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What credit card should you get when your credit has been steadily improving?
For those with bad credit, chances are that you will have several subprime credit cards like the Orchard Bank MasterCard or the First Premier Bank Credit Card. While these cards gave you an opportunity when you had bad credit, they have annual fees, monthly maintenance fees and higher rates. But as your credit steadily improves, you face a dilemma. If you continue to use those sub-prime credit cards, you will have to keep paying those fees (which is a lot!) every year. But you do not want to dump them before you get a regular no annual fee unsecured credit card with a decent credit line.
What you want to do is to get a couple of "main stream" credit cards. Do not be detered by not having super excellent credit scores because credit card companies also look at your income and not just your credit history. Below are some ideas and cards that people have successfully applied.
The True Earnings® Card from Costco and American Express actually one of the best credit cards around. You can earn 3% rebates on gasoline and restaurants and 2% on travel items, and the usual 1% on other regular purchases you make on the card. This is a great card especially if you are a Costco member.
Summary - The American Express® Preferred Rewards Gold Card comes with a $125 annual fee (though the fees for the first year are waived). But the reasons for getting are 1) a great reward program (especially for frequent travelers), 2)prestige - especially for certain occupations and perhaps more importantly in today's economic environment 3) no preset spending limit.
Another card to consider is the American Dreamcard MasterCard from HSBC Bank. It is a basic no annual fee card that allows you to enter lucky in which you stand a chance to win 0.5% of your total monthly spend on the card.
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