Store cards that are not Visa, MasterCard, etc. are often listed as "charge card" as the type on consumer reports, but are revolving credit products and still counted that way for scoring purposes. Here's my Lowe's card. It can't be used outside of Lowe's, so it's a charge account, but the account has revolving terms. I don't think any lender is going to look at a card with a $35,000 limit as a subprime account.
The "I'd better close this so it reports as closed by consumer instead of closed by lender" thing is completely blown out of proportion. This makes zero difference, unless you are undergoing a manual review for lending. Certainly if you're going for a mortgage later this year and a potential lender sees that you had 7 accounts all closed by lender in May 2020, that might give the impression that (as one example) you were late on all of the cards while having other factors of high risk, but not late enough for them to report 30+ days late to the CRAs.
Why would someone need to check an account every week for fraud? Isn't once a month often enough? My Amazon card has been opened for 8 years; I had a single fraudulent transaction in 2016. (And even in that case, I don't understand why they allowed the transaction. The card is attached to an Amazon account, and they obviously have the purchaser's account information. If the purchaser's Amazon account doesn't match the Amazon card information, it really shouldn't be going through anyway.)
I edited my post up above to show how my Lowe's Card reports on TransUnion. It's a charge card because it's not a bank card that can be used anywhere the payment network (Visa, MasterCard, etc.) is accepted. Technically, any store card that's not also a widely-accepted credit card is reporting incorrectly if it shows "credit card" or "flexible spending account."
Weekly just seems like overkill. One of the main reasons to use credit cards is for consumer protections. If you had noticed fraud on your account a month later, Synchrony would credit you for the fraudulent charge immediately.
@Anonymous wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:Store cards that are not Visa, MasterCard, etc. are often listed as "charge card" as the type on consumer reports, but are revolving credit products and still counted that way for scoring purposes.
The "I'd better close this so it reports as closed by consumer instead of closed by lender" thing is completely blown out of proportion. This makes zero difference, unless you are undergoing a manual review for lending. Certainly if you're going for a mortgage later this year and a potential lender sees that you had 7 accounts all closed by lender in May 2020, that might give the impression that (as one example) you were late on all of the cards while having other factors of high risk, but not late enough for them to report 30+ days late to the CRAs.
Why would someone need to check an account every week for fraud? Isn't once a month often enough? My Amazon card has been opened for 8 years; I had a single fraudulent transaction in 2016. (And even in that case, I don't understand why they allowed the transaction. The card is attached to an Amazon account, and they obviously have the purchaser's account information. If the purchaser's Amazon account doesn't match the Amazon card information, it really shouldn't be going through anyway.)
I check weekly for fraud as if something happens it's best to deal with it as quickly as possible instead of waiting till next month to check.
Why not just set up alerts?
I feel compelled to ask... if you don't use Amazon Prime why did you even bother with the card?
@recoveringfrombk7 wrote:I feel compelled to ask... if you don't use Amazon Prime why did you even bother with the card?
$120 gift card sub
