“Good news about your credit card account,” proclaims the letter Wilman recently received from Chase. Starting in May, you’ll be able to use that Circuit City card to make purchases at Best Buy. We think this is more like “mixed feelings” news, but on the plus side you won’t have an otherwise good credit card account closed (assuming you care about your FICO score). See the Chase letter below.
(Photo: qnr)
Bah! BB is the new CC
OMG,’ Competitor overtake FTL. I took your business and your jobs And your Credit! Muuhhaa’ !! = Evil.
Too late. I closed it already.
I still don’t understand this relationship between the FICO score and closing a credit card account. I’ve closed two credit cards accounts in the last six years and it didn’t affect my credit rating one iota. I also received two credit cards in the mail that I never activated and never heard from the issuers again.
@HiPwr: I suspect that it’s happening more lately, and that it depends on what else is going on in your credit report. But I can kind of see the point–if you’ve got $10k to pay on $30k worth of credit and you close a $10k credit card, you’ve gone from using 33% of your credit to 50%, bringing maxing out considerably nearer (numbers pulled out of the air, obviously).
@HiPwr:
FICO cares how much available credit you have. Less availible credit= higher credit utilization %.
Closing a card reduces available credit.
@HiPwr: Also, a card will still show on your credit reports without activating it.
@HiPwr: It affects total utilization of your credit lines, and it affects the average of your accounts. The latter only happens once the closed accounts fall off your credit report, which I believe won’t happen for 7 years or something. So it might affect your credit score down the line, even if it doesn’t affect it immediately.
I’m not certain if this applies to the Circuit City branded Visa cards or some variety of internal charge account. I had one of the CC Visa cards (1% rewards in gadget gift certificates was tempting at the time I signed up, and was buying a HDTV at 5% rewards), and was able to convert it to a Chase Freedom card a month or two ago.
@vinco: I got a similar letter, and I have the non-Visa card. (Opened, ironically, less than a month before they closed for a financing deal, when the Best Buy store had the same TV in the same mall for several hundred more)
@vinco: I too have one of the Circuit City branded Visa cards and got the same letter about the Chase Freedom account. I think the above applies to the non-Visa Circuit City cards only.
This is interesting – because I think the current BestBuy card is operated by HSBC, so I wonder whether BestBuy is starting a second kind of card (third actually when you count their reward zone card).
@scoobydoo: Actually a fourth.
1. Rewardzone card
2. Rewardzone Mastercard
3. Best Buy Charge Card (No mastercard branding)
4. All ur Circuity City Debt are belong to us Card.
@noone1569:
the Rewardzone card isn’t a charge card. the Rewardzone Mastercard is a charge card.
@ryan89: Hows about some research before responding?
[www.bestbuy.com]
Sorry to sound like an ass, but I am correct.
Notice how I count out the different Cards.
Now with Circuit City there are 4 types of cards supported by Worst Buy.
@noone1569:
rewardzone is not a creditcard.
its a free points card. worth about 2% back at best buy.
@ryan89: We should also be clear that none of the cards offered by Best Buy (or formerly Circuit City) are “charge” cards. They are credit cards, which are different from charge cards. A normal American Express (not Blue, Clear, etc.) is a charge card. The major difference is you have to pay the balance each month with a charge card.
Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
hmmm…very strange. I got the same letter but it said my Circuit city card was changing to a Chase Platinum Visa.
Bhaaa! Ha! Ha!
However, I still wonder, what’ll happen with Canadian division of Circuit City… It’s still open. For now.
@Web Reacher: Canadian division of circuit city is independently owned (by InterTAN canada) and has an license to the circuit city name.
They might rename to avoid the bad CC publicity but they don’t have to. Maybe they’ll go back to licensing the “Radio Shack” name they used in the 90s.
@Web Reacher: The whole InterTan and The Source stuff is up for sale.
IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY.
GOOD NEWS REGARDING YOUR CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT
When did Dwight become a credit card letter writer?
@wagnerism: i read the article in The Professor’s voice.
Good News everybody! your old Circuit City credit cards are being taken over by Best Buy!”
I think this letter is a big load of BS….the Circuit City card was a branded VISA card issued by Chase. You could use it anywhere you wanted to begin with…including Best Buy.
Best Buy cards ARE run by HSBC. I think this letter is nothing more than a cut and paste job to get on consumerist.
Actually there were 2 cards, one of them was the VISA card, the other was just a Circuit City card backed by chase. I believe the second card is what the letter is referring to.
Thats strange, my circuit city card is now gonna be just another chase card.. The letter I received didn’t mention bestbuy one bit..
my card was converted to some rewards card that is blue with as huge chase logo.
I received the very same “good news” letter today from Chase. To me, the news was not good at all since I ALREADY have a Best Buy account and don’t want or need two!
My card was NOT a “branded VISA”, it was just a plain old Circuit City card.
One would think because Circuit City and Best Buy were the countries largest electronics chains, many consumers would already hold cards at both stores (like me) for promotional financing offers. SO, it makes little sense to chage the CC cards to Best Buy just to have 75% of the customers who will now have two Best Buy accounts close one.
I guess I will wait and hope Best Buy sends me some nice “welcome discount” that I can use and then close down this account. Geez!
I wonder what happens if you already have a Best Buy account
So, on the plus side, I still have a valid credit card.
On the minus side, it’s still useless, as it means I have to go into a brick-and-mortar electronics store.
@hegemonyhog: The letter clearly states that you will not immediately be able to use the card online, but indicates that you will be able to use it online in the future. I would assume this is just for the account transition as they may have something special they need to do to authorize the transaction right off.
Hrm. I didn’t receive a letter of any kind. I had to call Chase on another matter a couple of weeks ago and I asked about the card and they told me that all of them were going to be summarily closed.
The absolute worst tragedy in all of this is I haven’t seen ANY sales on DVD-Rs in the Best Buy Sunday Circulars since CC went under! IT’s a conspiracy I tell you!
Chase already informed me they closed my Circuit City account when they went under. Shut it down. Gone. They said all CC cards were terminated as of that point.
Now, if Best Buy is taking them over… is Chase going to re-activate all these cards or what? Because if so… that seems oddly suspect to me.
@Preyfar:
I had the same issue when i called about the card. The account is still showing when i log into Chase though so maybe it’s not truly closed. also, i have a best buy card as well (yay purchasing appliances for a new house :/) so i don’t know if it gets folded in, or if i end up with 2 best buy cards…
Revenge is a dish best served cold…
@segfault: Can I get a service plan with that?
Same here on the letter from Chase ala CC. No jive, it’s a BB card for those CC holders. But the one sentence I was looking for in the letter was for any rates changes and such.
A no brainer for Chase and now BB, rates, fees and terms are going to remain the same. What a deal !
Unless you need a high interest fix using CC/BB/Chase card(s), your crazy.
22-23% interest is NOT the way to go no matter what !
Pay that sucker off and let it sleep an eternal death.
Thank goodness the card is nearing the zero mark.
They make it sound so rosy and pretty but man do they stiff you for whatever they can get in this abysmal economy.
Same thing happened with Home Depot, MC card sent but never activated (don’t need that sucker).
Funny. They sent me a letter the other day, except it said that they were closing my account – which I had just paid off about 4 months earlier.
@Jeff Rapp: Same thing happened to me. My card has been paid off for a while and they just closed the account. First AmEx, now Chase.
This is just really bad. I mean completely and totally evil. Best Buy you will never see my money. Suck it.
No convenience fee for the switchover?
Many years ago, Circuit City credit cards were issued by First North American Bank (FNAB)- a bank Circuit City had a controlling interest in.
How ironic: Had CC not sold its credit card operation to Chase, CC might still be alive today, breast-feeding off its own bank which, in turn, taxpayers were spending an extra billion or two to bail out.
Got the same letter in the mail this afternoon. Best part of the letter was I never got locked out of ordering my flowers or keeping up with my magazine subscriptions lol.
FICO is a scam and always has been. Ask the bank how their FICO score is, you’ll get no answer. The largest bank heist in history started with Henry Paulson and Ben Shalom Bernanke. (Well really it started when Senator Graham from Texas put through the 2005 amendment where banks can bet on Structured Investment Vehicles off the books, Insurance companies could create Credit Default Swaps and then President Bush signed it, but I digress…)
How is it anyone can go before congress and propose the Toxic Assets Repurchase Plan, then make off with billions and lie to congress about the money, without someone going to jail. Well, then again PAC money assures that a large amount of our politicians from both sides of the isle would have to be sitting right along side the criminals. But boy people are worried about their FICA scores…
I’m looking forward to seeing if the rest of the world revolts during the G20 later. Maybe someone will have the guts to start a revolution. Lord knows we need one.
Excellent news, now people can continue paying 25% interest rates on new TV’s they don’t need.
@endless:
Right, they offer the rewardzone card which gives you points based on purchases that can be redeemed for gift certificates.
They offer the Mastercard branded Credit Card which can be used everywhere.
AND THEY OFFER a Best Buy branded store charge card useable solely at Best Buy. Check the link in my previous post.
[www.bestbuy.com]
my CC card was automatically turned into a chase rewards card. They never asked me what I wanted to do. I got one notice from Chase saying they were taking over CC accounts. Then got another letter telling me my account had been turned into a chase rewards account and should be getting my new card soon. I never heard anything about a BB branded card.
my circuit city card is turning into a chase platinum card come may 1st.
Wait wait wait…I smell an early April Fools Joke…
I’m going to blame the OP here. I think the sad part was that he had a Circuit City Card in the first place. At least it wasn’t cancelled his and sent to collections. So in that respect, I guess it is good news.
I got this letter yesterday — I think it’s awesome!!! I was wondering how I was going to get deeper into debt! Now, there’s a way …
I actually got this exact letter.
I received a letter that Chase was closing my account…
I received the same letter. I had a Circuit City store card, not a Visa or Mastercard. I’d rather have a Best Buy Mastercard then their store card.Wish the letter mentioned the type of card.
It’s legit- I got this letter as well. I only had the In-store credit which was originally issued by First North American Nat’l Bank, until a few years ago when it was taken over by Chase- at that point they began offering both the regular store credit card, AND the CC Visa.
The card has been a good option for me, since it allowed me to buy my first computer for college, as well as a laptop I purchased later in my educational career. I will probably use it at Best Buy to purchase my new computer as I enter the military since it’s a good credit account, but I shop from them (as with all retailers) with great care and skepticism.