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Amazon.com Visa Credit Card
AbsoluteZero
The new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered User regular
The new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered User regular
So... Christmas time is coming up and so are a number of family birthdays. I noticed while browsing Amazon.com just now for possible gifts that if you sign up for an Amazon.com Visa credit card and use it to make your purchase, they will take 30 dollars off the amount of the purchase.
That is mighty tempting as I am very financially strained. I've read over some of the fine print and I don't see any reason to not go for this... but I'd like to hear what you guys think.
Do any of you have the Amazon Visa card? Is this a good deal?
That is mighty tempting as I am very financially strained. I've read over some of the fine print and I don't see any reason to not go for this... but I'd like to hear what you guys think.
Do any of you have the Amazon Visa card? Is this a good deal?
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You pay off the credit card balance each month after you receive the monthly statement, right?
haha made you look
for example, i got one initially to purchase things online, use paypal, verify my identity in other consumerish sort of ways...
if you're already strained financially... this only helps you out for 30 days or so
What they said about what he said.
Seriously, though, CC are not something to mess around with.
Before you get the card, think why you're short on cash right now. Is it just because there were some extra bills this month, or because you had to pre-order the PS3, like totally, from Japan? And you just had to have a McRib everyday this week, because you know, thry wil lbe going away soon? Now think about all the stuff you could buy if you had a CC; it's like free money!
If that sounds like a good idea, I want you to scam-block Amazon.com on your browser. Right now.
A CC is a good idea to build credit history (needed for car/house/etc) buying. It's good if you don't want to pay cash for everything, but know, truly, that you have that money in the bank and will pay it off every month.
All CCs are "good deals" as long as they don't have annual fees and aren't from The Prince's 1st Bank of Nigeria; provided you pay your balence every month.
It's not like a department store card, it's a Chase card with an Amazon logo. I think the interest rate is like 10%, not bad as far as most cards go, but not great either. If you can pay it off within one month, you should be ok. If you go much longer than that, you've lost out on you free $30.
"If you're going to play tiddly winks, play it with man hole covers."
- John McCallum
It's when you start carrying a balance, transferring balances from card to card, missing payments, etc. that you screw yourself with a credit card.
I've got a similar card from Circuit City. My wife and I pay everything that we can on it despite the horrible rate (23%), but we pay it off every month so all it's doing is generating Circuit City rewards points for us.
If you don't have money, you don't need a card.
If you're strapped for money, you probably won't be able to pay the entire balance before the end of the month, wich will leave you with the debt you owe, the accumulated interests AND the service fees.
These combined will be significantly greater than the $30.00 you're saving.
I say, bad deal. If you really need a credit card make sure you get the one with the lowest Intrest rate and APR, not the one with the best reward.
Credit cards are not realistic finacial solutions. If you don't have money to buy something DONT BUY IT. You'll be in a cespool of debt forever.
I would probably also cut the thing up after this month.
Question: Can anyone recommend a good rewards card? I have a Citibank Mastercard Platinum Select, which until a few months ago had 5% cash back for gas and groceries / 1% on everything else. Recently they changed this to 2% across the board, which is kind of sad because gas and groceries constituted about 90% of my credit card purchases. Is there another card out there with a rewards program similar to my old one?
Running a credit inquiry only to have the requested service canceled is also a bad idea.
Your credit score suffers every time you apply for credit cards, loans and such. If you're gonna get that card, you might as well keep it.
I'd highly advise against getting that particular card. The only real benefit is the discounts you enjoy at Amazon.com and ONLY Amazon.com ... and no matter where you use it, you'll be trapped with the monstrous intrest rate.
I say, go to your favorite bank and apply for a card there. Not only will the rates be lower, you'll be able to use it in more places.
The APR is 17% on that Amazon card... is that really considered high?
Sorry, I can't really give you a straight answer on that one. The percentage rates I have on my cards are from when I worked at the Bank I requested them from. My APR was 7%, but that was due to my employee benefits package.
I, however, would not take a card with something higher than 12%.
EDIT:
Also, check out the intrest rates and the penalty fees. It's not only APR that's gonna get you.
Never had any problems at all, except that I lost it one time, but they were very prompt about cutting off the old one (which wasn't used at all after I lost it, luckily) and getting me a new one.
If you aren't going to be able to pay the thing off at the end of the month though.. I would recommend against getting a CC at all.
As long as you pay the card off every month, you shouldn't have a problem as you wouldn't incur finance charges. You do need to pay every month if you put charges on the card, regardless of whether you pay in full or the minimum. If you don't pay by the due date, you will usually incur a late fee, and the company can report you to the credit tracking companies for being overdue, which will reduce your FICO score and shows up as a red flag when you apply for loans.
Rule of thumb is to never put anything on the card that you don't already have in the bank.
I think that would work out pretty well and help keep myself out of trouble.
You need credit to get credit. The financial catch 22.
Chances are if it's your first credit card and you have not gotten any offers in the mail (the pre-approved kind) then you will probably be turned down. This differs from bank to bank, but most will not give out credit to someone who has no credit. If you have bad credit, though, for some reason they will (depends how bad, though).
If you are approved for the card, and it is your first credit card, and it has no long-term lock-in requirements or annual fees, then by all means take advantage of it.
I do not recommend you cut it up after first use. What a waste! Instead use it to pay a small monthly recurring bill, like a cell phone, internet, whatever. Just pay it off each month. You will be building credit even if it's easier to just directly pay from your debit/checking account. Within a few months you will be getting tons of mail offers for pre-approved credit cards. This doesn't mean you should go and apply for all of them, though. You probably do want a second one to build your credit faster (again with a small recurring payment that you can afford and pay off each month).
If you are declined, then it's no big deal. Just keep in mind that if you apply for credit many times in a short period of time, it looks bad to potential creditors. I don't know the exact numbers, but just don't be mailing out a bunch of applications for credit cards.
If you need to build credit there are a few ways. One is to get a secured credit card from your bank. You put down say $100 or $200 and that is basically your limit. This money is basically a guarantee so that if you end up not paying your credit card bill, they are not out any money. However this is not as good as a real credit line, so only get one if you need to. I didn't need to.
Now for me I'm not sure what did it, but it wasn't until after I had lost my job and moved out of my apartment and back home that I was able to get a credit card. Go figure! Anyways, I think it was because I had utility bills in my name, but I'm not sure.
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I have a Chase BP card, I get 5% rebates at BP Gas Stations, 2% at "participating" restaurants, and 1% everywhere else. For the first 2 monthes, the rebates were double, and I got $75 for spending $1k in the first 3 monthes. It was awesome,
Actually, if you have no credit, you have no credit damage and thus have acceptable credit. Your first aproval will not be based on existing credit history but rather employment history.
If you have a steady job (more than 3 months) you'll be approved an amount proportional to your income.
Aproved or declined, your score is damaged just the same. There is no set number of times you can apply before your score starts to suffer because this is gonna depend on your existing score.
If you have a high score you can apply alot of times and not see as much damage as someone with a terrible score.
While this also is correct, it is important to realize that having no credit is not the same thing as having excellent credit. It's important to establish a credit history. Sure, it won't stop you from getting credit cards, but it will become a hinderance if you never get a credit card when you try to purchase a car or a home.
All that being said, any rewards card without a fee atttached is a good bet if you'll use the rewards. I've been very happy with my Circuit City VISA because I pay the balance every month, and I use the Circuit City points to feed my consumer electronics addiction. If the Amazon card also has no fee and you're likely to use Amazon points, go to town. Just make sure not to charge more than you can pay.
Your credit limit isn't what you can afford. It's what the credit card company thinks you can afford to make the minimum payment on. They're not out to help you, and no credit increase is given to you to help (aside from the one you ask for).
This is true! I realized this and edited my post accordingly but you quoted me too quickly.
Excellent credit is something you build, not a starting point.
I myself have been with Capital One for years, and they are pretty good, but almost a little overprotective. Any time I had to put a large charge on the card (say when I bought my laptop), they immediately put a hold on my card and called me to make sure it wasn't fraud. I appreciate the protection (they actually did catch geniune fraud once, and cleared it up with no hassle, just filled out a two page fraud claim form and they took care of the rest), but can be inconvenient at time. With the laptop, not only did I have to verify that it wasn't fraud and get the hold taken off, I then had to go through the hassle of calling Dell's sales department to get the charge to go through.
I would recommend you get some kind of credit card as long as you handle it responsibly. It really is important to start building a credit history, otherwise you might screw yourself down the line when trying to get a loan for a house or anything else. I used to work as a home loan processor, and my manager loved giving advice, but it was sound advice. His advice was to have two credit cards open. The first use normally, say when I buy groceries or gas or some such. The other one file away, but take it out and buy a pair of pants with it every six months. This helps to establish a good credit history which will ultimately pay off in the long run. Just don't go on spending sprees.
Also dont ever let people tell you that credit cards are bad. My parents always told me to stay away from credit cards because of the situations they got into. However I got a credit card with a very high interest rate, used it for two years always making sure I paid the total balance every month or every other month. This got my credit into really good standing while the card I had not only increased in the amount I could put on it, but the interest rate lowered a lot. Recently I bought a condo and I can tell you, if I never worked my credit up I would have been SOL when purchasing it.
Use a CC for things like rewards programs, fraud protection, building credit history, etc etc.
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