Fingerhut Approval

[Lady_J]

Got approved for the Fingerhut Freshstart with whopping $230 credit limit. Lol. Before I place an order, should I pay it off in full or should I make payments. Any advice is appreciated.

[Henchman21]

If you pay it in full, it cancels the program. I'd make the deposit and then one or two payments.

[Lady_J]

Ok. So how does it work. I order a $50 item. Put the $30 down so I only have $20 to pay off ? Or does the down payment not count towards the purchase? Sorry for the questions. I don't want any surprises.

[Jon85]

I just got approved for that too. The way that it was explained to me was:

The first time you make a purchase, you make a down payment of $30, and then you pay monthly for the balance. (The $30 goes toward the item so your example is correct).  But as soon as you pay the balance, The Fresh Start automatically gets turned into a revolving account (which is what we essentially want), regardless if you pay if off in full the first month or over a couple of months. 

So I'm just going to make a purchase today, put down $30, and then pay it in full when the first statement comes, because then it becomes revolving. 

[Henchman21]

Yup. Only I've been waiting for my revolving for 2 weeks now. Maybe tomorrow. It just says within 30 days.

[Lady_J]

Thanks Jon! I was afraid to make a purchase cause I wasn't too sure how it worked exactly.

[Henchman21]

They have a very detailed Q&A page available.

[Lady_J]

Thanks henchman. So within 30 days it should be reflecting in our reports ? Will it help our scores go up?

And I'm at work. I haven't been able to do too much research

[Crossdivided]

yeah so be sure to mail your payment in about a half a year ahead of time.

mailed a payment on the 7th with a due date of 20th, it 'posted' the 22nd. all other payments on time. they said 'you do not qualify for graduation due to late payment, would you like to try again?'

i called them up and asked 'for real? you want me to do this all over again? therefore taking THREE hits to AAoA for new accounts (freshstart x2 plus the revoling acct...they are all listed seperately). i told them to...well nevermind what i told them to do...lets just say it involved Tijuana and donkeys....

[mnosal9]

first off congrats!! It will help a lil bit, What i did was buy 50 bux worth of stuff pay the downpayment then pay it off in full with the 2nd monthly payment then it revolved to a credit account. It shows up as a installment loan on all 3 cresit reports. It helped me get approved for credit cards which was very helpful.