 TITLE: How to Apply for a Credit Card With Bad Credit CONTENT: What to Do Before You Apply for a Credit Card\n---------------------------------------------\nYou can start by checking your FICO® Score☉ for free with Experian. It's a good first step because submitting a credit card application can lead to a hard inquiry, which could lower your credit score slightly. With this in mind, you might not want to submit an application unless you're fairly confident you'll get approved. But there are ways to find credit cards that are a good fit without hurting your credit score.\nIf you have a bad score, such as a FICO® Score below 580, one option is to look for preapproved credit card offers. You might receive these in the mail or from your current financial institutions. If you've gotten these offers, it's because you've been prescreened and meet the card issuer's requirements to extend a firm offer of credit.\nCredit card issuers might also let you request a credit card prequalification. Don't be thrown off if the website says preapproval rather than prequalification—some card issuers use the two terms interchangeably.\nWhen you submit a prequalification, the card issuer reviews your basic information and may invite you to apply for certain cards. You may be presented with several card offers, but if you don't get prequalified, you might want to look for options from other card issuers.\nBoth credit card preapprovals and prequalifications result in a soft credit inquiry, which won't hurt your credit scores. Neither one is a guarantee of approval; however, if your creditworthiness hasn't gotten worse since you were preapproved or prequalified, there's a good chance you can get the card.\nPreapprovals and prequalifications aside (they're not always an option), you could focus on credit cards that are generally available to people with low credit scores. END