The PREMIER credit card, offered by First PREMIER Bank (the capital letters let you know they mean SERIOUS BUSINESS), is the worst credit card I’ve ever looked at. I doubt many of you will ever cross paths with it, nor should you. So why bother writing about it? Well, there’s been a lot of doom and gloom lately in the points and miles world, so I thought it would be a nice change of pace to look at an absolutely miserable card so that we can all be grateful for what we still have.
Premier Card Fees
What makes this card so bad is the fees. And I’m not talking about, say, the annual fee that you pay to get your free Priority Club hotel room. Nope, I’m talking about–for starters–the processing fee. What is a processing fee, you ask? The answer is simple: It’s $95! The processing fee is what PREMIER Bank (whose capital letters, you will recall, show that they mean SERIOUS BUSINESS) charges you just for the privilege of being approved for this card. But don’t worry: it’s a one-time fee. Whew!
You know what’s not a one-time fee? The annual fee. That’s right: on top of the “processing fee” you also have to pay an annual fee of $25 per $100 of credit line. So if you get approved for a $500 line of credit, you’ll have to shell out another $125 for the first year annual fee. And you don’t even get access to the PREMIER Bank Executive LOUNGE (it’s a serious lounge). But don’t worry: the annual fee drops to $49 after that.
But wait, that’s not all! You know how, in our world, the credit cards with annual fees tend to be pretty good and have some nice perks? Well, in the subprime world the pretty bad credit cards don’t just have annual fees; they have monthly fees. That $500 credit line will cost you $10.40 per month, or $124.80 per year. But don’t sweat it, PREMIER Bank is nice enough not to charge the monthly fee for the first year.
Cash advance fee? $6… or 5% of the amount, whichever is greater.
Additional card fee? $29
Credit limit fee? If you get your credit limit raised, you’ll have to pay 25% of any additional credit extended to you.
Need a copy of your statement? That’ll be $3, please.
And the interest rate on this gem? It’s 36%, which is much lower than the 80% interest rate it’s tested before.
Rewards
This card has no rewards.
Sign-up bonus
Again, nothing. Not even a bottle of soda.
How does this card compare with the Residence class aboard the A380 on Etihad Airways?
It’s much, much worse.
Should you get the PREMIER credit card?
No, you should not get the PREMIER credit card, because they mean SERIOUS BUSINESS. And their business is stealing from people who are dim-witted and/or desperate.
Hey, it’s not April fools day! This card is a joke, I hope.
Unfortunately, it is NOT a joke. People who have no credit, or terrible credit, are sometimes willing to do extremely stupid (I call it ill-informed) things to establish credit.
It’s probably easier to put $500 in the bank, and then take a series of 6 month loans against your own savings. But they don’t think of that…they think I MUST HAVE A CREDIT CARD. And all the “secured” cards are, if not as bad as this…close.
yeah, 20 years ago i had this card. I made really bad decision getting it, and then really bad decisions to run up to the limit and not pay it off. I was 19, it was a lesson and it took alot of years and sweat and tears to full learn the lesson.
i am so surprised the card is still around.
This card is good. It’s not for everybody. It’s for people with bad credit. This is a card to rebuild your credit. The fees are high because this company is taking a chance on a lot of people.
This card is for you if you’ve been turned down everywhere else and you can’t get credit.
First Premier will take a chance on you and give you a chance to rebuild yourself.
I’ve worked as a social worker and I know that this is one of the cards that saves a lot of people.
This is also a card for young adults who’ve never had credit before.
FP would have to be a card of last resort for me. YUCK! Their fees are awful.