Subscribe

Get Started

Learn more about Credit Cards, Travel Programs, Deals, and more.

Start Here
Credit Cards
Credit Cards

I Applied for a Store Credit Card with NO Bonus: Why & What Happened!

Shawn Coomer
Shawn Coomer

Enjoy MtM's content? Shop Amazon and we earn a commission!

Find all of the latest deals.
Shop now!
This post may contain affiliate links - Advertiser Disclosure. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Links in this post may provide us with a commission.

banana republic visa card application

Banana Republic Visa Application Experience

Last month I wrote about the Banana Republic credit card and an interesting opportunity to earn up to 6X with one of their targeted offers. After going over the card benefits and weighing the pros and cons of getting the card,  I concluded:

I actually think this card may be worth the hard credit inquiry for a select few who can shift some spend, but not take away from their main MS goals with other cards. This card doesn’t have an annual fee so it is something you can keep forever. There is of course a risk that the 5X-10X promotions stop coming, but at the very least you are building account history. There is a lot of upside, but it isn’t guaranteed.

Why Apply?

Given my thoughts, it probably isn’t a surprise that I decided to apply for this credit card yesterday as part of my mini application round that also included the NBA American Express card. So why did I finally decide to bite the bullet? Here is why:

  • The card is issued by Synchrony Bank and I don’t have one of their cards.
  • Synchrony pulls from Transunion for me. The only other bank that pulls Transunion (in my area) is Barclaycard and thus I don’t have a lot of TU inquiries.
  • This is a no annual fee card I can keep to lengthen average age of accounts.
  • I am hoping that the targeted 5X-10X promotions will continue.

Application Results

After filling out the application, I hit submit and was happy to see an instant approval. Unfortunately I was only given a $1,400 credit line which will make it tough to MS during big promotions, but I’m playing the long game here. Hopefully I’ll be able to get them to increase the limit at some point. At least my foot is now in the door.

Conclusion

If you are interested in learning more about this card, recent lucrative offers and its benefits (including some elite benefits after $5K in spend) then head over to last month’s post where I covered everything in great detail. After a lot of debate I felt this card was worth an inquiry given the potential upside and the fact that they pull from Transunion. Now I’ll patiently wait for it to come and for Synchrony to offer me something good to use it!

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

 Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now bonus_miles_full

Learn more about this card and its features!

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Shawn Coomer
Shawn Coomerhttps://milestomemories.com/
Shawn Coomer earns and burns millions of miles/points per year circling the globe with his family. An expert at accumulating travel rewards, he founded Miles to Memories to help others achieve their travel goals for pennies on the dollar. Shawn also runs a million dollar reselling business, knows Vegas better than most and loves to spend his time at the 12 Disney parks across the world.

Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

10 COMMENTS

  2. Could you do a short post about which credit report each of the major banks pull when you apply for credit? This would be extremely helpful for everyone especially when planning multiple contemporaneous applications.

  3. Nice bro.

    So when I see you next time, does that mean you will be LOOKING BR FUNKY FRESH AND FLOSSY PIMP?
    Gotta MS in style brotha.

  4. After a year of inactivity, they auto close your account. I’ve never seen 5x with this card in the past, maybe it’s a new trend.

  6. Oops– one more note:

    The rewards that you earn from this card are applied as discounts, not like gift cards or like-cash tender. Say you spend $2,000 during the current promotion to earn $120 of BR rewards to spend and have $150 worth of BR merchandise to purchase (local sales tax rate of 8%).

    Cash (or gift card) purchase of $150 * 8% tax rate = Total of $162.00
    BR Rewards purchase of $150 – $120 in rewards = $30 in taxable purchases * 8% tax rate = Total of $32.40 out of pocket PLUS $120 of BR rewards = Total cost of $152.40

    In this example, you’re also saving $7.60 in sales tax on the purchase. If you add that to the $120 of BR rewards earned on $2k in spending, you’re effectively getting 6.38% back toward BR/GAP/Etc. purchases ($127.60/$2k).

    YMMV, but that has been my experience when redeeming these rewards.

    If you allocated the $2k of spend to a 5% CB card, you’d only

    • Unless something has changed, if you return any merchandise purchased using award points to help pay, those award points are not refunded, they go away. The store divides up the award points among all the items using a % value, so each individual item purchased will have a discount applied to that specific item, not the whole purchase amount.

  7. You can request a CL increase from within the EService portal… I had an initial $1,600 CL, requested an increase after 2 months and got a new $5k CL (still my lowest CL, though).

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Related

7,703FansLike
9,903FollowersFollow
16,444FollowersFollow

At Miles to Memories we share the best tips, tricks and deals plus travel rants, musings, hotel, airline and loyalty program reviews and a lot more! Our goal is to help people save money so they can get out there and travel the world! Through our various blog posts, podcasts & videos we teach others how to maximize loyalty rewards, hotel & airline programs and credit cards to achieve amazing things.

Disclaimer - Miles to Memories & the author are not credit providers and do not provide personal financial or professional advice or credit assistance. The information published on this site/page is of a general nature only and does not consider your personal objectives, financial situation or particular needs.

All information published here is personal opinion and comes from personal experience. The information published on this site/page should not be relied upon as a substitute for personal financial or professional advice. ESR Media, LLC, Miles to Memories and the author strongly recommend that you seek independent advice before you apply for any product or service, which is described on the site/page.

Editorial Note - Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any partner bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other partner. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.