Lowes or Home Depot?

[Anonymous]

Okay, first, I have NO intentions of apping for this until I buy a house which is not until early-mid 09.  I'm just trying to get feedback on which store may have the best card...

Personally I prefer Lowe's. As a female, I am aware that the store is intentionally geared towards woman - and they did a good job. I used to work in advertising and had friends on the Lowes account. They figure that in most households the women ultimately make the decisions in the home purchases, thus they gear the stores towards the decision maker. Smart people. LOL

However, I am interested in who is going to give me the best CL, terms and if they offer any type of rewards.  Any of you on here have either card and care to share your thoughts? And, store card or mc/visa?

Message Edited by UpUpUp on 07-24-2008 02:02 PM

[Anonymous]

Hello UP

I am in the construction industry, whenever i go to Home Depot I really have to know were the item is

make sure the item is not damaged, make sure i do not need assistants from there people and be

there at 6 AM cuase they only have 2 cash registers open for 1,000,000,000,000 square feet of store

In other words the people at lowes help you find the items make sure you are happy look for items

that are not stocked at the shelves at the stock rooms, and they are happy to help you

When you are ready to pay they have the correct amount of cash registers open no waiting time

Me I HATE HOME DEPOT,  LOVE LOWES

[Anonymous]

I got a HD store card last year when my credit was so-so (low 600's).  It started out with an $800 CL.  I have a tendency to shop a lot in the summer for home repairs, but then cool down in winter, so I have always carried a balance.

I had a CLI within 6 months to $1,400 and then had another CLI within a few months to $2,400.

However, in my personal opinion, the Finace Charges are ridiculous - mine is at 22.99%.  Fair warning!

I'll also admit that I liked Lowe's better (i'm female), but HD is right around the corner.  I used to have a Lowe's card and had a CO on it about 8 years ago.  I have never tried applying for one again, but I remember the finance charge was high on it too.

[Anonymous]

One more though I forgot to mention, HD shares your information with other creditors as I constantly get credit card pre-apps in the mail now.  I know because they spelled my name wrong on my HD account and all the pre-apps are spelled wrong too.

[haulingthescoreup]

I generally like Lowe's better as a store, although with our local pair, HD is better. I got an HD card solely because it is serviced by Citi, and they are great. Unlike PP's experience, they have't shopped me to anyone else. I think I remember that they have those check boxes asking if it's OK to mail info; I'm pretty sure that I checked Yes for the Home Depot stuff and no for their "partners." Just about every retailer and bank seems to do this now...

I don't want to fool with anything from GEMB. I know that there are people who are happy with their individual GEMB cards, and there might be people with high CL's in their Lowe's card, but all my reading here tilts heavily toward better experiences with HD than with Lowe's. When I get done chopping up the CC's I've decided not to keep, Home Depot will be my keeper store card, with a $4K initial CL.

Saying that, I do believe that if you already have great scores and a great report, you can get a good deal from Lowe's. But I didn't want to risk it. YMMV

[Creditaddict]

you are getting offers now that you have home depot because it is backed by citi and citi will now probably give you any number of there other citi cards.  So they really arn't sharing your info, it's most likely citi only.

and it's considered a store card so if it's not on there promo rates it is going to be high.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the replies. I have to say that for someone in the construction trade to say they hate home depot, that speaks volumes to me. Particularly since I don't care for them much anyway. But, when the quality isn't there in the products either, I guess I'll be taking my business to Lowes. I think I'll check when the time comes to see if there is any incentive to use a store card or store branded visa/mc - if not, I'll probably just use a different rewards card for any purchases.

[fishbjc]

I have had excellent service with GEMB and I love my Lowe's card...it's seeing some usage.  I get hives when I go to HD...terrible service.  I don't know anything about their store card though, sorry.

I do buy a lot of 10% coupons off of eBay, they're always honored at both...no problem!

[mrlimo]

I have a lowes card. I got it for the mere purpose of using there money for 6 months on a purchase, got the additional 10% for opening a new card, another 10% for the promotion they were running on appliances at the time for purchaseing it on there lowes card. Since it has been paid off though it has seen limited action $5.00 - $10.00 purchases every 3 months or so to keep active. I use my rewards card for all other purchases there. Unless they offer a deal that beats the rewards % back it would only be used for keeping the TL active purchases only.

 When you buy your new house make the list of what you need... Get the 10% for new card opened and hopefully take advantage of the 0% for the time period and PIF before the promotin ends.

[Anonymous]

Hey Up I have both the Lowes and The Home Depot card personally I like both without having a favorite between them. Regarding CL"S I opened Home Depot first it had a pretty high CL about 30 days later opened up a Lowes their CL not near as much like 1/3 of the Home Depot card. Here"s the good part about Lowes: called CS talked with a guy told him that I would like to do most of my shopping with Lowes however their CL was way lower when compared to their competitor Home Depot. He put me on hold came back to the phone asked me what dollar figure I had in mind I told him it would be great if they would match CL"S his response was will that be satisfactory I probaly could have got them to bump it a little higher but I seen no need to be greedy. With that said I luv lowes in that respect I have not received any CLI from Home Depot since opening about 16 mos if I had any dislikes I guess this would be it.