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The Orchard Bank Credit Cards: The Answer For Bad Credit

By Edward Vegliante

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Published: 10Oct2006
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There are few more stressful things than dealing with dinged credit. Millions of Americans have experience with it, so there is a large pool of experience and options to draw from. The important thing to realize is that if you are determined to repair your credit, the right tools are available to help you. One option is The Orchard Bank MasterCard.

What to Expect in General

There is no “one-size-fits-all” explanation for choosing credit cards to fix up your FICO score. There are, however, a few general expectations across the category. Whether it is true or not, credit vendors consider lower FICO scores as higher risk. That pretty much means two things: higher interest rates and lower credit limits.

You can expect to see that for at least the first year of the rebuilding process. Initial credit limits will be anywhere from $250 to $1000, most likely somewhere toward the middle or lower end. The third feature to expect from this category, including Orchard’s cards, is an annual fee as well as a process fee. These fees are one of a few ways that banks mitigate the risk of default.

What to Expect from Orchard

Orchard Bank, a branch of credit giant HSBC, has an industry-wide reputation as a “go-to” card for those seeking to repair their credit. Orchard Bank offers a few features across its credit card products. Firstly, they promise an offer after the application process. While that may not mean an unsecured card, they do have relaxed approval restrictions to get almost everybody started. They offer an array of cards with different levels of obligations and credit requirements. Here are their primary offerings:

The Orchard Bank Platinum MasterCard – As the “Platinum” moniker might suggest, this is the top of the line option from Orchard. The Platinum MasterCard comes with every feature somebody recovering from bad credit could hope for. The Platinum MasterCard will offer a slightly higher credit limit and lower interest rate for its users, and nice features like hotel reservation and car rental service. The Platinum MasterCard has a $39-$59 annual fee based on credit worthiness. The Platinum card has the most (relatively) stringent credit history requirements of these four cards.

The Orchard Bank Gold MasterCard - The Orchard Bank Gold MasterCard extremely similar to it’s Platinum cousin. With a maximum initial credit line of $1000, the Gold MasterCard has the same features, but a slightly higher annual fee of $79 and a $19 process fee. As far as relative strictness goes, the credit guidelines for the Gold card fall in the middle of Orchard’s lineup.

The Orchard Bank Silver MasterCard – You guessed it: Silver. It’s the logical next step. And just like the Gold and Platinum MasterCard, the Silver offers all of the same features, albeit with a $49 annual fee in addition to a $49 process fee. We expect to see more approvals on the Silver, but probably with higher interest rates and lower limits.

The Orchard Bank Secured MasterCard – The Secured card is the bedrock of rebuilding bad credit. If you have trouble getting approved for the other offers, the this is the way to go. Secured cards, as the name implies, require a security deposit prior to usage. Typically companies, including Orchard Bank, will ask for 100%-200% of the desired credit limit upon approval. The Orchard Bank Secured cards look and act just like a regular credit card, and with time, can lead to unsecured cards with increased limits.

In general, all Orchard Bank cards share some common features. If you stay on top of your payments and refuse to let yourself get behind, then these cards will help you rebuild your credit; they do so by reporting to the three major credit bureaus every thirty days. This gives you an opportunity to show that you can handle credit card debt. These cards are accepted at over 22 million locations, and can get you a cash advance on over 770 thousand ATMs. Since it’s inception, HSBC has helped over 2 million Americans take the first step toward rebuilding their credit.

To Compare Orchard Bank Credit Cards Click http://www.credit-card-surplus.com/badcredit.php . Ed Vegliante runs http://www.credit-card-surplus.com , a directory enabling the consumer to compare and apply for credit cards.

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