Credit Cards for Unemployed People

A friend of mine was recently laid off from his job. Even though he was laid off from his job, he still has bills to pay. One way in which he intended to pay his bills was to use credit cards. He was pretty sure he could use credit cards to pay bills for awhile until he got his next job. Unfortunately, his current credit cards do not have high credit limits so he had to apply for more credit cards.

Most lenders are pretty hesitant about giving unemployed people credit cards. The lenders want to see a source of income otherwise they would not think that you could make your monthly payments. I told my friend to look specifically for credit cards for unemployed people. I was sure there are lenders out there that gave credit cards to the unemployed. For the unemployed, they can get an unsecured credit card or a secured credit card. An unsecured credit card will be harder to get and usually the limits are low and the fees are pretty high. With a secured credit card, the terms are much better because the lender basically has nothing to lose if you do not pay your card off. They would just take your collateral.

One way to get an unsecured credit card is to take the pre-approved credit card offers that you may get from your bank. If you are a long time customer of your bank and you have had no problems with credit, the bank would most likely issue you a pre-approved card every now and then.

Another option to get credit cards for the unemployed is to go to lenders that specifically lend to unemployed people. Lenders such as Aqua specialize in these cases. The credit limits will probably be pretty low and the APR would be pretty high. There would probably be annual fees as well. However, these cards should help the unemployed a little as they find a new job.

If you do not mind putting up collateral or a deposit, you could easily get secured credit cards. These types of credit cards are easy to get because the lender basically has no risk. If you cannot make your payment the lender would just take your deposit or your collateral.

In the end, my friend was able to get a credit card through his bank because he had been a loyal customer for a long time. His credit score for the most part was pretty good so the terms on his credit card are decent.