’re just starting out financially or if you’ve had a major financial setback, you may need to build or rebuild your credit score.  Although the two situations may seem vastly different, and to some extent, they actually are very different, but the steps that you need to take are essentially the same:  you have to build (or rebuild) a low or nonexistent credit score.  And, if you have no credit or low credit, it’s very difficult to actually get credit.

Fortunately, there are a couple of really solid ways to get your credit score back on track.

1.  Get a Secured Credit Card

Unlike conventional credit cards, secured credit cards require that you put down an initial security deposit, and once you’ve made the security deposit, they’ll issue you a card that will work exactly like a conventional credit card.  You’ll have a credit limit (which is typically the amount of your security deposit), you’ll be able to use the card anywhere that you would use a conventional credit card (or debit card), and you’ll make payments on the purchases that you make with the card.  And, just like a conventional credit card, your secured credit card company will report your responsible usage, payment history, and available credit to the credit bureaus. This, in turn, will help you to build (or rebuild) the two most important parts of your credit score – your credit availability and your payment history.  Together these two factors make up more than 50% of your credit score, so you can see how quickly opening a secure credit card can help you to improve your credit score.

 

2.  Open a Catalog Credit Card

Believe it or not, opening a catalog credit card account, like Fingerhut, is also one of the fastest and best ways to build (or rebuild) your credit score.  You see, unlike traditional credit card companies, Fingerhut Credit is known for their extremely high approval rate (nearly everyone gets approved for a Fingerhut account) and for their regular reviews of your credit limit.  That means that you’ll see your total available credit increase much more quickly with Fingerhut than you would with a conventional credit card account, and your responsible usage, payment history, and available credit will be reported monthly to the credit bureaus, again affecting those two major factors in your credit score, credit availability and payment history.

Apply Now for Fingerhut Credit Account issued by WebBank !

While there are other ways to improve your credit score, these two are the fastest, easiest, and best ways to build or rebuild your credit score on your own, without having to pay someone else to work on your credit report for you.  (We’ll get into those options another day, in another post.)

Does Fingerhut Really Help Rebuild Your Credit?

You know, here at Fresh Start Card Offers, we’re always recommending opening a Fingerhut Credit Account as a fast, easy way to start rebuilding your credit, but does it really work?  Can the simple act of entering your name and address to find out if you qualify for a Fingerhut Credit Account really put you back on the road to credit recovery?

Not an Access Card

The quick answer to the question is yes, opening a Fingerhut account really can help you to rebuild your credit, assuming that you use your new account responsibly, make your payments on time, every time, and keep your available credit below the 30% recommended by the credit bureaus.  But if you’re like most people, you’d like a little more info… maybe even an example of how a Fingerhut account made a difference in a real person’s credit score…

Well, here is just such an example:

“A few years ago, I’d just gone through an ugly divorce, from a husband who not only wasn’t working but had run up our credit cards so much trying to ‘start his own business’ that we were forced to file bankruptcy for the second time.  Even worse, we were behind in the house payment, and his truck had just been repossessed, so you know that our credit score was literally about as low as it could get.

Honestly, the only way that I was able to afford to file for divorce was due to a settlement from an automobile accident that I’d been involved in a few months before we separated… that money not only paid for the divorce, but it funded the huge security deposit that was required on my new apartment, and enabled me to keep the payments current on the car I’d leased after the accident.  Otherwise, I would never have been able to get out on my own, away from the nightmare of alcoholism that we’d been living for most of our married life.

At first, I didn’t worry much about my credit score… I mean, seriously, it was so low that I knew no one would ever give me credit again, or at least that’s what I thought in the beginning.  Until I realized that I had less than two years left on the car lease that I’d taken out just before the second bankruptcy was filed.  How would I ever get another car with such a credit history?

And that’s when a friend suggested that it was time I started working on my credit score.  And that’s how I found out about Fingerhut. Yes, I know – we all know that Fingerhut has been around for decades.  My Mom shopped there and I’ll bet yours did, too.  I used to love looking at the catalogs when they came in the mail… I just never dreamed that having my own Fingerhut account would improve my credit score as much as it has.

Anyway, to make a long story short, that first Christmas in my new apartment, I had no money for gifts.  So, I took a chance and applied for a Fingerhut Credit Account, and to my complete surprise, I was approved for a $300.00 credit limit!  Not only did my kids have a nice Christmas, but once I’d paid on the account for a few months (I always paid extra), they raised my credit limit.  And I started getting special offers and sales catalogs from Fingerhut in the mail.  The more I spent and the more I paid my account down, the better the offers and the higher my credit limit went.  I couldn’t believe it – I was finally making some headway.

And then came the day that I went to turn in the car – just as I knew they would, they checked my credit.  Imagine my surprise when it had risen substantially and I was able to qualify on my own for loan to purchase a two year old car that I saw on the lot.

Since then, I’ve not only continued to use my Fingerhut account regularly, but my credit limit has climbed into the thousands, and I’ve watched my credit score steadily climb along with it.  And honestly, it all started with that one small step, opening my own Fingerhut Credit Account.”

What about you?  Are you ready to start rebuilding your credit?

Get the credit you deserve and save $50 on your first order of $200 or more with a new Fingerhut Credit Account. Use promo code NC361. Limited Time Only. Offer Ends Soon.

Apply now for your Fingerhut Credit Account issued by WebBank