Review: Horizon Gold Credit Card

This post comes from Logan Abbott, editor of the credit cards section of MyRatePlan.com.

If you’ve found yourself in a situation where you have bad credit, then you may want to look into applying for a credit card designed for people with bad credit. You can see your credit score begin to improve fairly quickly once you begin using your credit wisely.

The Horizon Gold Credit Card is an unsecured bad-credit credit card that practically guarantees approval, but is it right for you?

Advantages

• Good chance of approval. A credit check and an employment check are not required.
• Reports to at least one of the three major credit bureaus. This is very important for rebuilding one’s credit score. Using the card responsibly and paying your bill on time will ensure that your credit score increases.
• No deposit required. Although this card is for people with bad credit, it is not a secured credit card, which means it does not require a cash deposit in order to use the card.
• No interest. The card does not charge interest on unpaid balances.

Disadvantages

• Horizon is not a bank. If you read the fine print, you will discover that Horizon Card Services is not a bank, but actually an online retailer. This means you can only use the card to shop at the Horizon Outlet, which is an online store.
• Monthly fee. The card charges a monthly membership fee of $24.95.
• Other fees. The card also charges an account validation fee of $5, a return check fee of $25, a residential delivery fee of $2 and a signature verification fee of $2.50.

Bottom line

Get it if: There’s really no reason to get this card when there are other great bad-credit credit cards on the market, like the First Progress Platinum Prestige Secured MasterCard and the Capital One Secured MasterCard.

Forget it if: You don’t want to pay a ton of fees for a line of credit at an online retailer.

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Note: While we attempt to be completely objective when reporting on credit cards, this site may be compensated by issuers when a reader applies for a credit card through the links within credit card stories or on our credit card search page. Also note that any terms, rates or other features described in this article can change without notice. Always double-check everything with the issuer before applying for any credit card.