Catalog & Merchant Cards

Then you just should of asked for links instead of laying out your master plan. You would of saved a lot of people the time and energy they wasted on you.

 

This is an "advice" site. If you ask a question here, you will get advice, whether you want it or not. If your question implies you are going down a path that is likely to lead you into a world of hurt, you should expect advice not to do that.

If you went to an AA meeting and asked for the locations of the closest liquor stores, what do you think you would get?

 

This may be the dumbest idea I've ever heard. The crap you get from those rip off establishments is cheap and overpriced. Even re-selling it at a discount does not guarantee will sell because it is so overpriced and cheap to begin with. Plus, many of these catalog cards don't even report, so what's the point?

It's a bad plan. You're set to lose money no matter what, maybe a lot more than you plan and for no real upside and lots of downside. You're better of using the money that you would be set to lose and open secured credit cards if building your credit is your primary goal.

 

I don't hate anyone including debt collectors. I haven't even responded to your question and I'm not going to in this post either. This post is to voice my opinion that it is useless to try to advise those who don't want advice about anything at all.

This person asked for information which it appears that nobody here has possession of. So why bother to offer obviously unwanted advice only to have it fall on what amounts to deaf ears? Waste of time and bandwidth accomplishes nothing.

 

Here's a link to a few. I don't see them mentioning that they report.

http://www.creditwanted.com/category_70_Catalog_Cards.html


You could also try Crownjewelers.com. No credit check and at least they report. All their jewelry is junk though, but you might be able to sell it for $0.25 on the dollar.

 

and here's a link to all the bad experiences people have had with catalog cards

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff31544.htm

 

Here is this site's alert section. Although a bit outdated, it has examples of what you had better watch out for.
http://consumers.creditnet.com/Discussions/f-credit-alerts-22.html/

And you should also steer clear of the advance fee loan scams, where the scammers (often based in Canada but using U.S. addresses) advertise "loans", possibly for $5k to $10K, but require up-front "application fees" or "insurance" payments of "only" $1K to $2K that must be wired first, usually strung out in the form of several smaller payments so you don't know what you are getting into. The loan is of course "denied", but, too bad, there is no refund of the fees, if you can even contact them again.

Then again, you might be better off with an advance fee "loan". You only lose $2K, and don't have the debt from the loan actually going thru, since it won't go thru.

There is just no end to people's inventiveness.

 

wow. you really need to learn to not be so closed minded. people on this board are trying to give you their opinions. you can choose to ignore their advice by saying thanks or no thanks. it is very immature to call people idiots and haters because they don't say what you want to hear.

now onto your business plan. there is no such thing as a guaranteed sale. there is a chance that your merch might not sell right away. in fact they might be able to find the same merch cheaper elsewhere. since you are not buying wholesale you will not have a margin to compete with other outlets. you are also going to be hit with the membership fee from the cards. that will affect your bottom line. you are also going to lose money on shipping. your business model has flaws. and as i said in an earlier post there's a good chance it will come back and bite you.

there are better ways to build your credit than this plan. but that's my opinion. and if that makes me a hater. then i probably am one.

 

"It isn't a scam, it isn't a rip off "

Many of these catalog cards have been sold as "major credit cards", "VISA cards", or "MasterCharge cards", with "guaranteed $xxx credit limit", by telemarketers hyping them to lists of consumers with bad credit, in exchange for substantial up-front fees. THAT is what makes many of them a scam, even if some fine print somewhere on a web site, separate from the sales pitch, fully discloses what the card is. They have been used as props in a con game, and the consumer is stuck with a useless card usable only on overpriced merchandise, and either a couple hundred debited from his bank account, or a similar amount as a starting balance on this "major credit card".

 

Bottom line on your plan:

Look at your return on investment, and weigh risk.

Best case, you are out several thousand, obtaining no more than most of us could accomplish in a year anyway.

Worst case, you are out whatever you put into it, or worse if you like to fall for nigerian scam payers.


If you have no credit history at all, a credit union account and a secured credit union card (or even a legitimate captive store or gas card) would get you going, at no cost or risk, and in a year you would have 2 or 3 other accounts in good standing, plus the option of using that lender relationship for other borrowing such as car loans.

If you have actual bad history, you would have to deal with that either way.

A pile of recent revolving accounts of the same type would not buy you significantly different FICO scores. And actually using the cards to their limits, churning thousands of purchases thru them, is NOT necessary to get their positive history effect on FICO.