Circuit City Credit Card

Basic Features:

No Annual Fee Online bill pay Instant approval Visa APR: 14.49%, 16.49% variable Proprietary APR: 20.99% variable Issuer: Chase Bank

Overview:
The Circuit City Rewards visa credit card is very complicated. It could be useful if you shop there regularly, but be wary, this card has many tricks. At first glance, this looks like a pretty decent credit card, you earn 5 points for every dollar spent in-store or online, and 1 point for every dollar spent where visa is excepted. There are two different credit cards for Circuit City, a visa or a proprietary card, however with the visa, purchases can be made at other stores and has a lower APR. I would recommend that if you decide you can’t live without a circuit city card, you get the visa.

So, after you accumulate 500 points, you can redeem them for a $5 certificate, which you can only use at Circuit city. Again, this sounds good, but here is the catch, your points will expire 36 months from the month they are earned. To remedy this, they have an auto-redemption setting, which automatically requests your certificates every time you reach 500 points. But wait, there is another catch here, you have to use your certificates within 90 days, or you forfeit them.

The sign-up website advises you to get your certificates in small values because if you wish to use one, any remaining balance will be lost, they do not give you the difference, so you will always have to “pay” something in order to use the full value on your certificates. Well, you say to yourself, that is understandable, but there is another trick waiting, if you want to make a big purchase, and use all the $5 certificates you saved up, well, there is a limit of 5 certificates allowed per purchase in-store, and online you are allowed only 3 for each basket of items.

My favorite ploy is that with this credit card, you will get special offers for no-interest financing on specified items, but if you take the no-interest financing, you can’t earn points on your purchase. Yes, now you ask yourself, what is the point. If you were to get fair service, you would have to plan out all your purchases and amounts to be redeemed.

To be fair, there are also some advantages to getting this credit card; you can earn extra points with promotions and special offers, and when you apply online for this credit card you can get instant approval and even start buying today.

With all this said, I would emphatically recommend that you do not get this card, it sounds like it is more hassle than it is worth.

Better cards to apply for
Chase Perfect Card - Bank of America Cash Rewards - American Express Clear - Capital One No Hassle Cash Reward