10 Comments Add your own

• 1. Jennifer    May 8th, 2009 at 10:48 am

  I think Sears is the biggest rip off and scam around! Beware when you open a Sears card. They will tell there is no interest for two years and then slap you with all the interest you would have paid in those two years. And when you call to talk to someone about it, you can’t! They actually will not transfer you to a manger. So I’m disputing my finance charge. Which, by the way, is 23%!!! I will never shop at Sears again.

• 2. Rod (a real person with a true story)    May 26th, 2009 at 5:18 pm

  Sears credit decided that my debt to income ratio was too high so they upped my intrest rate to 29%. It is impossible for them to know what my debt ratio is as I earn more than ever and my ratio was never lower- even before I appiled for credit with them. When I informed them of my income and that my ratio is better than they may already know, they would not reduce the interest rate.

  They defended my continued high interest rate saying that my debt was to close to my credit limit on their card. My credit limit was for $15,000 and my balance was at $10,000. They said I was too close to this limit so needed to apply the highest rate they had. They refusedto reduce the high interest rate.

  When I continued to plead and argue they said that I had bad credit and that I didn’t deserve a better rate. I did a credit check and found that with the big three credit rating companies my scores were 767, 764, and 76. This is excellent credit in any ones book except apparently Sears. They still refused to reduce the rate.

  When I continued to plead with them about reducing my interest rate they said I was late too often. Upon investigation, I was only late twice by a few days in five years. Oh, wow.

  They never paid any attention to the fact that I never made the minimum payment. I always made 150 to 200% the minimum payment, but, this never made a difference with them. I was stuck at the unbelievable interest rate.

  I was finially told by customer service people the following incredible statement. “We do not need a reason to raise your interest rate. You do not need to have a bad credit rating, you do not need a too have a high debt ratio, you do not need to be late on payments, and you don’t need to be too close to your credit limit for us to raise your interest to any amount that we want. And further more, we do not need to tell you we are doing this and we do not need to give you a reason for doing it. All the complaining and pleading you do will not change what we do.”

  Since then I have learned that this is common practice for credit card companies.

  This is all true. I pass this story along to help you to be careful and aware of their schemes/tricks. Good luck.

• 3. Julie Waldrip    June 30th, 2009 at 6:44 pm

  I am so disappointed in Citibank that handles Sears Credit . I have been with Sears over 30 years and never been late on a payment. Now with no notice they closed my account. No problem…I would not want to be with a company that treats their customers like this…
  I wish you the best and hope you don’t go under!!!!

• 4. Gaulua Liaga    July 2nd, 2009 at 4:49 am

  Sears credit card costomer are very incompetent. i will never do bissiness with this company anymore. Stay away from using thier services.

• 5. Martha B. Cash    July 25th, 2009 at 2:46 pm

  Oh dear! We just purchased nearly $6,000 worth of Kenmore appliances–no interest for one year. I do NOT like the comments I have just read and fear having made a bad purchase decision. Funny, about the credit card bit. I, too, have excellent credit (700+ category); however, due to a 20-year-old bad debt, Sears would not issue me a card–they did issue one to my husband, though. If it had not been for such a great salesperson, I would have canceled this order after the credit card episode but my husband decided to stay with them. I may–or may not–do future purchases with Sears because of all the comments I read and because of how they are not erasing a 20-year-old bad credit–which by the way was paid off eventually. Too bad about this because Sears and K-Mart have been my favorite places to shop. I really would like to see things corrected and get the “bad taste” out of my mouth. I can always use my Master/Visa cards to shop elsewhere in the future–10% interest for now. That’s a lot better than the 29% others are talking about! You know, my 89-year-old mother has an account with Sears. I had no idea she was paying such an enormous % on her card. This is taking advantage of elderly on fixed incomes–especially when they need to have things serviced conveniently!

• 6. James Day    August 21st, 2009 at 1:22 pm

  I recently received a notice that my finance charges were being raised significantly. Is this the thanks I get for keeping my bills paid up?!! Needless to say, my card went into the shredder, and I will NOT use Sears again. I have purchased alot of Kenmore applicances and Craftsman tools. Never again….Thank you Sears for nothing.

• 7. peter    September 5th, 2009 at 11:57 pm

  Hi Guys,
  I’ve read a bunch of your stories and I’m also beginning to feel afraid because I too have a Sears Master Card- with a ridiculous (I’ve ashamed to say it)% interest rate and a (even on only one purchase for the month of a 99c burger) $2 minimum finance charges updated since last month . Ever since I got the card I can’t help but to have doubt about this thing. However there is a better way! Fortunately, I’ve created my own little ‘’get around’, only use the card at Sears and Kmart or for “Internal purchases only”. Use your easy coupons and take advantage of the promotions to get the discount then pay the balance in full before the end of the month’s cycle. Only buy what you need. There you have it, simple, no crappy finance charges or high interest rates to deal with! I guess its good to have a second regular non-store card with super low interest rates with no finance charges, membership or yearly fees if paid in full every month or within the “Grace Period”- because I have. The good thing is that the big credit limit looks good on your report so taking out a loan elsewhere or such won’t be so harsh as long as the card is active at lease once every 3 months. Oh, and don’t forget to redeem your points before they expire. Now smile a little!

• 8. Carlos De la Torre    October 24th, 2009 at 2:48 pm

  SEARS JUST RAISED MY INTEREST RATE 5% PER MONTH WITHOUT NOTICE. THEY WAIT TILL YOU OWE THEM CLOSE TO YOUR CREDIT LIMIT AND HIT YOU WITH A HIGH INTEREST RATE OF 25.6%.

  I CANCELED BOTH OF MY CARDS. SARS DO NOT DIESERVE GOOD CLIENTS.

• 9. Lynn in St. Louis    November 5th, 2009 at 9:25 pm

  You won’t believe this. When they raised our Sears mastercard rate to 29.99% last month, I called and got the payoff amount from them. It was $6444 and included 193 of finance charges. I paid the total amount right then and there on the phone. It was before the due date, and was taken instantly out of my bank account over the phone. They charged $14.95 to do this, but we were happy to be certain it was posted before the due date, and we added this fee to the payment total. Then we asked them to close the account.
  Imagine our surprise when we got a bill today for $143 for “finance charges”!!!! I called them, and they said that they have the right to charge “rolling finance charges” after you close the account for one month, based on the LAST month’s average balance. BUT THAT was included in the finance charge on the final bill that we PAID!!!!. I am a CPA, so I’m not easily confused by simple compound interest issues….. they said if I don’t pay this, before the due date, they will add 39 dollars late fees EACH month (even though it’s a closed account) and will ruin our credit. They cannot tell me how they can charge interest/finance charges on a zero balance account!!!
  For heavens sake, bail out now before Citibank and Sears get really crazy.

• 10. Carlos de la Torre    November 17th, 2009 at 11:49 pm

  I CANCELED BOTH OF MY SEARS DEBIT CARDS AFTER A 5% RAISE INTEREST RATE LAST MONTH.
  NOW I AM APPLYING FOR A PERSONAL LOAN FOR $5,000 TO CONSOLIDATE BOTH CARDS AND STOP DONATING OVER A $100 EVERY MONTH FOR 25.4% INTEREST RATE PAYMENTS TO CITIBANK.

  ITS NEVER TOO LATE FOR US TO CONSOLIDATE THESE DEBIT CARDS WITH BANK LOANS AND IF ONLY 50% CANCEL AND CONSOLIDATE THEIR SEARS CARDS CITIBANK WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO BRING DOWN THEIR INTEREST RATES FOR THE FUTURE GENERATIONS. DO IT TODAY!!

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