Credit, Schmedit!

October 4, 2008 9:37 PM

Recommendation for good credit card company to build credit with.

My credit is "poor" and I need to get credit card. Can anyone recommend a good bank/program that will give me a card so I can build it back to stellar status.

posted by goalyeehah to work & money (6 comments total)

With "poor" credit, the only credit cards you're going to get are the ones that are prepaid or have exorbitantly high interest rates. Your best bet is to open a checking/savings account at a credit union and see if they offer an "in-house" credit card along with it. You can also ask about the same thing at a bank, but a credit union is better overall if there's one you can join.
posted by amyms at 10:25 PM on October 4, 2008

Without knowing your FICO or how poor "poor" is, it's not possible to give good info here. CreditBoards.com has a massive thread with info on this topic. For getting in with marginal credit Capital One, WaMu, and Hooters seem to be lenient, though Capital One is kind of a sketchy company.
posted by crapmatic at 10:35 PM on October 4, 2008

Capital One is kind of a sketchy company.

Indeed. Do not, no matter how desperate you are, get a credit card from Capital One.
posted by amyms at 10:47 PM on October 4, 2008

Look into Chase credit cards, they are extremely good as far as customer service, and unlike Capital One and all the BS they will undoubtedly put you through in order to get a credit limit increase, Chase is very good about automatically increasing credit lines by $500-$2000 increments every 6 months or so.
posted by icarus at 11:10 PM on October 4, 2008

Chase is pretty good, and still solvent.
posted by jeffamaphone at 8:28 AM on October 5, 2008

Do not, no matter how desperate you are if you do not understand how credit cards work, get a credit card from Capital One any issuer.

That said, Capital One may not be the best issuer for someone with poor (I am assuming that you mean bad things are on your credit report rather than nothing) credit. But nearly all of the people complaining there are angry that they're being held to a contract they signed.
posted by oaf at 11:25 AM on October 5, 2008