Sadly, most credit cards welcoming folks with bad credit or no credit turn out to victimize people as big consumer rip-offs. Of all the cards on the market at the time of this writing, these were the only two cards that we found to be both consumer friendly and welcoming people anywhere in the country with bad credit. If you have no credit at all we highly recommend applying for both of these cards. No one wants to force you to take any of these cards and you may certainly do your own research, but these suggestions come from many years of effort to find consumer friendly credit cards. Orchard Bank has more options for an unsecured card and on the secured card side offers lower fees. If you only want one credit card for now try Orchard Bank. New Millennium carries more benefits associated with a Platinum Card but has higher fees too. For a third card, which we recommend, you could:

1. Establish the first account or two, let your credit build for a few months and then try for a third card as a regular unsecured credit card
2. Get a department store or gas company credit card.
3. Get 2 cards from New Millennium
4. Try a secured card from Bank of America if they have branch near you.
5. Try your own local bank for a secured credit card

We will have more options for other ways to establish credit in the next section. If you want more than three credit cards you could, but once you carry three having more will not neccessarily help the process of building up your credit score.

Some people going through this guide will be looking for a mortgage or auto loan in the next 30-180 days, this would merit the FAST response, others can choose to build credit a bit more slowly and not spend as much money or time on the process.