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TOP 5 WORST CREDIT CARDS LIST | REVIEW IN 2023
TOP 5 WORST CREDIT CARDS LIST | REVIEW IN 2023
WORST CREDIT CARDS | Let’s see what are the worst credit cards in 2023 by my honest review of the top 5 cards for beginners.
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| WORST CREDIT CARDS |
WHAT ARE THE WORST CREDIT CARDS
I talk
about how great credit cards are, I think they are. They help you save money
and free travel, helping build credit and the list kind of goes on. But watch
the world isn't all butterflies in sunshine.
So
today we're going to look at the slightly uglier side of credit cards.
Namely, we're going to talk about the 5 worst
credit cards of 2023 and stick around to the end note because I've got a
bonus one for you. So coming in at number 5.
#5- LUXURY CARD COLLECTIONS
We have
the luxury card collection, either the MasterCard, black card or the MasterCard gold card.
The 1st
credit card that's a huge red flag is you go on their website and right
under that apply now button. It says to watch a TV commercial here.
You
know to me, it's absolutely hilarious. What that reminds me of is TJ Maxx or
Marshalls wherever you go into the kind of these discount stores.
They
have these little knickknacks and gadgets and oftentimes be a little red as
seen on TV labels.
That's
what this card reminds me of. This is a card that you might have seen on a late-night infomercial.
It is
absolutely comical because these guys are supposed to be luxury cards. I've never seen a chase and American Express the senior Capital One take their luxury card and say hey by the way,
here's our commercial so something
is fishy.
There
is no signup bonus as far as an
earnings rate if you look on their website and this is what annoys me about
certain cards in which they position because they're not clear.
See on
their website they talked about their redemption
rate, which is how much can you redeem the points for but they don't actually
talk about their earnings rate.
Like if
you took the card and you swiped at a gas
station, how many points would you earn? Well, you wouldn't know that based
way.
I
literally had to call them and say hey, I'm interested in playing for the card.
What's my earnings rate?
It
wasn't until three attempts that the person on the other line was able to tell
me specifically what the earnings rate was.
They
literally tried to read me a script 3 times
of the benefits of the card. I mean, it felt like a hard sales pitch.
So
anyway, the earnings rate is just one point per dollar. So again, the card and the
MasterCard Gold Card.
They're
both positioned as these luxury travel cards and so there are not too many
differences in terms of benefits. The black card gives you a $100
airline incidental credit that could be used for its airfare.
The Gold Card gives you a $200 airline
incidental that could be used towards airfare they have the standard things
like global entry factor cards of this calibre Next we'll take a look at the
redemption so both cards are going to earn you 2% cash back for airfare
redemptions, which actually is pretty decent.
And as far as cashback redemptions for others, the MasterCard black card is going to earn you 1.5%.
In the gold card is going to earn you 2% one point per dollar
spent but then you can redeem it at a two cent per point value which is decent
on the Gold Card and on the black card.
isn't
bad either at 1.5x and 2x for the redemptions now though, let's go ahead and
jump into what the annual fee looks like for both of these cards.
So the
black card comes **** with the in the MasterCard gold card comes with a
whopping $995 annual fee.
So
that's nearly $1,000 That's crazy. So obviously it should be loaded up right?
Well, the only thing loaded up on the Gold Card is that it's toward Gold Card.
Okay, so let's do this. Let's take out the airfare credit so you knock off $100
for the black card $200 for the gold card.
So
that's $395 for the black and $795 for the gold. Okay, what else because these cards are positioned to us as luxury
as premium travel so I would expect they would compete against an American
Express Platinum, I would expect they would compete against the chase after
venture X city prestige longer
exists so it competes against those premium cards, but it's just a cashback card.
Yes, it
gives you Global Entry for the course at this level. What about
the point Transfer Partners can I take the earnings from any luxury card whether
the black card or the gold card and transfer it to a flight partner? No How
about a hotel partner? Can't do that either.
And
they come in even taking out the one and $200 airline credit they're still some
of the most expensive cards on the marketplace.
So then
who is this card for the answer is no one. This is not a good card. If you actually
want a luxury travel card event your ex will pay you $5 and give you all of
these benefits and it's a 2% Pretty
much everywhere a sapphire reserve is gonna give you the 1.5x Boost but guess
what you in the chase ecosystem you can transfer up to higher you can transfer
to United the American Express cards,
the platinum as well as the gold both of those cards you can transfer again
to flight partners as well hotel partners.
Fees
are much lower the Platinum is an effective annual fee, is maybe one to $200 the
American Express gold effective fee is actually about $10.
The
Sapphire reserve is $250 and the venture X pays you five bucks folks the luxury
card, MasterCard, black and the
MasterCard gold is marketing 1 or 1. There is nothing here this is a huge
nothing burger.
If you
are interested in premium travel do not look here also to just call it the fact
that they call themselves a black card.
You're
not a Mexican Tyrion Yes, the colour of your card is black. Yes, it's
marketing. what else what else are you giving me? Nothing. Now in addition to
that these guys are basically just a Cashback Card.
Why
don't you get a no annual fee cashback Citi Double Cash boom done. Heck, you
could even do a Chase Freedom Unlimited at 1.5% across the board at no annual
fee pair with the Sapphire reserve and get a 50% boost on those points and
there is a tonne of alternatives to either of these cards.
This is
just marketing one on one. Avoid it. I guess really the only thing these cards
have going for them is the fact that they're metal.
And
again for some folks, that's cool. It's a metal
is really just par for the course at this level.
And if
you want a metal
card with no annual fee, you can get an Amazon credit card that's metal. Now next coming in at number four.
Guess!
#4 - FINGERHUT CREDIT ACCOUNT
we have
the Fingerhut credit account if you've never heard of a finger
cut, I don't blame you.
I
haven't either. But what Fingerhut is it's like an Amazon but more expensive,
like a lot more expensive.
These
guys were founded in the 50s as originally believed they were a mail order
catalogues basically you can go on and find items on there, that's cool.
And
then you can buy items on there using credit from them to build but there's a
couple of issues here.
One is
on this website are just a lot more expensive. For example, a MacBook Air and
Fingerhut this thing is over $1,300 But if we went on Google and just searched
MacBook Air, look at Microcenter $800.
That's
$500 Cheaper just not buying it from here. But anyway, we'll play along. Okay,
so we want to buy something from Fingerhut because they'll let us pay in
instalments.
Great,
let's see what that looks like. So one of the websites to figure out exactly how
much we would end up paying if we were to try to do an instalment payment from
them to try to build credit right keep in mind the interest rate right now for
a Fingerhut credit account is 29.99% That's insane.
So, we
have at most $1,964 For MacBook Air that's supposed to cost $100 Folks, this is
literally two and a half times more expensive.
So
included in this obviously is going to be your interest charges then you have
to pay $30 for the down payment then you have to pay 625 for the financing
charges and all the rest of the law Oh this one hurts me.
You're
literally paying two and a half times more for something so that you can build
credit. In effect, you're paying $1,100 to build your credit.
That's
absolutely insane. I just I can't believe something like this exists and it's
just advertised like you should come on here to build credit $1,100.
If you
were to buy a MacBook obviously, for other things, it's cheaper but if it works
out the same way you end up whatever item you want to buy, you end up paying
what one times two times over so that you can finance it so that you can build
credit. At number three.
#3 -
FIRST ACCESS CREDIT CARD
Now we
have the first access credit card by
the Bank of Missouri now first impressions, not a bad clean website.
Let's see
details here to this term sheet where all the fees are laid out. The first thing to
call out is the APR interest on this is 34.99% Ah… listen on this channel we pay
on time and in full so interest rates never matter but the most I think I've
seen an interest rate float for any of the cards percent 34.99.
I just
I've literally never seen a number that big, I think on a credit card term
sheet before so that's where we're starting.
Next.
Let's go down to some of the fees. If you want to open this first access card,
you're going to have to pay some fees.
And
I'll take a minute to pause here which the thing that gets me about a lot of
these cards is that they're kind of pitched to how you pair it by the sort of
starting on the right credit journey.
These
fees and especially for someone if I think about it, if you're just starting to
build credit or you're repairing credit or wherever you are, you might not be
aware of how things work.
So
you're not going to go into the fine print and read these terms and conditions
and fees.
And yet
these are just absolutely loaded with like little landmines almost. So let's go
and take a look.
First, you have the $5 because of course if you want to open a credit card with us, we
just set it up for you 95 bucks.
Next, you have an annual fee of $75 for your first year but then in your second year
we actually dropped that to only $48 Okay, following that we have a monthly
maintenance fee.
Now in
the first year, there is no monthly maintenance fee but in the US dollars and 25
cents a month to maintain your account on top of the annual fee.
Don't
forget don't forget now let's jump into some of the more miscellaneous fees. So
if you want an additional card, which is like adding an authorised user, you're
gonna have to pay us a fee of $29.
Keep in
mind for most no annual fee cards, the Chase Capital One Discover card that I
talked about for additional users, that's free next if you want a premium card
you'll have to pay us a fee of $6.95.
What
does that mean? Well, I couldn't actually figure it out unless I applied for
the card. I did not want to give them the information.
So I
called the representative and I said you mean card. What does that entail? They
literally told me.
So if
you want a picture of say the ocean or a picture of an animal or picture of
American flag, we're going to charge you 695.
But
that's not even the best thing to do that limit increase fee. What does that mean? Well,
again, the segment of the population here is you're working in credit, you're
building credit so you obviously you know you're very limited credit limit and
so you want to increase that. Well. Let's say that first access card increases
your credit limit by $100. You owe a fee of 20% of the increase.
So we
increase your credit limit by $100. You're gonna have to pay us $20 For that,
that is not normal. When I read that in the terms and conditions.
It was
literally just like I've seen it all I've literally seen it all the fact that
we want to help you build credit, but the minute that we actually increase your
credit limit that could actually help you because it will reduce
utilisation. We're going to charge you a fee for that.
We
gotta keep going up a common statement for whatever reason, we're gonna charge
you $3 to send you a statement copy they thought of it all now let's go to the other miscellaneous section there's going to be
interest.
If you
hold the balance you're gonna pay interest and by the way, friends will be
packed into this channel if we pay on time and in full we don't know banks, or any
interest.
We never pay interest because we pay on time
in full but say that you missed up or whatever it is and you ended up at a
minimum you will owing $1 of interest.
Like it
doesn't matter if the interest that you're assessed might be 20 cents or 30
cents and a minimum of $1 interest reiterating this list again it's just ah
folks don't do this.
This is
not normal these types of fees are hidden in terms and conditions like this is not
the norm but there you go.
So
promise me you're probably thinking okay, well I've got some benefits, right
maybe give you travel benefits, maybe they're gonna get great earnings
rates. No, there are no benefits.
This is
a credit card with a lot of fees. That's it. There are no to wrap it up in year
one, the first access card by the Bank of Missouri you will owe a fee of $170
just to get everything set up and running in year two.
And
every subsequent year it seems as if the fee is going to be $147 a year to put
that into perspective, the beginner entry level cards that I talked
about and even the secured and student version of those cards I talked about
such as a discover it a chase, capital and Quicksilver no annual fee
for opening it.
There's
no opening fee. There is no maintenance fee. There's just no fee it's
free. Coming in at number two for worst cards are point 23.
#2 - PREMIER BANK CARD MASTERCARD
We have
the premier bank card MasterCard, this card is totally for folks who
have a credit score of over +500. They will give you a credit limit of anywhere
from $200 to $700.
Same as
before let's go open up this trade 36% Just what I thought 34.99 couldn't get
any better. 36% insane.
Again
folks with credit cards were paying on time and in full. We all know the meat
and potatoes are going to be in the feet.
So
let's see what kind of fees we got here. The first thing I want to note as a
red flag for this term sheet is the font is tiny.
This is
not if this is printed and sent to me and all they you know print small they
want to fit on a page whatever.
This is
an online PDF to make this bigger you just move that mouse arrow to the little
thing that says font size and go 14, 15,16 Odd you can read it what up guys I
kid you not I literally had to like to smoosh down my way to the screen to read
it.
Why?
Why is that? So that's gonna be my first red flag. It's very difficult to
actually read the terms and conditions and the fee schedule in here but
nonetheless, I was able to so let's jump in the first fee is the setup fee $95
just to open the account.
Next, we
have the annual fee it's $125 the first year and it's $49 Second year of monthly
maintenance.
There's
no monthly maintenance fee in the first year but in the second year every
single month you will pay $10.47 to maintain the account in similar to the
first access card there is a credit
limit increase fee, this fee is 25%.
So if
they increase your credit limit by $100. You would have to pay a 25% fee of the
100 which is $25.
So it's
like John you've done a great job you show Responsible Use we want to increase
your credit limit and find a way for us to do that.
You're
gonna have to pay us we're gonna increase by $100 You're gonna have to pay us
25 bucks in what world does that make sense?
In
fact, it's gonna be a copy fee. If you want a copy of the statement. It's $3.
So if we add everything up in the first year, you're gonna pay a total fee of
$220 that is on par with an American Express gold and yet the gold is an actual
premium card and effectively you pay $10 for it.
You get
all these travel perks but you pay
220 here, but no worries. The fee in the second year only drops to $173.80.
Every
year thereafter. We're gonna get through, we're getting some other interesting
things to call out similar to the first access card interest charges at a
minimum of $1.
So if
you happen to hold a balance and it's a very small balance and I was saying the
premier bank card we'll round that up and make sure that you're paying at least
$1 in interest.
I
thought this was just interesting. You can't get this card if you live in New York or Wisconsin.
Never
seen that for at least a major card brand before where if you live in the state
it's not even like a scooting of credit
score.
So it's
like if you live in the state of New York you can't have the car now I know the
state of New York has some pretty aggressive consumer protection and consumer
finance laws.
So I
wonder why someone living in New York
can't get this card and again, I want to call it out again the tiny font it's
comical.
I
literally it's like you had to like I had to take out a magnifying glass and
just like winging it, the number 1 worst
card of 2023.
#1-
SURGE PLATINUM
CARD
We have
the surge platinum card. So let's crack in and see what this
cards got. First off, the APR is 29.99%.
I guess
relative to the other card list. That's not bad, but objectively that's
horrible still, but really though we know meat and potatoes are in the fees.
So what
do we have as far as fees? So the first thing to call out is there's actually
no setup fee, which again relative to the cars on the list, that's a good thing
but objectively that's nothing burden.
So the
annual fee will range anywhere from 75 bucks to 100 monthly maintenance fee.
There is no monthly maintenance fee in the first year in the second year.
It'll
range anywhere from 0 to $10. If you want to no surprise user, that's going to
cost you 30 bucks.
And if
you want a premium card design,
which again, it wasn't easy to figure out what that meant on the actual
application.
So I
called in and said hey, I want a premium card. What didn't really pick a
different colour so if you wanted a card that was silver or pink or brown that
will cost you $9.95 And get this they have an optional fee on here because you
know it's not mandatory, but the optional fee here is called the expedited
service fee.
Does
that mean something gets done quicker? Well, again, I called in and asked him
what is this expedited service fee?
That's
optional. It turns out that if you want to pay off your card and you don't use
the mobile app or you don't use a website and you call them and say hey listen,
I want to pay you money for the credit
card that I'm using, you're gonna get charged an expedited service when
it's not as if the transaction costs if you call them to do it, and that fee is
$5.95.
But but
but but I do want to let you guys know that it actually used to be $10.95
According to a customer service rep.
So
they're actually doing everyone a favour by only charging you six bucks to pay
your credit card over the phone. It's not normal folks, this is not normal.
So
let's go ahead and add it all up. So in the first year and a maximum you'll
pack it into the card in the second year in subsequent because the monthly fee
kicks in, you can pay a max of $245 a year.
That's
insane. It's insane. It doesn't make sense. It's not normal $245 for a card
that will charge you six bucks if you just had to call in to pay it off. So
that's the first part of 2023 But we're not done yet.
Of
course, I've got an honourable mention for you friends. Before I get to the
honourable mention, I want to give a little bit of background and context for
those of you who might not know, obviously concentration is a huge portion of
my livelihood and so I am very well in a part of the Creator economy.
That
means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But for me, it's
just basically one part of that trade or economy.
What
I've seen over the past two years is kind of these rise of companies and
businesses service people who are in the creative economy, their pitch is well,
as a creator, you're unique, you're special, you're different, and therefore
you need unique, special and different services that normal processes might not
be using.
Which
on the surface. Yeah, maybe it makes sense. You know, I'm a contractor. And
let's say, Okay, I don't really have a software company that I'm running like,
my company is me and my face and my ability to speak and communicate engaged.
That seems special and unique.
So all
these different companies, right, this for a creator that for a creator, this
retreat or that for a creator, and lo and behold a credit card popped up for
creators now, at some point stuck my interest because I'm a creator, do I think
I have special problems? Not really.
But if
there's a credit card for creators,
you betcha I want to jump on I want to see what am I missing out on as a
content creator and what am I missing? Out on specifically from a credit card
perspective? So let's turn our attention to the carrot card.
And the
pillar card I think is that oh, there are so many things happening in your
financial life, let us say shiny metal credit card.
But if
you want to take a minute to pause here and clarify for friends, right exactly
as a content creator because let's be very, very honest and transparent with
one another, a content creator, one influencer, someone who makes YouTube
videos you make tiktoks Who makes Instagram, blogs might even have a
newsletter.
What
are they really it might be a shock to friends but it is as most content
creators on YouTube make money add ads play we make money off of the ads.
Now, what are sponsorships? Sponsorships are ads companies come in saying hey, talk
about our product.
We're
paying you content creators who are just advertising. They're just basically
kind of like media.
Oh,
basically. I'll be the first to admit I'm not that special. Alright, what I do
is not that special for big companies, how they do this, okay, let's say a
financial company.
They
are going to spend $100 million in advertising this year, a portion of it gets
delineated to influencer marketing, but guess what? It's still rising in
marketing spending.
It's
not that special. And especially when I look into what do you do for a living
and I'm telling them Oh, I make content on social media.
Like
what, what? What does that mean? And I was like, never mind, what I do is I do
ads.
So
you're kind of like a services based organisation, right? I'm like, Yeah, kind
of look at that. This 70 year old accountant was able to figure out what I did
based on maybe three lines of the Creator Economy is nothing that is so wow so
unique, so special in of itself in different the solution through the Creator
economy.
They're
really not that unique. They're just like, it's like saying, Hey, you're a
content creator. Look at this. You see this sparkling water well, this is
sparkling water. Yours have an unmatched and unparalleled level of thirst,
therefore, creator fizzy water. It's not a thing. It's not similar to kind of
what we talked about with these cards where these there's these crazy fees.
It's not a real thing in my eyes, at least because again, as a content
creator, you are an advertising arm.
That's
where your card comes in at a signup bonus of nothing. Then as far as an
earnings rate, well, this is where things are because it couldn't really find in
earnings.
See, I
go up and down this page and it just says okay, there are these buckets here
that you can pick from that you can earn points on it doesn't say anywhere like
what that is so what I actually had to do similar to the other cards is pick up
the phone and call in and ask them Hey, what are we up to?
As
described to me you're gonna earn three points per dollar spent on Costco or
Sam's Club 1.5% spend on all add 1.5 on anything through PayPal, you'll
earn 1.5 spend through Amazon and you'll earn three points five spent
everywhere else, which actually is pretty decent depending on what category
you're in on here.
They
weren't clear on what was laid out. On one hand, there are these benefits. I
see. Like for example, like financial advising, bookkeeping, and trying to hold it
and ask about it.
I was
told that actually, you can redeem your points or your cashback when you
earn to the card for those services.
So
those are benefits. They're just
additional services you can pay for with points. Now let's look at some of the
other benefits.
So this
actually does seem like school it helps you network with other creators. That's
cool. A shark tank for creators.
That's
interesting. Shark Tank has been atrocious success record, by the way, just most
angel investing.
But
okay, learn how to invest not sure what that means. But okay, learn how to
invest and then we have casino nights.
Okay,
that's actually pretty interesting on a card. So those are really stuck. out to
me though, was in the way that it was repairing itself to other cards on the
marketplace.
It's
not exactly clear like what type of card this is right. And what I mean by that
is, isn't a business is it a personal card? Is it a charge card?
Is it a
credit card, but they gave us a great diagram that actually pulled this diagram
Wayback Machine in which they compare themselves to chase ink business cash,
which is a business credit card to American Express, which is a personal charge card.
And in
fact, you're comparing apples to bananas to a basket. And then obviously they
win all the categories as a creator, like why would you want a business credit
card?
Well,
you want a credit card probably to build
your credit then as you scale your business and it gets bigger, you
probably want a business card right large, separate out expenses, keep your
expenses separate, and make it easy for your accountant, but what is this chart
telling me?
Well,
it's comparing again to a business credit card which you can technically
take your personal charge card which for charge cards you can balance on in the
carrot card itself is a merchant credit
advanced account, I asked the person on the phone what that was I didn't
really get a clear answer.
And I
was like, well does it help you build credit and they're like, oh, it's in the
works, but I looked at counts specific report to the credit bureaus, meaning
they're specifically not helping you build credit.
Specifically,
they're not helping your business build credit because for a lot of businesses
at some point, you don't want to be the personal guarantee on the card, right?
You want to be able to go get a loan to name your business.
For
whatever reasons. And so business credit
profile for your business the same way a personal credit card does, but this
business card for your business doesn't help you do that.
So for
me at the end of the day, I understand what the carrier card is trying to do is
help creators with finances get them up and the biggest like is there's no
signup bonus and then you look at some of the other categories for example,
the ad spend category right now.
Categories
1.5x For every dollar spent if you get a American Express business gold you
can get for x on that if you get Chase X on the ad spend and so there are better
opportunities to earn with actual business
cards.
In
addition, those cards come with signup bonuses, now I get it if you're new,
you're just trying to figure things out. You're trying to manage it.
Absolutely.
It's
gonna knock it But Peter jumping on a carrot card that doesn't lie with the business credit bureau and it doesn't report your personal credit bureau to you
just having this card but you're again not building any credit and again for
dry cleaners.
The
most important thing is I'm guessing you might have not had a credit card or if
you're just starting out your business you probably don't have a lot of
business credit.
So you
want to build just a tonne of cards. Critical that someone who looks at it
at its face value goes, friends, this has been great info. It's all good. I just
feel like I got a lot off of my chest because you see these things come in
these cards with these crazy fees and it's like someone's got to call it right
somebody's got to call it out.
And so
I guess I'm not somebody if y'all got comments, questions concerns, drop them
down below.
Conclude- Here I have explained regarding what are the 5 worst credit cards in 2023 reviews for beginners.
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