Will having poor credit stop me from getting a mobile phone?
If you have poor credit, getting a mobile phone on a postpaid plan can be quite difficult. This is because the mobile phone company is extending you credit when they trust that you will pay the bill each month. If they don’t believe you’ll pay the bill based on your credit record, they may make the decision to not give you the phone.
Every mobile phone company has a minimum credit rating that they will work with. Some individuals have reported having poor to fair credit ratings and being able to acquire a mobile phone. In other cases, the mobile phone company may request that a deposit be made in order to grant the phone line. This deposit is a sort of insurance that says, “I will pay this bill.� If the bill is defaulted upon, the mobile phone company uses that deposit to satisfy the bill. This also means that the customer forfeits any possibility of receiving that deposit back at the end of the contract. All of this can become very expensive.
Because of the hassles associated with getting a postpaid phone, many individuals are turning to prepaid phones. These are phones that you purchase phone cards for. In other words, you buy your minutes in advance as you need them. If you are not a heavy user, you may find that buying 100 minutes per month is enough for you. If something happens that you need more, you simply buy more minutes. Because you pay in advance, the mobile phone company is not extending any type of credit. This is because you can’t use the phone unless you have bought minutes for it. Without minutes, it is a minimally functioning piece of electronic equipment.
So you can get a mobile phone with bad credit. You are just limited on what you can purchase. Purchasing a phone on a contract could be impossible or it could be expensive. However, prepaid is an option that you can take. The only thing to be cautious about with prepaid is that you have to be mindful of how much time you are using or prepaid may become expensive as well.
In the meantime, work on your credit. Pay off any of those accounts that are lowering your score. You can also dispute those items that you feel are not legitimate. By reducing the amount of credit that you are using, taking care of delinquent accounts, and taking care of erroneous items, you can purchase that postpaid phone in no time.
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