The retail card extravaganza continues! In my last post, I talked about credit cards issued by Comenity, one of the two major retailer credit card issuers. The other one is Synchrony Bank, which you may remember as GE Capital, or possibly as GE Money. Hopefully they can settle on a name and be done with it.
A couple of points about Synchrony credit cards vis-a-vis Comenity. First of all, compared to Comenity, the credit lines are much lower in my experience. Every Synchrony card I’ve had has started out with a limit of around $1,000. With Comenity, on the other hand, my first card had a five-figure line, and my second one was mid-four figures. Which is to say, manufactured spending and/or large purchases may be more difficult with this bank.
Another point: Comenity does not offer any Amex cards, while Synchrony does. It can be nice to have an extra no-annual-fee Amex or two for things like Small Business Saturday.
Something else I’ve concluded in my dealings with the two banks: Synchrony is larger and perhaps a little more competent. Last time I called Comenity to ask about something, I didn’t get the answer I needed and the rep connected me to a department he shouldn’t have, wasting a lot of time in the process. I called back half an hour later hoping to get a hold of somebody more competent only to be connected to exactly the same rep I had talked to before. There was no wait time either. I’ve never experienced anything like this with a bank before: it felt like he was the only employee and I was the only customer. The point is, CSR roulette may be a little more difficult with Comenity.
My final point: Synchrony’s marketing varies strongly from card to card. The Gap brands cards, for example, seem to get a lot of good marketing offers, while I’ve received no offers whatsoever on my Dillard’s Amex since the first month.
Now then, the Synchrony cards I (or in some cases Mrs. PFD) currently have:
Banana Republic Card: 5% back for in-store purchases at Gap brands stores, 1% elsewhere. But that’s not why I got this one. I got it after reading the write-up by Miles Abound wherein he details the ridiculously generous promotions offered for this card. They’ve obviously wised up since then, as I haven’t heard of any uncapped offers recently. But still, I’ve received maybe $100 worth of freebies this year, which isn’t too bad, and hopefully the gravy train will continue. A few months ago I received an offer for 200 points (i.e. $2 worth of gift certificates) per purchase on the card, capped at 5,000 points. An easy $50 for me! A couple of days ago I received an offer for $10 when swiping my card anywhere outside of the Gap brands stores. I don’t know if the good times will continue, but I like what I’ve seen so far. Also, there are occasional cardmember discounts which you can combine with your rewards certificates.
Dillard’s Amex: This actually just switched over to Wells Fargo, but I’ve going to write about it anyway since it was Synchrony when we got it last year. (Technically it was GE, but whatever.) My verdict on this one: lame. The rewards are an anemic 1.3% for purchases at Dillard’s, gas stations, and supermarkets, and 0.67% elsewhere. I’m hoping that somebody at Wells will pull the trigger on a sweet promotion to goose the volume for this thing, but no luck so far. The only virtue of this card is that it’s a fee-free Amex.
Brooks Brothers MasterCard: 4% in-store, 1% everywhere else. Not a whole lot of promotions on this one, certainly nothing like the Banana Republic card. You do get a $20 certificate every year on your birthday, which is nice, and as with the Banana Republic card, there are occasional cardmember discounts. But then, Brooks Brothers clothing is a little pricier than, say, Old Navy. I’ve effectively earned a shirt in my first year as a cardmember. Nice shirt, but still… You can probably pass on this one.
Toys R Us MasterCard: The most interesting / frustrating one of the four we have. I wrote about the 10% rewards on offer recently as well as the lame gift card rack they have, so take a look at those posts if you’re interested. 10% rewards is really good. If you buy a lot of diapers and baby supplies from Babies R Us, this card might be worth considering. If your local Toys R Us has Kindle or Ebay gift cards on its gift rack, it could conceivably be a good card for you. I haven’t tested out buying gift cards with this thing, so I can’t guarantee you’ll get rewards. They don’t so a ton of marketing promotions, though.
One other thing: rewards certificates expire pretty quickly with this thing. I recently received a $20 rewards certificate (I have no idea why, by the way, as I have no recollection of using the card recently, though frankly my memory tends to suck for the first year of each of our children’s lives) and it expires at the end of February. Can rewards certificates be used on gift cards? Good question, and I may try that out.
Be sure to read my exciting next post: Synchrony Cards I Don’t Have And Will Therefore Speculate About Irresponsibly, coming soon to a blog near you!
The post A list of Synchrony credit cards, part 1: the ones I actually have appeared first on Personal Finance Digest.
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