Wells Home Projects Visa....STAY AWAY

[IWOL]

Just wanted to warn anyone who might consider this card at anytime...its a bad idea, stay away.

I got this card/account to finance a new central air system. Basically they give you a line of credit that can only be used with certain vendors that do home improvement stuff and then you also get an actual visa card that you can use anywhere with a seperate line.

The biggest problem with this account is they gave me a credit line of $9500 of which $1200 is for the Visa card. I spent $7000 on the new air uit and install which is more like an installment loan at 9% with a fixed monthly payment of $133. Problem is they report the entire line as "revolving" so it pushed my util from 23% up to 39% plus the account itself i showing almost 90% util.

The VIsa card has an APR of 27.99%.....how generous of you Wells. I obviously wont be using the Visa at all.

Im going to get this paid off in 6 months and then il jjst keep teh line to help with overall util.. It was a total waist of an inquiry and new account. I should have called Wells to get a better undertanding of how this account worked before applying, lesson learned.

[navigatethis12]

I'm not understanding what the problem is here. The interest rate for the Visa purchases won't matter if you pay before the due date, so why not just do that? The card is a revolving card, just like any other store card.

[DigitalArk]

Hum...thank you for the info, even though I am a little bit confused just like Navigatethis12.

[IWOL]

The problem is, I thought that this account would report as an installment loan and not affect my utilization.  I realize its a revolving line of credit but it can only be used for home improvemnet purchases from select vendors, so it probably something I will only use once. I think I would have been better off looking for a financing option that was treated like an installment loan so that I could take 18 months to pay of the new AC and not have it affect my ustilization. 

[tcbofade]

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@IWOL wrote:

The problem is, I thought that this account would report as an installment loan and not affect my utilization.  I realize its a revolving line of credit but it can only be used for home improvemnet purchases from select vendors, so it probably something I will only use once. I think I would have been better off looking for a financing option that was treated like an installment loan so that I could take 18 months to pay of the new AC and not have it affect my ustilization. 

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OK.  I'm sorry that happened.

...but if you're truly planning to pay it off within six months and you're not planning to apply for anything else between here and there, it shouldn't affect you at all.

Perhaps talk to Wells Fargo or another lender about an unsecured personal loan for the $7,000 you spent on the AC unit...then it will report as an installment loan instead of a revolving line.

Of course, 9% is hard to beat...especially unsecured, so it may cost you more dollars which IMHO is not worth it.

[youngandcreditwrthy]

Lowe's would have been a better bet. They had5.99% for 84 months. You could easily get a 10-15k cl. It is revolving tho

[navigatethis12]

Well I don't know of any store cards that report as an installment loan. I know Macy's has sub accounts for jewlery or furniture, but I don't have those so don't know how they report.

[enharu]

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@IWOL wrote:

The problem is, I thought that this account would report as an installment loan and not affect my utilization.  I realize its a revolving line of credit but it can only be used for home improvemnet purchases from select vendors, so it probably something I will only use once. I think I would have been better off looking for a financing option that was treated like an installment loan so that I could take 18 months to pay of the new AC and not have it affect my ustilization. 

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Well, it's just like any store card, which are all also revolving lines of credit. 

An installment loan will also affect your approval odds simply because your DTI will go up, while your FICO scores may not be affected as much.

Besides, what difference is this all going to make? Are you possibly looking for more credit even though you just borrowed 7k?

I am pretty confused here about what the problem is really.

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@navigatethis12 wrote:

Well I don't know of any store cards that report as an installment loan. I know Macy's has sub accounts for jewlery or furniture, but I don't have those so don't know how they report.

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My gf had a major purchases account with Saks. it reported as a revolving line of credit.

I think it's the same for Macy's and Bloomingdale's.

[tinuviel]

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@IWOL wrote:

The problem is, I thought that this account would report as an installment loan and not affect my utilization.  I realize its a revolving line of credit but it can only be used for home improvemnet purchases from select vendors, so it probably something I will only use once. I think I would have been better off looking for a financing option that was treated like an installment loan so that I could take 18 months to pay of the new AC and not have it affect my ustilization. 

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Well, since it is a revolving line of credit, then it makes sense it it would report as such. Even though you can only use it with selected vendors, it's still a revolving, rather than installment, account. It sounds kind of like CareCredit; you can only use it at select vendors, but it's a credit card and reports as a revolving account. IOW, it is what it is.