Credit Card Discussion Board

SEARS INTEREST RATES

bocephendorfer — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:35:30 GMT

Its simple... across the board interest hikes before the federal mandated reform.

Has there ever been a governmet reform that didnt expand a program and cost us money?

SEARS INTEREST RATES

WallyP — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:48:08 GMT

Wow, the chest beating here is fantastic.

I love nvchuck's post. Allow me to paraphrase: "I don't like my interest rate so I'm going to try and cost a local business owner, who had no say whatsoever in this dramatic jump in interest rates, as many customers as possible!" That's the American spirit! You want to say that dealer store owner isn't a victim I-Hate-Citibank? Apparently this guy is going to try and destory someone's livelihood, but I suppose that is Sears fault too?

Also, can someone please, please, please, PLEASE refute the point that in the last 18 months almost every single retail credit card has raised it's interest rates in a similar fashion? The lowest card I have seen lately, no pun intended, is a Lowe's card at 21.99%. Still pretty darn high.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

I-Hate-Citibank — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:42:16 GMT

Like we've asked before:

1. Who was the Sr. VP of Finance in charge at Hoffman Estates dim enough and neglegent enough to place Sears corportate at the hands of these criminals?

2. Is this individual still employed at Sears and able to make as catatastrophic of a mistake again?

3. Does Sears corporate realize that this bafoon is the only executive in the nation foolish enough to allow Sears to become the only major retailer in the nation that has annual greed fees assessed on affinity charge cards?

Now, who's the real innocent victim here... Sears, or it's card holders?

SEARS INTEREST RATES

BlueCrewGuyInMA — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 05:51:48 GMT

What legal solution do you think there is to the situation? Sears has a contract with CITI that goes for at least another couple years. CITI owns the Sears Card business, and completely controls all policies of the cards. Sears makes no money from interest, so high rates are not a benefit for Sears. Please, if you think there's a viable legal solution, let's have it. Until there is one, blaming Sears is a waste of your time and energy, because you're blaming the wrong party. Just because it doesn't satisfy the anger doesn't mean it isn't true.

And, seriously, do you want to be considered the town crank because you have a credit card with interest rates that went up (along with almost every other card out there)? Really? I mean, it's America, you're welcome to do whatever you want. I'm just unsure what, exactly, you think would come of such an exercise.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

nvchuck — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:30:49 GMT

Yeah SURPRISE! Sears just hit us with a major jump in their rates. We've never been late with payments and have been their loyal customer since 1984. My tools, all Craftsman. My washer and dryer, Kenmore. I purchased my television, stand and sound system at Sears. I don't care who the brilliant manager was that thought doing business with Citi was such a great idea. He's probably been paid off, bailed out and received his bonuses by now. The point is this. Their customers are now being screwed! You can blame Citi all you want too but Sears made this deal with Citi. And, it's funny to me that Sears knows it and instead of accepting responsibility for the bad decision they are blaming Citi. What a cop out. Let me tell you something folks, we are a small town with one small local Sears store owner. If I don't get some results on Monday. I have some 4'x8' white board signs in my shop. I had planned to make some signage for the local politicians for this year's elections, but now this seems to be a bigger issue. I'll detail what Sears has done and add "SHOPPER BEWARE" in a red bold impact font at the top with a couple of choice graphics (no small fine print here). Our Sears is located off a major 4 way so I'm sure I'll have plenty of folks to speak with. In a town of 38,000 bad news travels fast. I'll feel sorry for the owner and his wife but we need let folks know that this store could screw them. Heck this might be good for the town, we haven't had much news here lately except for the lady that ran her car through the Wal-Mart yesterday.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

BlueCrewGuyInMA — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:21:09 GMT

http://www.citigroup.com/citi/corporate/history/citigroup.htm

Click the link for 2003, and see where it says the following:

November 3: Citigroup acquires Sears Credit and Financial Products' credit-card business and enters a multi-year marketing and servicing alliance with Sears. (emphasis mine) The $31.8 billion purchase includes Sears' private-label credit-card receivables and increases Citigroup's portfolio to 161 million accounts and $146 billion card receivables in North America, and 176 million accounts and $160 billion card receivables globally.

When you acquire a business, you own it entirely. CitiBank OWNS the Sears Card. Sears does not control any aspect of the card beyond its physical appearance, and even that is only partially within Sears's control. Anything that happens to the policies, credit limits, interest rates, fees, etc. are entirely within CitiBank's control, and entirely out of Sears's control.

Sears no more controls the Sears Card's policies than Famous Amos controls the Famous Amos cookies he sold off to President Baking Company. You can no more hold him responsible for what PBC does with the cookies than you can hold Sears responsible for what CITI does with the card's policies. Sure, it's his name on the box, but you can't sue him if the cookies kill someone, can you? No, because he is in no way in control of what happens with the cookies. Likewise, does it make sense to yell at Sears for the interest rates/fees/credit limits/etc. on a Sears card? No, because just like Famous Amos sold his business to someone else, Sears sold the credit card business to someone else. Just like someone else is making all those decisions for Famous Amos cookies, someone else is making all those decisions for the Sears card.

I understand that frustration breeds irrational behavior, but irrational behavior will not resolve anything.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

bocephendorfer — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:06:09 GMT

And the change no one is talking about and it is comming soon.

12 months no interest will require a montly payment... any no interest deal will require a monthly payment. and if you dont...there must be a fee attached?

Funny one of my cards informed me of this ..but no peanalty information. I bet it will come in the official change with the fine print in it..

SEARS INTEREST RATES

FedUpWithGovt — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:50 GMT

I believe it's called something like "Credit Card REFORM Act" in which the Democrats thought it would be a great idea to get the government involved in yet another part of our lives and add some new federal law and regulations that impact all credit card companies. This has caused the credit card companies to rush in and raise all our rates before the new laws come into effect. It's not just Sears....

SEARS INTEREST RATES

SearsAccount05 — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:34:21 GMT

Losing rights is destroying america, and thus inherently evil.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

MKW — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:56:45 GMT

We have a regular Sears credit card and we only use it for major 0% interest purchases. It works out great for us. The only thing you have to remember is to pay it off before your due date or you will pay $$$ in interest

SEARS INTEREST RATES

rusty2m — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:40:31 GMT

I willl not shop at any business whose credit card rates exceed 18%. I will not shop at Sears period.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

I-Hate-Citibank — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:21:44 GMT

Huh? That's the most ignorant comment ever. The same could be said of Craftsman lawn mowers and chain saws. They're "evil" if you don't take the time to understand how they work and keep from getting hurt by them. Once you do that, they're awesome time saving tools that can produce cost savings benefits, just like credit cards. Simply understand the safety warnings and proper use!

Credit cards in general have been, and remain to this day a wonderful and even profitable benefit, no matter what the assigned interest rate is, when you pay your balance in full every month:

1. Reward usage points can be as much as 3% of your purchases. I earn > $500 a year in cash using this benefit. Discover Card (which used to be co-owned and associated with Sears), was the first bank to offer "cash back" benefits, and now many Visa, M/C, and AMEX accounts have followed suit in rewarding frequent use charges in the way of perks and kickbacks. (No such rewards for using a debit card. Perhaps some trivial sweepstakes entry gimmick, at best).

2. The 20-30 day grace period allows you to "float" the amount of all monthly charges interest free before paying it off (You won't get that from a Debit card, which sucks the funds out of your checking the same day).

3. If there is a problem, issue, complaint, or consumer fraud involved, Federal Law steps in to provide the consumer with several rights and privleges to have the amount involved immediately credited back while the bank is required to investigate the dispute and apply a merchant chargeback, if appropriate. (There are little or no such rights afforded when you use a debit card, folks!).

4. Proper use of a credit card automatically triggers larger credit limits over time, which in most cases, boosts your credit bureau FICO scores and gives you new opportunities for responsible financing (Again, zero benefit here for using debit cards to make purchases).

OK, that's the consumer side. On the bank side, they're a business entity and need to find a way to make money with all of this risk, exposure, and account servicing requirements going on. In addition to the 1.5%-2.5% commission they earn on every single credit transaction, they have about a dozen creative fees they can impose, in addition to usery level interest rates.

The deal breaker is annual fees, where they just come in and pick $50 out of you pocket for the sake of doing so. A deal breaker after my 20+ years of being a Sears Mastercard holder.... Real nice.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

OldfartSears — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:27:46 GMT

Credit cards are evil, I've told everyone i know not to use them, I've made it my entire life w/o a single credit card. Thsi is what I've always been worried about

SEARS INTEREST RATES

Searsbegone — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:16:17 GMT

Had a Sears card for over 30 years, never late. Over 700 on all credit scores. Took Balance transfer offer 10/08, 4.99% for 1 year and then revert to rate that was at that time, according to the offer, 13.83%. I have it in writing. Rate reverted to 25.24%. They got me to transfer money and now I am screwed. I am going to pull money out of investments to pay this off and then I will close my Sears account and I do not intend to ever shop at Sears/Kmart again. Its a shame since I have never owned anything but Kenmore appliances. They lost a very loyal customer. I do not forget those who screw me over.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

MKW — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:42:51 GMT

If posible just use your Sears or lowes card for special buys - 0%

SEARS INTEREST RATES

tornadopat — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:52:53 GMT

With our terrible economy situation the way it is - this topic will unfortunately never go away. It is unfortunately that Sears is locked into that credit agreement for x amount of time. Not sure what they would do as large corporations do not want to handle credit anymore anyway. Too many losses associated with that industry right now. However, I will remain loyal to Sears for the most part - as I do look for bargains and will get them where I can find them. However Sears gets my first and last look to check on price matching.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

GenJones32 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:25:56 GMT

right now Sears is locked into a contract with Citibank

SEARS INTEREST RATES

kilnwatcher — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:38:54 GMT

Yes, you and I understand that, but it is what the consumer perceives that counts and the word Sears on the card is a lot bigger. Sears sold my account to CITI long ago, but my account originated with Sears. I refuse to be abused and SO SHOULD SEARS!. Even oblivious consumers will realize what has happened to them when these fees and rates arrive on their statements just in time for Christmas shopping. Their anger will be directed at Sears as much as CITI for allowing this to happen to their consumer credit. The nice associates at Sears urged them to open their accounts. CITI is a name on the statement. The point here is that it is wrong to abuse consumers for ethical and soon to be legal reasons, but the bottom line is that it is very bad business practice. This will hurt Sears much more than it will hurt CITI and I don't think there will be anyone there to bail Sears out of financial trouble. This will kill the Sears holiday season and that will be devastating to the corporation in this economy.

That angers me because it took Sears over a century to build its solid reputation and it could take one bad partnership in a pivotal economy to bring it down. Obviously, I really love Sears, but I was told long ago that even when there is love, one should always leave an abusive relationship and not look back. Sears should do the same and save its hard fought reputation with consumers. When I hear heated discussions over lunch every, one doesn't have to survey consumers to measure the consumer angst. Sears is very important in our small community.

I will save a lot of money in the long run at other retailers. For the first time in my life, I am buying a refrigerator that does not have the Kenmore brand name and for now, it will be the only major appliance in my home that does not. I will save approximately 40% or over 500$ by buying it at Lowes and using another line of credit.

When and if Sears decides to find another financial institution to underwrite its credit, the corporation obviously has my number. We can talk. Meanwhile, I have much lower prices and interest at Lowes and Walmart. Lowes now offers repair service too. Without the "deals" associated with the card, there is no incentive for me or anyone else to shop at Sears.

When I do pay off my balance every month, I still have to worry about how I might be subject to more erronious fees, interest and early due date scams. I don't have the time or energy to deal with CITI. They owe me money for some bad fees, but I am still paying off the account and closing it to get rid of any association with CITI. This is an account was a contract of trust between the Sears Corporations and me as a loyal consumer that originated over 30 years ago. I kept my end of the bargain, paid my bills on time and filled my home with Sears appliances. Sears did not when they sold my account to a predatory lender.

I am not here to argue. I love Sears. I am not stupid either. I have worked in marketing, have managed a midsized company and am obsessively brand loyal. Sears needs to realize how vulnerable it is, particularly during the 2009 holiday season. Consumer credit and brand loyalty during the next two months will have a major impact on the success or failure of the corporation in the near and distant future.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

AdamO — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:47:16 GMT

The cards have the word Citi on the front of them, also.

And, Citi sends you your statements.

And, Citi manages the money.

So, the key word here is CITI.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

kilnwatcher — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:33:18 GMT

My card says "Sears" in big letters on the front. Sears could dump CITI group, but does not. I am a 3rd generation, 30 year loyal customer. I have spent over 30K plus interest at Sears on appliances, tools, garden equipment, tires and electronics in the past. I have an excellent credit rating, pay my bills on time and qualify for the lowest interest from other card companys, but CITI has raised my interest to over 29%. The next month, CITI bumped my due date up more than a week with no warning and assessed a late fee. When I called, I was told that it would be removed, but it is on my account two months later. I have another CITI card and have experienced similar preditory practices and rate increases.

I am voting with my feet. I am building a house next year and guess what? There will be no Sears appliances. The new refrigerator I was planning to purchase this month from Sears will be coming from Lowes and will cost less. I am buying tires this week from elsewhere and for a lower price also. I am financing with a card from my local bank for less than half the interest rate offered by CITI and Sears. In fact I will not be darkening the door at Sears, if this is how I am valued as a customer.

I cannot believe that Sears, a corporation that spent over a century building a reputation for fairness and quality would endanger it's standing and customer loyalty by associating with a lender that abuses it's best customers with outrageous interest rates and unfair practices like moving up due dates. What about the folks that are unemployed and struggling to make the minimum payments? What kind of interest rate did you give them? How many families will fall into bankruptcy because those CITI cards they took out with low interst rates just a couple of years ago are now charging over 30%

I can only imagine the effect that this recent round of interest increases is going to have on the holiday season at Sears. For the first time in 30 years, I will not be buying Craftsman and Kenmore and will not be carrying my Sears card in my wallet.... Why? Because I cancelled my account! Interest rates this high are predatory, immoral and a danger to our Nation's economy. I am disassociating with CITI and Sears as a matter of principle.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

GenJones32 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:44:15 GMT

I actually think Citi Group partially owns the rights to the Sears Card if thats not the case Sears is locked into a long term contract with them, so really Sears is pretty much tied down because the bank issues all the rules and regulations over the card.

High interest rates ~ whatever fine I can deal with that I just wont put a balance on the card. I may use it to pay for things I already have cash for to get rewards points and then pay it off, they will never get me with interest payments anyways. If I will make a big purchase I cannot pay off with cash I will get a no interest promotion. Only time I will care to use my Sears Card.

Annual Fee ~ if true in which as an employee no one knows if this is official or not. No annual fee means I keep the card, add an annual fee I will cancel it.

OHh and I - hate - citibank you forgot to put Target, and I think walmart has a card as well. :)

SEARS INTEREST RATES

WeekenedWarrior — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:03:20 GMT

Today I got a Citi Sears card (not a Mastercard) and the interest rates are:

Regular Sears Purchases 20.40 %

Default Rate 25.40

My credit score when last checked in August was 793 so I can only imagine the rates for those with a lower score... I agree with the poster above; the Sears card is good for getting discounts - not for carrying a balance. I logged into the online account area to check my credit score and it's 772 tonight. I guess I took a hit for opening the account :)

SEARS INTEREST RATES

AdamO — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:30:20 GMT

One word:

Citibank

SEARS INTEREST RATES

tornadopat — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:57:29 GMT

Blacksheep78 - I wish you had read the entire thread before taking Sears to task. Sears does not own the card - Citibank does. I am not sure if Sears can find a replacement bank or if they have a contract for x amount of time. It looks like I-hate-Citibank has found companies that use other banks that do not have an annual fee and a tad less interest rate. Hopefully Sears can do this also sometime in the future.

SEARS INTEREST RATES

blacksheep78 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:58:01 GMT

Sears has cranked up the interest rate to OVER 25% and then well above that for penalties.At a time when so many Americans are struggling, Sears has found a way to put us all deeper in debt. They know this is what the American people don't want because we have asked congress to pass bills to stop them from doing this, especially now that so many are in need and struggling. Sears does not listen to us or care about helping us.They decided to increase the interest before any bills could go into affect. Shame on you sears...