For those of you with an existing Sears store card who got the Sears Mastercard: Did they convert your store card to a Mastercard, or did they give you a Mastercard and allow you to keep the old Sears card? If they converted your old Sears card to a Mastercard, did they keep the old opening date or does it show up on the credit reports as a new card? I am concerned about this because my Sears account is my oldest tradeline, going back over 30 years. They are offering me "up to " $5,000 credit line on the Mastercard, but my Sears card now has a limit of $6500. I have an ongoing fight with Sears and am waiting for them to get back to me. If it is not resolved in my favor, I plan to never shop there again. But, I could use the Sears Mastercard to boost my ratios, if it is an additional card.
Thomas- Regarding your questions... 1. They converted the store card to a Mastercard (doing away with the old Sears card). 2. All three CRA's still report the original date that the account was opened. 3. That's odd... right after they converted mine they actually bumped my CL up from $9,600 to $15,000. I assumed that at a minimum you kept the same CL. They converted mine over last October (I believe). Hope this helps. Kirk
Thanks for the reply. If they are doing away with the old Sears card, will they eventually convert everyone over to the Mastercard? If so, when? I just got my new Sears store card in the mail about two months ago. It was the first new one I got in many years. I had the old white one until recently. Is it worth calling them to convert and agree to convert only if they keep the CL the same or go higher? Does anyone know what they are looking for in a score? Mine just slipped a little to 677.
I don't think that they're doing away with the old Sears card. It will still be available as far as I know. They are just offering people the alternative of having a card that only works at Sears or a Mastercard. I would give em a call. I would not do it if they are going to decrease the CL though. Since you've been a customer for so long I would think that an increase would be warranted unless you've had trouble with the account in the past. Not sure what score they're looking for but I would think that a 677 would be sufficient. Kirk
Thomas- You can apply for a separate MC if you like (keeping both cards). Sears is expanding the acceptance of the store card to other "non-competing" merchants later this year. BUT ... the standard terms @ 21% are kind of sucky. They will go down to 16.9 if you whine, but that's it. The MasterCard, however, goes down to 13.9 (still kind of sucky, but better than 21). If you call, they can convert your store card to a MC, keeping the same CL. If it's been more than 6 mos. since your last credit line increase, go online or call, request a CL increase, and once you have that, ask for the conversion. This is recent - in the last month or so - that they are able to convert. I did the conversion with the retention department (the "let me transfer you to a specialist" people). The date opened is the same as the store account, and the store account now shows as "closed by consumer". Hope that answers your ?s- mj
mj: When they converted your card, did they pull either a soft inquiry or a hard inquiry? If so which was it and what CRA did they use? Any idea what your score was at the time? This is not restricted to mj - if you know the answer, please respond. Thanks
