CREDIT CARD TRAPS ?

For people with a spotty credit card history or bad credit, it can be difficult to get approved for a regular credit card. There are a number of credit card options that are aimed specifically at people who have bad credit and are trying to rebuilt it. There are also, unfortunately, a lot of folks out there who'll take advantage of the desperation to get a credit card. How do you tell which options are good ones and which are just taking advantage of a bad situation?

What's the catch? Let's take a look at one that I received in the mail the other day. "You are already approved for this credit card!" the letter said in the very first line. All I had to do was call to verify my details and activate my credit card and I could start using it immediately to make purchases 'from our catalog of excellent value items'.

That one letter is a veritable shopping list of everything to watch out for in bogus credit card offers. To list them:

• The card can only be used to purchase items from the company that issues it. Since I have no way to review the items offered without activating the card - for $250 - I have no way of knowing how their prices compare to the prices I'd find elsewhere, but I can guess that the prices will be outrageously high.

• The activation fee is outrageously high already. But I get it back, right? Not exactly. By activating this 'credit card' I'm committing to buy $250 worth of unseen merchandise from a merchant that I don't know.

• Ditto the $199 annual use fee. While many credit cards that are aimed at helping people rebuild their credit have annual fees, the average is $25 to $50. Again, the annual fee is a disguised way of committing you to spending $200 on their merchandise this year - merchandise that I can't evaluate in advance because I have to be a member to see their catalog.

• Rebuilding your credit is the one thing that this 'credit card' will do - but nowhere near as much as if you'd taken that $449 total and invested it in a secured credit card.Our advice is to do exactly that. If you can come up with a $250 activation fee, find a good deal on a secured credit card and put it there instead. In the long run, you'll do far better than if you accept the catalog company's generous offer to allow you to spend your money on their products.