anyone used a "guaranteed credit merchandise card" to raise available credit?

[tmacar]

I finally tracked the thing down. I only actually used it once, when I first got it, so I didn't even have the website handy anymore.

When I got the thing, it had either no up front fee or a really low one, like $20 or $25. It was so long ago I can't say for sure, but I do know I never would have signed up if it cost any more than that. It was sometime in late '05 or early '06, I believe.

I bought a cheap watch, because they won't report the account until you buy something, paid off the "credit" part of the purchase right away, and since then they've been taking $9.95 from my bank account every month and reporting the credit line to TransUnion. I may well cancel it soon, since my scores are about to go over 700 even without that account, but it was helpful for a while.

They do have a up front fee now, and I'm guessing that what happened was I was one of their first customers and they were making it cheap to get a bunch of customers in the beginning, then added the fee when they figured they had enough people that they didn't need to be so cheap anymore. Even so, $145 still seems to be less than a lot of these companies are charging.

[tmacar]

to laurenj:

I made a mistake, please excuse me. It had been so long since I had done anything with my gold card account that I had, it turns out, even forgot the correct name. When I tried looking it up, I ended up going to the wrong site, and I simply assumed that they had added an up front fee at some time since I had originally joined.

Last night I accidentally came across the actual card that they gave me with the account, which had the correct website name on it. It is not USA Gold Card. It is Express Gold Card. The site is www.expressgoldcard.com. And unlike most of these kinds of accounts, it is still free to sign up, no big up front fees.

Other than that, they work pretty much like all the rest. You get a $7500 credit limit which you can only use to buy their stuff. When you buy something, you have to pay a down payment, and the remainder of the price is charged against your credit line, which you then make payments on.

In looking through the site, I did find something surprising. It said that the $9.95 is an initial fee, which covers mailing the stuff to you. I was under the impression that the $9.95 was a permanent monthly fee, and someone has been taking that out of my checking account every month since I joined. I'm going to go back and read their contract carefully, and if that IS a one time fee, someone owes me some money.

In any case, even if it is $9.95 up front and then $9.95 a month, it's a better deal than all the rest of these accounts. Unfortunately, also like most of the rest, they only report to TransUnion, but that's better than nothing.

There's one other good thing about this account. I joined in May 2006. About 18 months later, they lowered the percent I have to pay for down payments. This was even though I only ever made 1 purchase (they do not start reporting the account until you make a purchase). If someone actually used the account and made more than a single purchase, I suspect the down payment percent requirement might even be lowered more quickly. That's just a guess, but they WILL eventually lower the required down payment amount on your account. Also, unlike most of these accounts, their stuff does not seem to be outrageously overpriced.

All in all, this Express Gold Card seems to be the best of all these types of accounts.

[tmacar]

MORE INFO ON EXPRESS GOLD CARD.

OK, I just read the whole contract. They changed the terms on November 1, 2007, after I joined. Originally it was a $9.95 initial fee and then a $9.95 monthly maintenance fee.

Now it is a $9.95 initial fee and a $14.95 monthly maintenance fee. Still a better deal than the $150 or $200 or more up front fees all the others demand.

They also have a regular down payment reduction program. The down payment requirement is reduced by 25% for every 4 months that payments are made on time.

If you do not make regular purchases, and therefore are not making payments every month, the down payment requirement goes down by 5% for every 6 months that the monthly maintenance fee is paid on time (meaning not rejected by your bank - they take it out of your checking account automatically every month).

My down payment has apparently been reduced several times, I just never paid much attention to it and was only aware of one of the reductions.

I'm not sure if the down payment ever gets to zero. If it says anything specific about that in the contract, I must have missed it.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much!  Excellent information.

[Anonymous]

tmacar i'm thinking about getting the express gold card that you have been talking about. could you tell me what types of products they offer (if i'm forced to buy something to activate the credit, might as well be something I want). Mainly, do they have any kind of electronics? like computers, stereos, tvs, anything like that?

[tmacar]

Codemen,

Succinctly put, yes.

In a bit more detail, the "store" is broken up into 10 stores as follow:

AUTO PARTS SUPERMARKET - Everything you need to customize or fix your vehicle.
BEST HEALTH DIRECT - An extensive array of nutritional and bodybuilding supplements, herbs, and vitamins.
FRAGRANCE MARKETPLACE - A virtual one-stop-shop for the finest fragrances money can buy.
JEWELRY STORE ROOM - Brilliant selection of rings, necklaces, bracelets, watches and other fine jewelry.
OH CLOTHING - Latest clothing fashions such as pants, jeans, shorts, shirts, jackets, skirts and dresses.
SPORTS STORE DIRECT - Fantastic assortment of sporting goods for enthusiasts, outdoorsmen, and fitness experts.
GADGET OUTLET - Thousands of consumer electronics such as PCs, game systems, TVs, and DVD players.
TOTAL HOUSEWARE - Everything for the home: furniture, appliances, cookware, deportations, and gardening.
TOOL SHOP STOP - All the tools needed for everything from home to automobile maintenance and repair.
YOUR SHOPPING BASKET.COM - An eclectic mix of crafts, collectibles and gifts for holidays, pets, and babies.

By the way, the descriptions are theirs, not mine. I pulled a few examples from their site, all from "Gadget Outlet", but I'm going to post them in another reply, so that a single post doesn't get too big.

[tmacar]

Codeman,

Here are a few examples from their site.

“Barebones” MSI Laptop, $842.95**

Fujitsu LifeBook A6025 Laptop, $2,099.00

Fujitsu LifeBook T2010 Laptop, $18,99.00

Fujitsu LifeBook A6110 Laptop, $1,198.00

Asus “barebones” Desktop, AMD, $278.00**

MSI “barebones Slimline Desktop, Intel , $236.95**

Acer Veriton M261 Desktop, Intel CPU, $511.95

Acer Veriton L460 Desktop, Intel CPU, $906.95

Asus P22 Media Center Desktop, Intel CPU, $1,333.95

Audiovox 60 Watt CD/MP3 Micro Shelf System, $109.95

Teac 5 disc CD Changer (also MP3), $275.00

JWIN 3 CD Changer System, $189.95

JWIN HiFi Syatem w/4 Verticle MP3/CD PLL Radio, $187.95

Pioneer 600 Watt 5.1-Channel Home Theater System,
Auto MCACC Sound, $241.02

Haier America 20# TV/DVD (CRT), Digital Ready, $1289.95

Haier America 15” HD LCD TV/DVD, $487.95

Audiovox 15” LCD TV/DVD, $530.95

JVC 37” LCD TV, $2,478.95

** I think these, especially the desktop models, are just the case, power supply, and a motherboard. If you ever decide to buy one of them, you should probably email them first for details to be sure exactly what you're paying for.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply tmacar. All those things are junk, I still think I will sign up and get a dvd player or something for my office. I think I'm also going to sign up for the Ox $10,000 line of credit and buy a ton of cooking books and fiction books, my mother-in-law will be excited

[tmacar]

Codeman,

I dunno, Pioneer and JVC make good stuff, and Magnavox usually isn't bad. Heck, for a long time, JVC speakers were one of the standards for professional installations, concert halls, theaters, etc.

I guess they might be junk for the prices that they want, I don't know. It's been too long since I bought stuff like that.

Anyway, most people (myself included) don't sign up with these kinds of places in order to buy stuff. We sign up to get that credit limit put into our debt to credit ratio.

It's just a shame that they only report to TransUnion.

You know, THAT might even change after a while. I do know that the bureaus have a minimum number of accounts requirement for businesses. If you had a business and wanted to re4port your customers to, say, Experian, Experian would only contract with you if you had a certain minimum number of credit customers.

While I'm not absolutely certain, I believe that the 3 main bureaus have different minimum numbers, with TransUnion being the lowest. Maybe these companies need to build up their customer account numbers in orde4r to start reporting to other bureaus.

I ran into a similar situation with a car loan a while ago. I discovered it was only being reported to 1 bureau, which I THINK was TraqnsUnion. When I asked why, they told me that their Utah office had just recently opened up (easy to believe - my loan was #801-00013, meaning their 13th loan in area code 801) and they did not yet have enough customers to be able to report to the other bureaus.

[Anonymous]

JVC and Pioneer are good for stereos, I'm a home and car audio fanatic, but the prices are steep for the products. The computers are mainly what is junk. Like I said, just to get it activated so that the credit shows for me, I'll probably just get a DVD player for my office.

The fact that it just reports to TU is fine with me. The main goal is to have that credit available to help with my debt to credit ratio like you stated. I was just thinking if they had a decent priced computer that wasn't total crap, I would get something I want/need while reaping the benefits of the available credit.