Getting a credit card is getting harder, so a pitch for a "pre-approved" gold or platinum credit card with a "guaranteed line of credit" sounds mighty appealing.

But Bob Schroeder with the Federal Trade Commission office in Seattle wants you to remember one thing: "The words credit card don't necessarily mean MasterCard or Visa."

Schroeder says some of these so-called credit cards can only be used for one thing -- to buy overpriced merchandise from the company's mail order catalog.

"And then instead of simply being able to buy products and pay it off on time, they might have to pay a down payment of say as much of 30 percent. And the cost of the goods in the catalog may be two to three times what they'd be paying in a retail store. So it turns out the down payment to put it on the credit cards is the same as the price they would pay if they went to a department store," he said.

What a rip-off! And there's another catch: to get the card, you have pay an advance fee that can be as much as a couple of hundred dollars.

You should never pay an up-front fee for a credit card.

For more information:

FTC Charges 'Credit Card' Companies with Deceptive Marketing