<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470194062199484026</id><updated>2011-11-27T15:56:35.310-08:00</updated><category term='us dollar credit cards'/><category term='charge cards'/><category term='credit history'/><category term='site updates'/><category term='retail credit cards'/><category term='secured credit cards'/><category term='prepaid credit cards'/><category term='standard credit cards'/><category term='opinion'/><title type='text'>Canadian Credit Card Central Blog</title><subtitle type='html'>News and commentary on Canadian credit cards and the Canadian credit card industry.</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ccc-central.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4470194062199484026/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ccc-central.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>CCC-Central</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14788874065182757425</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>4</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470194062199484026.post-4754607819533231535</id><published>2008-06-30T13:07:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-06-30T13:12:55.352-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='standard credit cards'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='site updates'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='us dollar credit cards'/><title type='text'>Updates to Standard and US Dollar Credit Card Pages</title><content type='html'>The &lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/mainlist.html"&gt;list of standard credit cards&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/usdlist.html"&gt;US Dollar credit cards&lt;/a&gt; now have images and websites associated with each card.  So all cards now have images and websites associated with them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Related Pages:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/mainlist.html"&gt;List of Standard Credit Cards&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/mainsearch.html"&gt;Standard Credit Card Search Engine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/usdlist.html"&gt;List of Canadian US Dollar Credit Cards&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/usdsearch.html"&gt;Canadian US Dollar Credit Card Search Engine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4470194062199484026-4754607819533231535?l=ccc-central.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4470194062199484026/posts/default/4754607819533231535'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4470194062199484026/posts/default/4754607819533231535'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ccc-central.blogspot.com/2008/06/updates-to-standard-and-us-dollar.html' title='Updates to Standard and US Dollar Credit Card Pages'/><author><name>CCC-Central</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14788874065182757425</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470194062199484026.post-8607455223423873699</id><published>2008-06-25T15:20:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-06-25T15:26:26.973-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='charge cards'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='secured credit cards'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='retail credit cards'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='site updates'/><title type='text'></title><content type='html'>The &lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/securedlist.html"&gt;secured credit card list&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/chargelist.html"&gt;charge card list&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/retaillist.html"&gt;retail credit card list&lt;/a&gt; have all been updated to display images for each card and link to the card's official website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Related Pages:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/securedlist.html"&gt;List of Secured Credit Cards&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/chargelist.html"&gt;List of Charge Cards&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/retaillist.html"&gt;List of Retail Credit Cards&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4470194062199484026-8607455223423873699?l=ccc-central.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4470194062199484026/posts/default/8607455223423873699'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4470194062199484026/posts/default/8607455223423873699'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ccc-central.blogspot.com/2008/06/secured-credit-card-list-charge-card.html' title=''/><author><name>CCC-Central</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14788874065182757425</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470194062199484026.post-2694383885217382441</id><published>2008-06-22T00:15:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-06-25T15:20:41.595-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='prepaid credit cards'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='site updates'/><title type='text'>Updates to Prepaid Credit Card Pages</title><content type='html'>The &lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/ppaidlist.html"&gt;prepaid credit card list&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/ppaidsearch.html"&gt;prepaid credit card search&lt;/a&gt; have been updated to display pictures of the card being listed as well as the card's website if one exists.  Hopefully this can be done for other lists and searches in the future as well.  Also, the &lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/viewcard.html?id=14&amp;type=prepaid"&gt;Opus Prepaid MasterCard&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/viewcard.html?id=15&amp;type=prepaid"&gt;Prepaid Travel Mosaik MasterCard&lt;/a&gt; have been added to the directory of prepaid credit cards.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Related Pages:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/ppaidlist.html"&gt;List of Prepaid Credit Cards&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/ppaidsearch.html"&gt;Prepaid Credit Card Search Engine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4470194062199484026-2694383885217382441?l=ccc-central.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4470194062199484026/posts/default/2694383885217382441'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4470194062199484026/posts/default/2694383885217382441'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ccc-central.blogspot.com/2008/06/updates-to-prepaid-credit-card-pages.html' title='Updates to Prepaid Credit Card Pages'/><author><name>CCC-Central</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14788874065182757425</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470194062199484026.post-6502937737116830498</id><published>2008-06-17T12:27:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-06-17T13:18:47.092-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='opinion'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='credit history'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='secured credit cards'/><title type='text'>Is the need for secured credit cards oversold?</title><content type='html'>If you go to any forum related to credit cards, you will inevitably see someone asking how to get a credit card when they have no credit history, and you will inevitably see that most of the replies suggest something along the lines of "Get a secured credit card."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The be clear, secured credit cards were not created to be used by people with no credit card history, rather they were designed for people with a &lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;bad&lt;/span&gt; credit history.  So bad that it's completely impossible for them to get any other type of credit card (except for prepaid credit cards, but those don't affect credit history.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Of course, if having no credit history truly is disqualifying you from getting a credit card, then a secured credit card is indeed your only option, but there are a few things worth considering first:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;- If you have a job, even just a part-time job, you should be able to get a credit card even with no credit history.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;- Even with no income and no credit history, having a bank account can help you get a credit card from the bank you have an account (especially a checking account) at, especially if you've had a substantial amount of money in the account for a while.  For getting a credit card this way, it's better to go to a bank branch and apply for a card in person rather than applying online or over the phone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;- Opening a checking account, or sometimes even a savings account, at a bank may result in you being offered a credit card, especially if you're a student or make a large ($1000+) initial deposit.  When I was a student, I was offered a credit card upfront when I opened a checking account with an initial deposit of $1000 even though I had no income and no credit history.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;- Anecdotally, I've heard that applying in person is more likely to get you approved than applying over the phone, and applying over the phone is more likely to get you approved than applying online.  I'm not sure whether or not this is actually true, but there is a logic to this belief.  If you're willing to go to the bank or other issuer in person to apply, and risk the embarrassment of being turned down, it means that you have reason to be confident that you will be approved.  This would be especially true if you don't have a credit history, as the issuer would have to rely more on their "perception" of you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are considerable downsides to using secured cards, especially the need to make a deposit you can't get back until the card is canceled or expires, and the fact that they usually have more fees than standard credit cards.  For those with no credit history, it's worthwhile to try and get a standard credit card before turning to secured cards.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Related Pages:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/securedlist.html"&gt;List of Secured Credit Cards&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/mainsearch.html?typestr=stu"&gt;List of Student Cards&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.canadacreditcentral.com/mainsearch.html"&gt;Standard Credit Card Search Engine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4470194062199484026-6502937737116830498?l=ccc-central.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4470194062199484026/posts/default/6502937737116830498'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4470194062199484026/posts/default/6502937737116830498'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ccc-central.blogspot.com/2008/06/is-need-for-secured-credit-cards.html' title='Is the need for secured credit cards oversold?'/><author><name>CCC-Central</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14788874065182757425</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author></entry></feed>
