Allow me to rant for a minute, or two if you don't mind.
Back in April / May time frame when we first began looking for a house I did what most buyers do - check my credit score, see if anything is hanging out that I wasn't aware of etc... No issues or problems, just checking it out. Had excellent credit, no issues, applied for a loan, got a good rate, life was good.
Six months later we finally find a place, before we found a place we also found furniture, nice bedroom furniture. We had no idea when we purchased the furniture how soon down the road we would be getting a house.
Pier 1 has a deal, sign up for a credit card get 10% off your entire first purchase. Bedroom furniture cost a lot, we are talking hundreds of dollars in discounts. How can we pass that up? We are looking for a house but it won't really affect the score that much will it? My credit is very, very good, won't hurt a bit, what's a few points?
Applied and promptly got turned down for the card. That's right turned down!! Have the embarrassing moment where the lady walks over and says that it turned me down. WHAT??? I'm not trying to brag but I have an above 800 credit score. There is not a late payment on my credit. How could I possibly be turned down? She says that I will get an explanation letter in the mail in a few weeks. A few weeks later I do not get an explanation, instead I get a Pier 1 credit card!!!
A shiny new Pier 1 credit card appears, and the first purchase will be 10% off!!! WHAT!!!!!!!!!!! We already have the freaking furniture!!!! It does me no good now!!!!! Okay, okay, that was mild frustration, but only mild compared to what I've seen this useless credit card do to my score.
How many points would you think applying for that card would throw me? Five points? Ten points? Ohhhh noooo, thirty-five points!!!! That's right thirty-five points off the credit score trying to grab a few hundred dollars of rebates. That thirty-five points is going to cost thousands upon thousands of dollars.
Man I hate credit cards and credit card companies. The whole credit score system is such a crock of crap. I am the most uber form of pissed right now!!!
