I have bad credit. What’s the chances that I can get a department store credit card?

11 comments

1. 

   slim69shady2002 on October 28, 2009 at 9:23 am

   depends what you consider bad. Normally you need to have over a 620 credit score or somewhere around there. Do you know what your score is? If not go to and get your score for free.

2. 

   bugboobunz on October 29, 2009 at 10:47 pm

   well, it all depends on what has caused your credit to be bad. if you have some unpaid bills, it depends on who you owe to. if you owe for a credit card, car repossession , or something like a cell phone bill, it is kinda hard. but that also depends on the amount outstanding, and if you are making payments to fix the bill. if the unpaid is medical, they won’t mind too much for a department card. sometimes, though, if you have “too much” credit, it is bad, too. like if you have a car and 15 credit cards, then they will not do it because your “debt-to-income” ratio is too high. your best bet is to give it a try at someplace like Macy’s. sears is the worst, they are really picky. also, try to pay off some of your debts, like at tax time every year, i chose one bill to pay off of my credit, and through the year i tried to make sure not to make new bills. also, first premier bank, and orchard bank have “credit-building” credit cards for like 300 dollars or so max, and they are pretty lenient… and hey you could use them to pay off bad bills!

3. 

   Bryon H on November 1, 2009 at 10:50 pm

   Hi!
   Credit scores are not free..never have been…probably never will be. I wish people who don’t know what they are talking about would not say things like that.

   You can pull all three credit reports for free from that website, though. I now pull all three every month with Citi Credit Monitoring service. Not only does this give me monitoring of all three reports for changes..I get a 3 in one report every month…and a experian report by itself as I need.

   I also have Equifax’s Gold level service..which allows me to pull a report every day if I want. Ok..a bit much..but who cares? It’s worth every penny.

4. 

   Retired bookworm on November 5, 2009 at 10:37 am

   They will check and may deny you credit as this is a fairly substantial purchase. Your best chance is to start with a very small amount of credit–$200, for example.

5. 

   Tommy W on November 6, 2009 at 11:29 am

   It depends on your credit score. I have listed a source below that has a list of secured and unsecured credit cards for people with poor credit.

6. 

   dragonfire on November 7, 2009 at 7:53 am

   if you have bad credit
   you will not get approved

7. 

   Thirty-five on November 9, 2009 at 10:26 am

   Best way to find out is go apply.

8. 

   gt_thegame on November 10, 2009 at 3:47 am

   well if u have a bad credit rating and u havent paid ur previous credit card dues, its hard for u to get another card since banks normally do a background check before issuing a new card to any customer…

9. 

   abby fth on November 11, 2009 at 1:04 pm

   you’ll be able to obtain only higher interest credit cards, with lower credit limits and that the income requirements you’ll have to meet in order to get approved will be more rigorous. Store credit cards are easier to obtain but, consequently have higher rates and though they sometimes offer higher credit limits, they can only be used at that particular store. Read more about it at:

10. 

    See Saw on November 13, 2009 at 5:23 pm

    Store cards are similar to credit cards, as you are offered a credit limit to let you spend on the card.

11. 

    starfairy181 on November 16, 2009 at 10:23 am

    try target store card. my husband has just about the worst credit I have ever seen and they gave him one with a $200.00 limit