What is the best credit card to get to raise your credit?

If your client is trying to do this right before applying for the mortgage, it will be difficult. People who have good credit, can get big lines of credit. People who need credit don't. It's a bit of a catch 22.  Hear are a few steps to take. Warning it takes a while.

If the client has horrible credit, start with a secured credit card for $200. Make a small purchase every month and pay it off. With in a few months they will start getting offers for "real" credit cards.

Look for card with 1) No Annual fees 2) Low APR 3) Not an adjustable rate 4) read the fine print to make sure they can't raise the rate "at any time". Then again make a small purchase every month and pay it off. They aren't going to get the best cards out there, but get something. Within a few months you can request higher limits, and lower interest.

Make sure to make payments every month.  Just so you know, I am a plumber with leaky pipes on this. I had good credit, my wife had great credit and in a matter of months, with a few late payments we messed it up, and are working to rebuild it again. It can be done. Its frustrating, time consuming, and can make you want to pull your hair out, but its worth it. A few more things...  Old lines of credit are better, so if you can work with an existing one, its better. Your utilities report you if you are late. So make sure you pay them on time. Check your credit to make sure there are no mistakes. Also everything is negotiable, so don't take their crap.

Another option is getting a large card right away with a co-signer. Not an easy task as you need someone with good credit who is willing to co-sign... but it works.

Drew Sygit is helping us plan for next year when we would like to buy a house. If you need help out there, Drew is great to work with.

There is an open discussion on linkedin about this right now. http://tinyurl.com/3ly5ml

Let me know if I can help in any way.

Ben Rosenzweig

Thanks Ben - I appreciate all your feedback - I will definately forward this on to them!!!

Easy ways to get credit back up is to have the banks/lenders remove bad credit history.  talking to the right people (Supervisors) at the lenders.  and having a few months of good payment history often times a lender will remove negitive history.  or make a deal with the credit card company that if payments are made then ask for them to remove negitive feedback.  you can also submit requests to the credit bureaus to have them remove it for any number of reasons.  they will investigate and often remove negitive feedback if there is no proof for the negitive feedback.  It is very easy to do if you have a little bit of time to spend working with the lenders.