The Gander Mountain credit card

Howdy folks! This is my first non-joke post in quite some time. There’s no single reason as to my lack of activity lately. It’s a combination of a few factors:

• There isn’t as much to write about as there used to be. The financial grim reaper has been working overtime on great points & miles deals this year.
• It’s nice to take a break from blogging every now and then to recharge my batteries.
• It’s nice to take a break from the single-minded pursuit of points and miles every now and then as well. Last week I went to the mall at lunch and it felt really weird to go there without going to the customer service desk to buy some Visa prepaids.
• My youngest kid STILL isn’t sleeping through the night and I’m tired.

Anyway: as part of a recent app-o-rama (which included the Chase Marriott–it took one month of waiting, but they finally approved me), I got the Gander Mountain credit card. Why Gander Mountain? I have only been in their stores once in my life, the purpose of that trip being to ascertain whether or not they sell Visa prepaids (they do not).

In my review of the BP credit card a few months ago a commenter noted:

The Sportsmans Guide visa issued by comenity bank often has 4x or 5x promos.I can remember at least 3 in the last year and a half. I think one in November was unlimited. Their store has a far wider variety of products than Banana. I wonder if their Gander Mountain card has similar promos.

I got to wondering too. I’m weird enough that I enjoy learning about obscure credit cards, and folks are too busy pushing the Hilton Amex Surpass to look into things off the beaten path, and I’m earning a small bit of income from this blog, and I have more miles and hotel points than I can use right now, so I don’t mind “wasting” a credit pull for a card with little or no payoff.

The signing bonus on the card is a $60 Gander Mountain gift certificate when you spend $500:

I spent $500 and the $60 gift certificate arrive promptly with my statement (unlike, say, the Brooks Brothers credit card, where the $20 rewards cards take their sweet time to arrive).

I have no idea what I’ll spend $60 worth of Gander Mountain gift certificates on (side note: apparently Overton’s, which sells boats and boat-related stuff, is part of the Gander Mountain empire), but I’m sure I can find something. In the meantime, if anybody has any other ideas for credit cards you’re kind of curious about but don’t want to waste an app on, I’m all ears.

Side note about Comenity credit cards: this is my third Comenity card, and unlike my first two, which were instant approvals, this one was a deferred approval. Am I bumping up against Comenity’s limits? They’ve given me a decent amount of credit for a company which specializes in retail cards.