credit-scoreIf you’ve made some mistakes with your credit score in the past and want to start building your credit again, you’re going to have to find a way to get a credit card or another revolving account that you can pay on time on a monthly basis to demonstrate that you are credit worthy. Unfortunately, most banks don’t offer bad credit credit cards because consumers who need them are statistically unlikely to repay the money that they borrow.

Fortunately, there are some companies that recognize that you are human and are willing to look past some of the mistakes you have made in the past. The terms won’t be nearly as good as what you might find if you were a college student without any credit history or have a great credit history, but they will be able to put you on track so that you can get a high-quality credit card with a low interest rate, good rewards and no annual fee down the line.

So where do you go to get credit cards for bad credit individuals? There are a number of different online sites such as Card Web, CreditCards.com and BadCreditOffers.com that will provide you with a list of credit card companies that are willing to work with individuals that don’t have the best credit. They even compare the different cards that might be available to you and let you know which will be the best deal in your situation.

If you have seriously dinged credit, you will probably only qualify for a “secured” credit card, meaning that you have some money in savings with the bank that is offering you the credit card and then the value of that savings account is considered collateral for the credit card in the event that you don’t pay your payments. This helps reduce the risk that the bank is taking and allows them to give credit to those that might not otherwise be able to get it. You will also probably be charged a pretty heft annual fee for the privilege. The idea is that you won’t have this card forever, but instead you can use it for a couple of years to build up your credit, then qualify for a better card.

If you have a lot of debt and have been behind on your bills before, maybe it’s not the best idea to go out looking for bad credit loans. Something in the past made it so that you couldn’t pay your bills before, and secured credit cards have much higher “gotchas” if you don’t pay your bill. Before applying for another credit card to rebuild your credit, consider instead paying off some of your debt and making sure you can always stay current on the debts that you do have.