If you have bad credit you can build credit history with a prepaid card through the iAdvance Line of Credit^® from MetaBank. iAdvance is designed for people who want to improve their credit score, because each time you take out a short term loan and pay it back through iAdvance, your loan repayment performance is reported to the three major credit bureaus monthly. Your credit score largely determines whether or not you can get a car loan or other forms of credit and the amount of finance charges you will pay. The higher the score, the better.

Three Major Credit Bureaus

You are entitled to one free credit report a year from each of these companies. Here’s a good article from MSN Money on how to obtain yours.

iAdvance Line of Credit^® from MetaBank is Available with Prepaid Cards

Here’s how it works. First you set up a direct deposit on your prepaid card. When you take out an iAdvance short term loan in $20 increments, you will automatically pay back the loan at the time of your next direct deposit. Your available line of credit is determined by your credit history and, according to iAdvance, is capped at 50% of your direct deposit amount. So, if you have $500 directly deposited to your card, the most you could borrow at any time is $250.

When you take out an iAdvance you will pay 12.5 percent of the amount of each advance. For example, for every $20 that you advance, the advance fee will be $2.50. You won’t pay more than that, nor any fees for paying it back early.  Bear in mind that if you are just looking for loan to get you by until payday, there may be more economical loans available to you.

Is iAdvance a Payday Loan?

Some times, you run out of money, and you are forced to borrow to make it to your next paycheck. The problem with taking out “payday loans” to get you through, is that you can get caught in a vicious cycle of continually borrowing money to pay back your last payday loan, at a high interest rate. On an annual basis, your APR, or annual percentage rate, can soar upwards of 600% depending on where you get your loans! So you end up paying $600 in one year to borrow just $100! The APR on iAdvance is 150 percent.

iAdvance is an “advance” on your next direct deposit. In our view, it’s primary value is in building credit history. It is designed to be a short-term solution. “You should not use iAdvance if you believe you cannot repay your loan without borrowing again or your cash shortage is expected to last more than one pay period,” recommends MetaBank. “If you use the service for more than 12 consecutive months your iAdvance account may be temporarily suspended.”

If you have a MasterCard® prepaid card, or once you get your MiCash card, to learn more and enroll visit www.MyiAdvance.com and click on the enroll button.