I just was approved for one of Merrick’s unsecured VISA cards. I have read the negative reports here, but they did not deter me from applying.
My FICO went into a deep dark hole five years ago due to being laid off, getting evicted, living in my car, then selling my car to pay the rent on a warehouse bay I lived in illegally, then finally hitting rock bottom and sleeping on bus stop benches before finally getting back on my feet. I now have three unsecured cards besides the Merrick I just got. All of them I got from pre-screened offers that came in the mail. The Merrick is the first one that did not have an initial 0% APR for six to 12 months, but even that is not a deal breaker because your goal at this time in your life should be to pay off your balances every month, not pretend that you can afford a higher standard of living than your monthly income can handle.
It amazes me that people with bad credit history fail to understand how the game is played. The complainers reveal by their complaints that they do not understand that what we are dealing with is the inevitably slow process of paying your dues, which takes years, that everyone who has bad credit has to go through.
Merrick wants $75/month fees? So what. That is the price we have to pay until our FICO is high enough, long ago, to be approved for a card with better terms so we can cancel Merrick. If you cannot afford $75 a month to rebuild your credit, you shouldn’t have a credit card anyway.
And for god’s sake, NEVER get cash advances.
Avoiding late payments is easy. Never mail in your payments. Duh! Pay your card off, every month, and pay it online. Then, log in every day and check if your payment has shown up yet. If it hasn’t after four business days, call the bank. I never have to call any of my banks because I pay my balances off twice every month, the day the statement comes out and again two weeks later. That way, you still are paying off your charges every month but you pay less interest because interest is charged daily on individual charges and charges never stay outstanding for more than half a month. Ergo, you effectively cut your APR in half.
These cards are not free money. You have to pay it all back, the sooner the better. My approach is to setup a few of my recurring bills to auto pay from my credit cards. I would otherwise be paying these bills anyway from my monthly income, but this way those payments are used to rebuild my credit history automatically. Just do not try this unless you know you have enough discipline to live within your means.
Also, exercise enough discipline to pay yourself, ergo, savings, every month. Your savings are there to make sure you have enough cushion to pay unexpected liabilities which might pop up during a particular month. You still want to pay it off by the following month and credit cards are a good cheap way to get low interest 30 day loans … way cheaper than payday loans which surely everybody knows by now that you should NEVER sign up for.