hello there darrylrio,

i appreciate your being informative and helpful by posting insight about how credit cards companies saddled card holders with their high interest. you also gave some ideas of how essential a secured credit card is especially to youngster that are starting on building their own credit history.

i would encourage you to do more posts that provide some factual information and would be influential for people who are going to get a card for their own self. the feeling of fulfillment is priceless every time you are able to help someone.

hope you will be posting soon. thank you.

Agreed... the economy has hurt many people's credit.

It's time that people learn the actual meaning of credit and secured credit

Secured credit implies that people are in control of their credit situation.
hopefully this will be a time in history when people will appreciate what it means to be in control of your credit... IE.. having cash reserves in place, and enough capital to back up their credit card and loan payments.

Many people have had their credit ruined during this current economic downturn.
Credit card delinquencies are on the rise, and credit card companies are being much more choosy about who they do business with.
If you are lucky enough to get approved for a credit card, then there is a good chance that you are going to be saddled with enormous interest rates. I mean, credit card companies have to pay for the delinquent cardholders somehow right? (at least, that's their excuse).
Secured credit cards are very essential if you are too young or old. This would be one of the best ways for a youngster to start building their credit. This would sometimes be very useful for older people who have faced very tremendous balance and have never established the best account history. Remember making a credit is not as easy as one may think. It requires a lot of effort and it will influence your economical life. Many of the companies would directly look into your balance history to estimate your economy or to offer you a loan.

so... if the U.S. economy is in such rough shape... why don't they use the secured credit card approach.

IE... you don't get credit unless you have cash reserves in place to be used as security for your loans. I don't think that U.S. debtors or even Canadian debtors have really learned the lesson of credit usage.

People and companies need to realized that they should have cash reserves in place, to minimize the risk of debt.

If you had a rule such as: we should have 6 months of payments in place before we get the credit facility, that would greatly minimize the risk of companies and individuals defaulting on their loans.

This is the whole idea behind secured credit cards. Putting security on your debt before you get the debt.