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Continental Finance Matrix Discover® credit card Review

Picture of Item Reviewed

Editor's Rating:
Intro Purchase APR Regular APR Intro Balance Transfer Annual Fee Credit Needed
N.A. $75 Any
Executive Summary - Perhaps only one of two cards dedicated to the sub prime segment today in the unsecured card space. For one, Discover is actually the network (which is a refreshing change from the usual Visa and MasterCard network.

When you have bad credit, and would like to get an unsecured credit card to rebuild your credit, you are faced with very few choices. Most mainstream issuers do not cater to you. And the few that do tack up fees that make having one of these cards quite costly to own. But you may be willing to give it a shot if you have been persistently turned down by others.

Continental Finance is one of the very few issuers still involved in this card. Since the financial crisis of 2008 and the passing of CARD Act, many cards have been discontinued because restrictions made it no longer profitable. Recently Orchard Bank was taken over by Capital One and both the Orchard and Household Bank cards are no longer marketed. Credit One, another subprime issuer is also no longer actively marketing their cards.

So if you are looking for an unsecured card, this card might be one of the few choice you have. So let's take a close look at it (in particular the fee structure).

Fees and Rates - Fees and rates matter so much for these cards. But before we delve into the details, we have to point out that you may either be approved for secured, partially secured or unsecured version of this card. If you will depend on your credit score and some other proprietary criteria.
 

  • Application Fees - You will be charged a fee of $75 upon application. Since your initial credit limit will be $300, that means that when you get the cut, it will be reduced to $225.
  • Annual Fee - Every year, you also have to pay an annual fee of $75
  • Monthly Maintenance Fees - For the first twelve months of your card membership, you do not have to pay any monthly maintenance fees. But after that, you would have to pay $12 a month (which works out to $144 a year). That means together with the annual fee, it will cost you $209 a year in fees to maintain this card.
  • Rates - The interest rate on this card is 29.99% and the grace period is 25 days.


Now that we've got this out of the way, let's look at some fine prints of this card.
 

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