The GM Card - Finally, A Good Reward Card
Written: Jun 24 '01
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Pros: Good rewards, good website, good customer service
Cons: High APR
The Bottom Line: If you rarely or never carry a balance, the GM Card would be an excellent reward card choice.
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| vein's Full Review: General Motors MasterCard (Household Bank) |
(Note: This review is of the new GM Card, available to all current gold and blue GM Card holders. The new GM Card is grey in colour – it is the only card available to new account holders.)
When I made the easy choice to cancel my Providian Visa card, I began to look for a replacement. While I’d planned to get another Visa card in order to have a card “just in case” any emergency situation didn’t take MasterCard, a little offer from GM Card (offered through Household Bank) made itself known in my mailbox.
Yes, I can hear the groans now.
”I bet she accepts every credit card offer that comes to her. Loser.”
While I often wish I could live my life without double and triple checking out major decisions that could affect my future (such as my credit), I unfortunately never take the easy way out. Most of the credit card offers I receive end up in the trash before they are opened.
In the early 1990’s, my ever-wise parents chose a GM MasterCard as their only credit card, replacing a higher interest card. Knowing that they planned to purchase a new Chevrolet Suburban in the coming years, they felt that money off their purchase for normal use of a credit card would be the way to go.
Fast forward to 1998, the year I purchased my brand new Chevrolet Prizm. My parents still had been using the GM MasterCard, with almost $3,000 in earnings towards a new GM car. A quick call by my mother to the GM card customer service line delighted me to no end – the award earnings were transferable, allowing the purchase of my car (in my name) to be $2,500 less than my already below sticker price.
With a simple 3-minute call from the dealer to the GM Card customer service line as I was signing paperwork, the price of my car dropped by over $2,000. I was not complaining.
With my past experiences, I knew that the GM MasterCard would be a good choice for my next credit card.
With an APR of 17.49%, the GM Card didn’t have the best rate around. The card did offer a 25-day grace period on new purchases and no annual fee, both features that are standard on decent credit cards.
The GM Card had an easy to understand reward system – for every purchase made, you received 5% of the purchase cost in “GM Rewards” good towards the purchase of a new car with no limit as to rewards earned in a year. The reward “money” could be redeemed at any point before 7 years was up. With the first two balance transfers upon opening the account, 5% of their value would also become part of your earnings. The GM Card earnings would be good on the purchase of any new GM made vehicle, excluding Saturn, Saab, and EV1.
Finding out how much of your earnings could be used on a car was slightly more difficult. Unlike some reward cards that offered a single savings on all of the products, the GM Card offered varying amounts off, depending on the make and model (and model year) of the car you wished to purchase. The reward limits ranged from around $1,500 to $2,500, a fair amount off the cost of the car.
In addition to a discount on any GM vehicle, earnings are also available to be used at places such as Marriott, National or Alamo rental car, American Airlines, OnStar system, DirecTV, Loews movie theatres, and Bass Pro Shops, to name a few. Even a reward of as little as $50 could get you a variety of “free” perks, making the MasterCard a useful reward card even without any planned purchase of a new GM vehicle.
The GM Card, while offering a good reward plan and just marginal terms, shines in both the customer service Household Bank provides, as well as with their online account management.
The time to receive my first statement for my GM Card came and went – I waited patiently for its arrival. It never arrived. I called up the customer service 1-800 number and, after being connected with an agent in less than a minute, explained that my first statement had not yet arrived. The extremely polite representative confirmed the worst - my payment was due in 4 days. Because the customer service representative I spoke with believed my statement had not arrived, she waived the normal $15 fee for paying by check over the phone.
In less than 5 minutes time, my first call to the GM Card customer service line was a total success.
While I normally preferred to pay my bills the old archaic check way, I signed up for the GM Card online access.
Unlike many other credit card companies’ websites, the GM Card site was quite easy to navigate in order to use the basic functions available. From their secure website you could do the obvious – pay your bill directly from your checking account, check your reward earnings, see when your payments were due, and contact customer service. The “extra” features not available on most websites included the ability to request a credit line increase, order additional cards, and dispute charges. The site also included information about the GM vehicle line, with offers for “updates” on the vehicle line of your choice.
While lately I’ve come to the conclusion that having GM Card deduct the amount of my choosing directly from my checking account is easier, in the past I sent checks. Each check was always promptly credited to my account, usually within hours of it being received by GM Card. (Oh thank you USPS for delivery confirmation information!) Aside from the few statements that managed to show up weeks after they were due thanks to the Detroit post office, each statement has been mailed out no later than 2 days after the last statement day, allowing me plenty of time to receive the statement and make a payment.
The GM Card has certainly been the best reward card I’ve found and the only one I will even consider using. Like most reward cards, those who regularly carry large balances will not find the GM Card by Household Bank a decent credit card option. If the high APR is something you can live with, I do highly recommend the GM MasterCard.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
vein
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Courtney
Location: Detroit, MI
Reviews written: 88
Trusted by: 77 members
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