Cash Plus Credit Builder - What Is It & How Can I Apply?
By Hillary Smith • Mar 12th, 2008 • Customer Rating
(9 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
Loading ...Are you one of the millions of people in the UK that are either too young for a credit card (no established credit history), don’t have a bank account or have slipped up in the past paying back debt and now have a poor credit rating? You certainly are not alone. Those that have a good “credit score” do not realize how hard it can be to get a second chance or even a first chance to prove they are good for paying their credit card bill. Well, there is a solution…
APS have released a fantastic new feature their offerings. It is called Cash Plus Credit Builder and basically, what it does is gives you a prepaid mastercard that you cannot get into debt with. After 6 or so months, simply by using your prepaid card to make purchases online or using the ATM machine, your credit rating goes slowly up.
The card costs £9.95 and after using if for about 6-8 months, your credit score gets a boost. What’s great about this is that technically, you are never using a credit card. You can only spend what you have on the card. We have a cashplus prepaid mastercard review here. Have a read of it and see what others are saying.
It might be worth noting that this is also our top rated prepaid mastercard 9 months straight.
So who should use the cashplus credit builder?
Personally, I have my children using this card as the cashplus credit builder option is enabled on the card by default. I want my children to have an excellent credit rating without them having to take out loans or expensive credit cards. If you are a student, or someone with a poor credit score, this card is for you.
Where can you get the cashplus card with creditbuilder?
The cashplus credit builder is part of the cashplus prepaid debit card. You can order it on their official site here. Please stop back and let us know how you get on with the card. We love hearing success stories (and even complaints) about all of the cards and financial products we recommend.
Hillary Smith is a director of consumer affairs at the credit watchdog and editor for EndorsedCards. Hillary has dealt with literally hundreds of credit related court cases spends her time either writing for the consumer watchdog.
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Hi Hillary, good post and well explained. I have been using the cash plus credit builder for the past 8 months now and my credit score is pretty good now. I am getting all sorts of crappy credit card offers in the post now.
The only problem is that I don’t want a credit card anymore! I absolutely love the cashplus prepaid card. I really do not understand why people get credit cards these days when prepaid is cheaper and less risky.
Hi Ian,
Thanks for your comment. My eldest son actually just turned 18 and he is getting the credit card offers in the mail too. We had to add him xdirectory because of it. The cashplus credit builder actually does work, a little too well but to be honest, I want him to keep using it so he has a fantastic credit rating when he applies for a mortgage.
Regarding why people don’t use prepaid cards, I have no idea either! I am putting it down to consumer education (or lack thereof) and that is the main reason for this website. I actually covered this in a previous blog post here:
http://www.endorsedcards.co.uk/blog/are-prepaid-credit-cards-a-scam/
I think that explains things pretty well.
Thanks again for stopping by.
Hi - I know people have not replied to this for a couple of months but wanted to add a comment:
I spoke to cashplus yesterday about this feature (as I am a customer of thiers and have terrible credit and really want to build it up to be a really good score but haven’t been able to for ages due to companies not touching me with a barge pole - the old CATCH 22 we bad-credit lot have to deal with!!!) - anyway, it seemed too good to be true so I called them and asked about it and to be honest it really does seem like the miracle answer to anyone who needs to build credit without getting a product that requires, well, a credit check basically!! So yeah - I’m in!!!!
BUT my point for posting is this: you said in your article that after “6-8 months” your credit improves - but the person I spoke to at cashplus yesterday sad they report successful replayments back to the credit agencies every quarter (3 months) - so this is even better!! I just wanted to add this in case anyone stumbles across this page and is thinking, like I was, “why 6-8 months?”! - it seems every 3 months they give your credit score a boost - FANTASTIC!!
PS: Do you know which credit agencies they tell? I forgot to ask this to the girl on the phone - is it the main “Terrible Immoral Untrustworthy Wongly-Informed Intrusive Life-Ruining Three” we have in the UK (I am of course referring to: CallCredit, Equifax, Experian) or just one or two of them or all of them?
If you get time, any answer would be gratefully received.
Thanks.
OK, I think I will finally chime in here. (With a question for Henry Thompson)
I actually applied for the cashplus credit builder feature on my cashplus prepaid card the day you posted this Hillary. I missed a few load repayments for my motorike a few years ago and as a result, couldn’t get a credit card anywhere. It was a pain in the arse to be honest.
Two days ago, my bank called to offer me a credit card. That means I was using the creditbuilder for just two months! In fairness, I was buying a LOT of stuff online. I have a good job and that probably had something to do with it, but the fact of the matter is that it worked!
Thing is now I don’t want a credit card. I am very happy with my CashPlus card and while I have never had to call their customer service (thank God) I can’t vouch for that.
Henry, did you ever find out what agencies they report to?