Home Improvement Financing

[Anonymous]

Hello all!  I finally bought my house last year!!  My credit is still good, but does anyone know what the minimum credit score is to finance for home improvement?  I want to change out my floors and thought about getting them financed through Lowes, Home Depot or Lumber Liquidators--all through Synchrony Bank/GE Capital.  I called the merchants and Synchrony Bank asking for the credit criteria and no one can tell me.  I wasn't asking for specifics, but just a round-about acceptable score.  If I applied and don't get approved, then that will definitely stay on my credit for two years and bring my scores down.  I know my Credit Karma scores which is from Experian (high 600s) and Equifax (low 700s) will be different than my FICO score.  Any suggestions or your thoughts would be greatly appreciated! 

[Anonymous]

synchrony is super easy for the lowes card. as a data point they pulled equifax that was like 670, got it for $700 then got an instant CLI to $12k. lower income.

[Anonymous]

idk if they SP my TU or not for the instant CLI because TU was almost 700

[Anonymous]

Grats on the house! I banked my cc rewards to pay for my new sink/faucet.  Next - countertops & flooring this summer.

You can see if you pre-qual for HD - go to the credit services link then scroll down to the bottom right of the page

It's likely that you'll have to do 2 HP to get a decent limit - see forum posts about it.

You might also consider opening a new card with a long 0% APR timeframe - depends on how much you're going to finance & how soon you'll pay it down.

[Anonymous]

If your score is over 720 and plan more renovation in the coming years, I would suggest a HELOC. Low interest rates, lots of flexibility.

[Anonymous]

while that's a good option, lowes offers 0% so that is nice too.

[Kidcat]

I'm doing a hybrid of both right now.  Financed a kitchen reno $35k at 5.99% (not zero because I will need longer to pay).  I'm finalizing up a Heloc.  At first I was going to pay off Lowes because it has a lower rate, but Heloc's are variable...so I may keep the Lowes (even though it will hit my credit for high utilization I still think it's worth it).

So OP, as one said if you know you will be doing things long term a Heloc is a great option, keeping in mind that they are variable rates.  Lowes and Home Depot have special financing for large purchases or projects.  If I were you I would have both if doable.

I know with Lowes even if you're buying small things and you know you will pay in full, you can get 5% off the purchase.

[Anonymous]

In march i went to lumber liquidators to pick out flooring before purchasing and once i gave some info to the sales rep i was preapproved automaticly for 15000 $ I noticed the high interest rate and ripped up the offer. I later returned to make purchase and i had a big enough order to do zero financing for 6 months so i let them do a hard pull. 1500 was my biggest credit line now i see other creit cards i own are following the higher limit. I am paying my flooring down as fast as i can but i dont want to pay too soon bc id like them to continue reporting on my credit report. I wiont have much need for this card. but ill try to use it when i can. 

[Anonymous]

Home Depot is CITI, NOT Synchrony!!

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Home Depot is CITI, NOT Synchrony!!

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I was about to mention that as well. 

Some people have good luck with Home Depot/Citi credit, but it's fairly well-known on here that Lowe's credit/Synchrony tends to be more generous with their credit lines, and more forgiving with a less than perfect credit profile.  You can (usually) get a SP credit line increase with Lowe's, while with Home Depot/Citi most CLIs are HP.

This is just 'in general'... as always, the usual "YMMV" disclaimer will apply. 

(Side note:  the promotional financing also varies between the two... depending on your circumstances one might be better than the other).