Credit Cards Discussion Board

promotional purchases

RazzyBluCru — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:48:02 GMT

All in good fun, but again - I can only offer my apologies for Sears' mistake. I wish more could/would be done to assist, because you are one of the many hard working customers we have walk through our doors that we really do aim to please.

You as well though, best wishes for the future and take care :)

promotional purchases

garthspatty — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:43:17 GMT

Hopefully this will be your last "jab" at the "time" comment....and, yes, I will do that as I am always up to helping my fellow man/woman!.

Thanks....have a great day!

promotional purchases

RazzyBluCru — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:29:00 GMT

Mrs. Garth,

This may sound petty - But I'd also make sure (if you have the 'time' lol) to drop by the store when making the payment and letting management know of the situation and what happened. More then likely, nothing will be done, but you never know! At the very least, you'd have saved another customer from the same headache.

promotional purchases

garthspatty — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:44:45 GMT

To RazzyBluCru..

My associate or sales person did not tell us about this and that's MY complaint....as I did not know this. Also, I think "time" IS a major complaint of most of us in this day and age....now that I know, I will make the time because it will cost me big bucks if I don't....thanks for your reply...you are doing a much better service to your customers than the mattress salesman at my local store.

Mrs. Garth

promotional purchases

garthspatty — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:39:25 GMT

Well, no...not exactly....It just bothers me that they don't share the total story on this type of purchases so down the road you may miss that opportunity to pay with no interest....in just 3 months the interest on my purchase is almost $77.00 so if it is not paid within the promotional terms then all that interest from day one gets applied....argh. Thanks for your reply

promotional purchases

RazzyBluCru — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:52:44 GMT

GT - It's not a dirty trick at all, and from my experiences it's standard that purchases are applied to the previous balance first before the 'No Interest' balance.

Garth, I do make sure I tell every customer about this. I make sure they know that when carrying a previous balance, you will have to call to allocate the payments to a certain part of the credit. Not having 'time' is a hard excuse to make, the company can't read your mind as to where to put the payment.

The associate is in the wrong (or simply ignorant of the credit situation) for not telling you, but there is no dirty dealing going on.

promotional purchases

GardenTractorMan — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 04:37:26 GMT

I have not experienced anything like it. What you are telling us is to not buy with a Sears card because it sounds like a lot of dirty tricks are being played on unsuspecting buyers.

promotional purchases

garthspatty — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:00:24 GMT

In a nutshell....my husband and I purchased a mattress set last Sept. The promotion was "no interest if paid in 12 months"...super, so far. We had a small balance on our Sears card at the time...when I started looking closely at my statement, I noticed that the original amount of the mattress purchase never went down even though I was paying 4x the minimum payment.....So, I call and get the deal...."by law, we apply any payments to the balance with the higher interest rate and if you want a part or all of that payment to be applied to the promotional purchase you must call us each and every month to say how much you want posted and where"..Now, in this day and age, most of us do on-line banking and do not have time for this. I think the sales person, at the time of the sale, should make us aware of this during the "pitch"....it took me 3 months to finally figure it out....No, I am not lame...I am an accountant and prepare taxes, so I believe everybody should be aware...IF YOU HAVE ANY BALANCE WHEN YOU MAKE A PROMOTIONAL PURCHASE...you better make sure your payments are being applied as you wish...not by what the "law" states....just to share...has anybody out there experienced this? Thanks for listening..ttfn

Sears mastercard

jsdva1 — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:30:21 GMT

I also started out with the Sears MasterCard, so not sure why the upgrades are taking place, but it is definitely nice to be able to use it anywhere, instead of just Sears and the Sears family.

Sears mastercard

wstarc5 — Tue, 03 May 2011 22:55:34 GMT

The mastercard does broaden the scope of purchases you could potentially make.

Sears mastercard

BigMike4511 — Tue, 03 May 2011 22:37:12 GMT

The bank does this so that you will use the card (and run up interest charges) at locations other than Sears.

Sears mastercard

SearsRAWR — Tue, 03 May 2011 19:29:22 GMT

I started with a Sears Mastercard so I've never had the chance to receive such a letter. Though some of the customers I've helped have mentioned that they also received a letter saying they were being upgraded from a Sears Card to the Sears Mastercard. I'm not sure why they do it, but I have heard of it.

Sears mastercard

csl200 — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:55:33 GMT

I received a letter saying I was being upgraded from a sears card to sears mastercard, anyone else receive this offer?

Sears need to take back control

Payback709 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:39:28 GMT

O_o That's great information to know :)

Sears need to take back control

WallyP — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:34:47 GMT

Being a law student, I was able to read the CARD Act and actually make some sense of it.

First, it is true that basically every credit card company jacked up their rates in respnse to the passing of the bill, as it elminates many of the "shady" practices that they had been using. Without being able to extract so much money in fees, the credit companies jacked up rates to offset some of their "lost" revenue. The new law also provides that they can no longer have rate hikes retroactively effect any previous balance on the card... that leads me to believe that up until Feb 22nd (I think that's the date that the law goes active) it is legal for them to do so.

The whole no payments - no interest thing is tricky though. Technically, from the wording in the bill, you're still going to be able to have no payments. I'm just not sure if how it will be advertised. If you have multiple balances on your card then your monthly payment will automatically be applied to the highest interest rate balance, up until the minimum payment is met, and then the remaining balance of the payment moves on to the next balance on the card, and so on, until the payment is exhausted. Now, if a no interest - no payments deal is the only balance on your card... well, I'm frankly not sure how it's going to work. I keep hearing a lot about this doing away of the no payments option, that even on deferred interest you'll have to make a minimum payment (Sears cards started doing that anyway on any deferred deal over 12 months sometime last year) HOWEVER, nobody has been able to provide a source for this.

___________

(1) IN GENERAL- The creditor shall not change the terms governing the repayment of any outstanding balance, except that the creditor may provide the obligor with one of the methods described in paragraph (2) of repaying any outstanding balance, or a method that is no less beneficial to the obligor than one of those methods.

(2) METHODS- The methods described in this paragraph are--

(A) an amortization period of not less than 5 years, beginning on the effective date of the increase set forth in the notice required under section 127(i); or

(B) a required minimum periodic payment that includes a percentage of the outstanding balance that is equal to not more than twice the percentage required before the effective date of the increase set forth in the notice required under section 127(i).

___________

That is text from the actual bill, found here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-627

You'll notice that it says repayment must be done by one of those two methods OR a method that is no less beneficial to the obligor. The fun part is, as with most bills, there is no definition of beneficial. Who's to say that having no payments for 12 months isn't beneficial? Sure, some people get in trouble with it, but everyone doesn't. So I am pretty sure credit companies are going to exploit loopholes rather quickly.

Also, on a side note, Congress used that bill as a vehicle to repeal the law banning firearms inside of national parks, so if your were looking to pop one in Smokey the Bear you can get your chance now!

Sears need to take back control

Payback709 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:59:07 GMT

Woah...that's a really bad situation. The reason why Sears keeps transferring you back to Sears Credit aka Citi Bank is because other departments that are not credit related cannot look into your account, help you, or even give you advice on your credit situation. That new law that came out that baitedandswitched referred to is the reason why all banks and credit card affiliates are jacking up their interest rates. Personally, I think anything over 15% is theft. That was back in the day though. I would contact corporate about the situation and see what they tell you or maybe how they can help you.

Sears need to take back control

bocephendorfer — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:18:06 GMT

thats a pretty tough cookie to swallow. (customer here) I feel for your problem and at the same time have the opinion that its a self inflicted wound. Changes to credit accounts do occur and are always announced in the billing paperwork givng the customer a chance to opt out.

I know its painfull, but all banks have been adjusting credit limits to the detriment of many a consumer. Your best bet in my opinon is to pay it off as soon as you can which indeed will be difficult with the high interest rate. Perhaps you can seek a loan at more favorable terms.

Did you know that at the end of this month by fedeal requirement there will be no more no interest no payment incentives? There will still be no interest deals, but a mininmum monthly payment requirement. Still interest free if you pay the balance by the promotional period, but it has been for some time if your not paid off back interest applies.

I wish they could help you but as a customer, my strong opinon is that is not going to happen.

Sears need to take back control

AdamO — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:25:41 GMT

Control is a very good thing to have.

What should be controlled?

Banks?

Use of credit in general?

Banks' billing?

That's a very good idea.

We're trying to get a handle on things, ourselves...

Sears need to take back control

DZ182 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:52:29 GMT

I have had a sears Plus account for around 18 years and it has been great until now.

I have had made many large purchases with it over the years B/C of their no interest for 1 or 2 year offers, none of which were paid off in the alotted time. The result was you paid interest on the unpaid balance.

Yesterday I received a email that I was over limit. I could not understand this B/C I had a 2000.00 plus limit and a 1100.00 balance. And have not used this card for 2 years, the last purchase was a TV with no interest for 2 years.

OK now heres the shady Citi Bank move. I called sears credit thinking someone was charging on my account, but what happened was citi bank tacked on all the interest that I would have paid because the purchase was not paid off in the 2 year (The sale rep at Sear did not tell me of this new policy during purchase only no interest for 2 years) But that was not what put me over. Apparently CITI Bank lowered my credit limit to 1300.00 last month and then tacked on the 900.00 pus in interest this month.
It seem to me they set a trap for me and I am caught in it. Plus they raised the interest rate to over 29%
My question is, is this legal, is there a way to fight this.

I have called Sears Corp. and no one seems to care they are losing Sales and long time customers just keep transfering me back to Sears Credit AKA Citi Bank .Apperently Sears does not care that they are losing sales and long time customers over the way Citi bank is treating them