Activation fees. Membership fees. Monthly fees. Statement fees. The boatload of fees associated with some subprime cards is definitely enough to give anyone serious heartburn. In the worst cases, the card can already come with three-fourths of its limit consumed by fees! So any rational person is bound to ask, "is it worth it?"

The answer, just maybe, is yes, so long as the card reports to the credit reporting agencies as a revolving account. If your credit score is in the toilet, you have to ask yourself how much continuing to have a low credit score will cost you, in terms of higher interest rates and lost opportunities, and then balance that against all those fees. If paying $300 in fees over the course of a year can get you from from a 480 to a 600 FICO, it might just be worth it. You can always cancel the card once you qualify for less painful options.