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GEMB has been wonderful for me!! Your goal cards are my goal cards as well, but I am far away from those, probably 2, 3 years, so I have to utilize the credit available to me now. I am also rebuilding and I am just now being show unsecured luv after 6 years.. Walmart is my fav, I shop there 3 times a week and in fact GEMB is listed as 2 baddies on my credit report that is scheduled to fall off with the last of my baddies next year. I got approved for GEMB even with those, so they are very easy!! All GEMB list as revolving, but as another poster stated, it depends on which credit monitoring service u are looking at. Some list the names as different then others and I have seen Paypal buyer credit as special financing, but all the other GEMB cards are revolving as far as I can tell and if it ever hurts u in points, you can always send an appeal and ask for it to be removed and restated..
I would say you should go for GEMB now based on how your portfolio looks for those cards that you want. Even with good scores, we need usage and experience with credit and maybe GEMB can be that credit for you. I really like that GEMB sticks to customers who they have approved before, it shows loyalty and so few credit card comanies show that these days. They may not be the best company, but I have no personal complaints so far.
05/2010 JcPenney Instant approval in store 200 cl-just got cli over the phone today under 4 months history to 500 credit line GEMB card
07/2010 Walmart Instant instore, after calling and answeing verification questions 1200 credit line, new card, I luv this card, huge limit for me, fav store, shop here 3 times a week and plan on pif all groceries and items, plus GEMB is good about auto increases every 4 months
07/2010 Chevron/Texaco Gas Card Instant online approval 350 10 cents off rebate per gallon for rest of 2010, GEMB card, waiting for cli
08/2010Paypal Buyer Credit 500 -awesome and u can send cash by email to someone else and not be charged cash advance fees, just a transaction fee.
Those are my GEMB cards so far, taking a break, but they have treated me better then any other card I have, especially the Walmart card at 1200, my opinion, give them a chance, they will approve u to get ur business as long as you are smart with your credit and it sounds like u already have a smart plan figured out.
Does anyone know when GEMB reports or their time frame of reporting? My payment is due 10/12/10. statement ended 9/19/10. I just got the card. Thanks.
Tends to vary by store. Most of my GEMB accounts began reporting within 3 weeks of applying. Lowes actually began reporting within two days of my application.
As far as updating balances to the CRA's, the trend I've noticed (and I have five GEMB accounts now) is that they report your end of statement balance about 5-10 days after the new statement cuts. And, especially recently, on occasion they will update more than once a month. Now I recently moved l and I suspect this may be why they updated my accounts more than once last month, however I have seen a few other comments about frequent updating from other members as well.
@Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know when GEMB reports or their time frame of reporting? My payment is due 10/12/10. statement ended 9/19/10. I just got the card. Thanks.
GEMB is simply the bank that backs several cards. Each card may have a different due date & statement date. The due date cannot change from one month to the next, but the actual statement cut/closing date can. Looks like your statement closes about 1 week after the due date. As long as your payment is made by the due date, approx one week later is when they close & report to the CRA's.
I have several GEMB cards:
Walmart
Lowes
Old Navy
Amazon
PayPal Mastercard - just got this account about a week ago
I have some old medical collections and a couple of old judgements, but no late payments or BK, etc. Never been turned down for a GEMB card. The Walmart card was my first account when I started rebuilding over a year and a half ago... GEMB has been good for me.
@Creditaddict wrote:
@stan_the_man wrote:Keep in mind that they also seem to be quick to CLD and close inactive accounts.
I didn't use my Banana Republic card, and it saw a CLD and was closed within 9-12 months of non-usage. And, I have pretty good credit -- FICO scores consistently between 780 and 810.
All you have to do is call and tell them you would like to start using your card again and they will give you back your CL. typically a cl for non use is $100
I'm 1billion% sure it works everytime they CLD an inactive account. That's exactly the reason why I luv GEMB!
ifinet...they did that with my care credit too, so last Summer I called & asked for my limit back & got more! I love them too!
I have a 12 month interest free loan with them and my mortgage company paid 5k of the bill on it which left me some non 0% CC debt. I asked them to refund me the 5k which they did. The next month they charged me $120 in interest and said the 5k was a new loan. I called and complained about it and based on my conversation with the CSR, I didmn't have much hope they would reverse their descion.
I checked my online account yesterday and much to my suprise, they refunded me the $120 and made the 5k at 0% again which potentialy cost them 2k worth of interest.
Point is that while their interest rates may be high and CLs might be low, they play fair, more than fair. Anyone think say BofA or Chase would have done this. I don't think so.
Hey Marty...I agree about GEMB. They have given me pretty decent limits tho. Care Credit is $2600 & Lowes is $2900, but a couple weeks ago I also got a nice surprise from Wells Fargo.
I've had a Wachovia Visa for over 5 years & recently Wells bought them out & my card is now under their control. A couple months ago I had a bunch of stuff going on & missed my due date by 2 days & was subsequently charged something like $40 for the late fee. A couple weeks ago I was on the phone with a CSR regarding another issue & had mentioned that late payment. I told her that I'd even written on my statement:
"Paid $300....2 days late!!!
" <--- Mr YUK looking face too!
Later in the conversation she told me "Oh, by the way, I reversed that late charge & it will reflect on your next statement. Anyone who actually puts a "mad face" on their payment notes is someone who deserves a break!!"
I was very pleasantly surprised!
The big bank did something nice for the little guy!!