If you're one of the many unfortunate individuals suffering from bad credit, poor credit, or worse yet, no credit at all, don't give up hope. There are credit cards for bad credit. With the help of new credit cards, specifically a secured or prepaid credit card, you can soon turn your poor or bad credit into good credit and, hopefully, get new credit in the future.

Credit card usage is at an all-time high with millions of dollars being charged to credit cards each year, both secured and unsecured. As a result, many people become overextended and end up with bad or poor credit. Often they don't realize they have poor or bad credit until they try to get new credit and are denied. Nothing can hurt your financial stability worse than having bad credit, unless it's having no credit at all. Credit scores are determined by how you've paid your secured and unsecured credit cards and other secured and unsecured debts (loans, etc.). If you've had or no credit, they have nothing to work with, which is almost like having poor or bad credit. There are, however, credit cards for no credit or bad credit-in the form of secured or prepaid credit cards.

Secured credit cards are called prepaid cards because, unlike unsecured cards, you're required to make a deposit on the secured cards, which becomes your credit limit on this new credit card. The credit card company has your prepaid dollar amount as security if you don't make your payments. These secured or prepaid credit cards are a great way to turn no credit, bad or poor credit into good new credit. If you make your payments on time, the credit card may turn into an unsecured credit card or you may be able to get a new credit or unsecured credit card from another company as well as other forms of new credit. Secured credit cards are also great for individuals having poor or bad credit due to having no credit. The prepaid cards are treated as new credit and when paid on time, will turn bad credit scores into good scores. If you have bad credit or no credit, look for credit cards designed for poor credit but with good terms. In spite of having no credit or poor credit, there are still many credit cards offering new credit with low APR and special offers.