1 Way To Avoid Credit Scams

By: Darren Allsop..


Credit card scams are more common that people know. Often time, companies prey on consumers who have bad credit or less than perfect credit. For many, creditors are not knocking down your door, offering you a great deal on a credit card.

Unfortunately, the credit card offers that you may be receiving may seem like legitimate offers. Often times, these types of credit cards come with extremely high interest rates, inflated fees and other crazy terms.

There are a number of different companies out there that mail out pre-approved credit card offers, which are disguised as valid MasterCard or Visa's. In reality, these types of credit cards are for catalogue clubs or store clubs. The credit card offer informs you that you have been pre-approved for a line of credit, with no security deposit, for up to $5,000. Such companies give you a sense that you are repairing your credit, all the while, allowing you to get a taste of the convenience of carrying around your own credit card.

This may sound too good to be true. If you are desperate for a credit card of your own, you are ready to jump on any offer that arrives in the mail. Therefore, it is important that you read the fine print when such offers arrive in the mail. Look thoroughly over the offer before making a commitment to it.

Such credit card scams tell you that you are pre-approved for a MasterCard with a $5,000 credit limit. They inform you that you simply need to verify your personal information in order to activate the card. In order to verify the accuracy of your information, they ask that you sign the credit card offer and mail the application back in. Afterwards, your credit card will be mailed to you promptly.

However, if you thoroughly read over the document, you will realize that this is not a regular MasterCard credit card. Instead, you can only use this credit card to make purchase through a special online catalogue or in a special store. The credit card cannot be used anywhere else. The types of products you can purchase with these credit cards are off brand house ware products and electronics.

Once you really started to read the terms for the credit card you will find that most of these companies require you to first mail them a check or money order of about $299 to activate the offer. They then tell you that you will be able to recoup your money by special discounts you will receive after you have made you first purchase with the credit card. In addition to the activation fees they also hit you with enormous annual fees. These fees you run a couple hundred dollars. Hopefully you have come to the realization that this is not an appealing offer.

Most of these types of credit card offers will charge you upward of 45% interest, which is obscenely high. So it is vital that you have read all the information contained in credit card offers.

The best advice you can receive for an offer like this is to just throw it out! Your money would be better spent on getting a secured credit card instead of paying their activation fees. You can easily get a real Visa or MasterCard with a security deposit. And by going the way of a secured credit card you will actually begin repairing your credit through the major credit bureaus. Make sure you keep this in the back of your mind when you find credit card offers in your mailbox.

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