XBox 360 Premiums for $200 at Micro Center

[AlanS17]

It's not a lie! I just did it, myself. This is for everyone who missed out on the Amazon deal. 

They're running an in-store special (if you're lucky enough to have one near you). They have a mail-in rebate for $100 off of either Xbox 360 model.

What's less known is that you can get another $100 off by signing up for their credit card. It's not a store card, though. It's actually a Bank of America credit card. I already have one, though. It's actually really good. It's got a rewards program with no annual fee.

$400 XBox 360 - $100 Mail-in rebate - $100 Credit Card Rebate = $200

The two rebates are independent of each other. You can pick and choose. And the credit card rebate isn't just for Xbox 360's. It applies to anything in the store. I think there's a $400 minimum purchase though (how convenient!)

[shmokes]

You should not be so quick to sign up for new credit cards.  Every penny of credit available to you is debt as far as your credit score is concerned (because at any moment you can convert it to debt on a whim).  Your debt to income ratio increases with each new credit card. 

There are other reasons it's a bad idea too, such as each one being one more opportunity for identity theft, the temptation to actually use it, the separate minimum payment (lots of cards often add up to an inability to meet the minimum payments on all your cards).  If you go to buy a house or car down the road your interest rate (or ability to even borrow, for that matter) will be affected by your credit score.

Personally, having another credit card in my name that I don't want is not worth $100.

[mccoy178]

You should not be so quick to sign up for new credit cards.  Every penny of credit available to you is debt as far as your credit score is concerned (because at any moment you can convert it to debt on a whim).  Your debt to income ratio increases with each new credit card. 

There are other reasons it's a bad idea too, such as each one being one more opportunity for identity theft, the temptation to actually use it, the separate minimum payment (lots of cards often add up to an inability to meet the minimum payments on all your cards).  If you go to buy a house or car down the road your interest rate (or ability to even borrow, for that matter) will be affected by your credit score.

Personally, having another credit card in my name that I don't want is not worth $100.

You've been hanging around Chad too much.

[shmokes]

 

mccoy, are you sure this isn't the smiley you meant to use?  Cos I'm pretty sure that you could replace everything you've ever said to me with that smiley and it would pretty much amount to the same thing.

[SNAAKE]

You should not be so quick to sign up for new credit cards.  Every penny of credit available to you is debt as far as your credit score is concerned (because at any moment you can convert it to debt on a whim).  Your debt to income ratio increases with each new credit card. 

There are other reasons it's a bad idea too, such as each one being one more opportunity for identity theft, the temptation to actually use it, the separate minimum payment (lots of cards often add up to an inability to meet the minimum payments on all your cards).  If you go to buy a house or car down the road your interest rate (or ability to even borrow, for that matter) will be affected by your credit score.

Personally, having another credit card in my name that I don't want is not worth $100.

You've been hanging around Chad too much.

 

[AlanS17]

There are two types of debt - long term debt and revolving debt. The first one comes from paying for things like cars and homes. That's one is bad for a creedit score. The second one is from credit cards.

You actually want a certain amount of revolving credit avalailable to you. It helps your credit score. In fact, credit cards are how you establish credit. Sure there's probably a point where you have too many, but credit cards are not the devil.

There's a credit to debt ratio that's also important to your credit score. The amount of available credit compared to how much you owe against that credit is an important factor. Maxing out your one little credit card each month is a bad thing. You're better off having a second one you never even use as a back-up.

Credit lenders would rather see you have 3 or 4 cards that you pay off every month than no cards at all or even just one card that you can't ever seem to pay off. Since I always pay my cards off, no problem. For those people who have trouble with credit cards, this certainly isn't the deal for them.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, back on topic... XBox Premiums for $200 at Micro Center!

[ChadTower]

Yep, credit cards aren't a problem.  Poor usage of credit cards is a problem.

[shmokes]

That's not exactly how your credit score works.  Both long term debt and revolving debt are bad for your credit score.  And both are good for your credit score.  You want to get a credit card or two to establish a credit history.  A person with absolutely nothing on their credit report is a total wild card.  Lenders want to see debt on your credit report so they can see how you manage the debt.  But when they see someone who makes $30,000 a year with $30,000 of credit available to them that's a red flag.  As I said, available credit is counted as debt in your debt to income ratio.  They don't just consider it potential debt.  They consider it debt, as though all of your cards were maxed out, even if you have always paid your cards off entirely every month. 

I didn't say you should never sign up for a credit card, I said you should not be so quick to sign up for credit cards.

[AlanS17]

I didn't say you should never sign up for a credit card, I said you should not be so quick to sign up for credit cards.

Well I don't make a habit of it. This topic got got completely sidetracked...