i think i messed up-fingerhut

[Anonymous]

so i finally got my score to a 659 (from 489) and was preapproved for fingerhut and i think i made a mistake, the stuff on their site is double the retail price! Stimulater said my score will drop about 22pts with this approval, so im almost certain it wasnt worth that. should i keep it or cancel it? it would probably be 8pt drop for the inquiry but its better than 22!

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't close it. First, you already took the HP and approval hit, and closing it now doesn't do anything for you.  Fingerhut is actually a good little rebuilder on your CR.  They will report your credit line for years without you ever using it, so that helps utilzation.  And if you do decide to buy a fuzzy tiger bedspread, they usually will give you a hefty CL increase, even further helping utilization.  

[RonM21]

After using the HP, I'd be more on the side of keeping it also. Give it a bit of time, then you can revisit the situation again later.

[Pway]

I agree with the others posters here.  My account currently sits at 2350 and growing.  I don't use as much any longer but I use maybe once or twice out the year.  It is a great help with my util as some months my account balances are high from useage.

You have taken the HP for it so keep it opened.  

[surferchris]

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@Pway wrote:

I agree with the others posters here.  My account currently sits at 2350 and growing.  I don't use as much any longer but I use maybe once or twice out the year.  It is a great help with my util as some months my account balances are high from useage.

You have taken the HP for it so keep it opened.  

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Agreed.

[Anonymous]

Yes, agree with keeping it.

There is no rule that you have to refurnish your house through them, though.

I've had an account for ... good grief, lots of years.  I think I've bought maybe five things from them in that time, and almost always from the "clearance" page and with a free shipping promotion lol

I now have a huge credit limit with them, which I haven't touched in about a year.  The only down side, if you can call it that, is that I get tons of letters and catalogs from them trying to get me to buy something... it all goes into the recycle bin.

Several years ago when I was in rebuilding mode myself, it was useful.  As earlier posters have said, they are a pretty solid tool for that - they do pretty good credit line increases if you use them for something once in a while, and while their prices certainly are above average for most areas, you can undercut that using promotional coupons, or shopping on the "clearance" page.  You don't have to spend hundreds with them to make them happy, either - my first CLI back then was from $300 to $900 (so, 300%) after I bought a set of cookie sheets for about $35.  I could've probably bought similar bakeware at my local Walmart for $21.47 or something, but the boost in available credit and the related decrease in overall utilization, and its positive effect on my scores, was more than worth thelittle extra cash paid to Fingerhut.

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone I'm thinking I'm going to buy a mixer and then pay it off