Hooray for Home Depot! HD for the save!

[Rich Engelhardt]

So - I'm making some drawers for a kitchen project.
I messed up and only allowed 1/2" total for the slides instead of 1/2" per side. Shame on me.

After much thought and cursing myself - I ran to Home Depot to find a solution.
I came to the conclusion it would me far easier to buy a Makita cordless 3 3/8" circular saw.
( I picked the Makita instead of the 12 V Milwaukee - mistakenly thinking the Makita was 18 V).

I plan to cut 1/4" off each side of the face frame opening for the drawers.

I get to the checkout and the cashier rings it up - $79.95 - and says "Would you like to open a Home Depot account and pay a penny for this"?
I ask he if that's $79.00 off & she says it is!

I can't say "YES", fast enough!
I open the account and she gives me a cash register slip with the account number on it.
I take the saw out to the car and unpack it.
It was then that I notice it's a 12 V and not 18 V. Oh well, no biggie,I'll just get a battery for it.
Back I go and use my new account to get a 4A 12 V battery $59.00)- - again mistakenly thinking the 12 V will fit my 18 V charger (it doesn't).

I go home and returned this morning to get a 12 V charger.
As luck would have it,,,,I can't find the slip with the account number anywhere. I search high and low and - nada.

I pick up the charge ($69.00 for charger and battery) and check out - - and again - the same cashier as yesterday asks, "Would you like $60.00 off the price if you open a Home Depot account"?.
I laugh and tell her she got me yesterday.

"No problem", she says, "You can open three accounts"!
Again - couldn't say yes fast enough.

So - thanks to Home Depot - I managed to get a 12 V Makita 3 3/8" saw, a 4.0 A battery and a 2.0 A battery and charger for - $$68.95.
It would have only been $9.95 had I not messed up and bought the 4.0 A battery - but - so what, I'll use it at some point.

Not too happy taking the hard inquiry on the credit score at this particular time, but, I saved a total of $79. plus $60.00 on the tool - just to fix my mistake,

[Matt Day]

Nothing is free! Glad you fixed your problem though.

[Mike Cutler]

Cancel the HD cards on their website once you pay them off. It's pretty easy.
So far I haven't gotten offers as good as you have to open an additional account, so I haven't, but it seems many folks do. One guy I work with got a big grill and saved quite a bit of $$$$ by playing heir game. Another saved big time on one of their lawn tractors.

[Dan Rude]

Also, if you have a Menards in your area you can get 11% back. You do need the receipt though, because you use that number to get it. They then send you a gift card in the amount. Dan

[al heitz]

NOTE: Menard's 11% off deals are cyclical - usually once about every 4-6 weeks. Not every day/every week.

[David Buchhauser]

So - I'm making some drawers for a kitchen project.
I messed up and only allowed 1/2" total for the slides instead of 1/2" per side. Shame on me.

After much thought and cursing myself - I ran to Home Depot to find a solution.
I came to the conclusion it would me far easier to buy a Makita cordless 3 3/8" circular saw.
( I picked the Makita instead of the 12 V Milwaukee - mistakenly thinking the Makita was 18 V).

I plan to cut 1/4" off each side of the face frame opening for the drawers.

I get to the checkout and the cashier rings it up - $79.95 - and says "Would you like to open a Home Depot account and pay a penny for this"?
I ask he if that's $79.00 off & she says it is!

I can't say "YES", fast enough!
I open the account and she gives me a cash register slip with the account number on it.
I take the saw out to the car and unpack it.
It was then that I notice it's a 12 V and not 18 V. Oh well, no biggie,I'll just get a battery for it.
Back I go and use my new account to get a 4A 12 V battery $59.00)- - again mistakenly thinking the 12 V will fit my 18 V charger (it doesn't).

I go home and returned this morning to get a 12 V charger.
As luck would have it,,,,I can't find the slip with the account number anywhere. I search high and low and - nada.

I pick up the charge ($69.00 for charger and battery) and check out - - and again - the same cashier as yesterday asks, "Would you like $60.00 off the price if you open a Home Depot account"?.
I laugh and tell her she got me yesterday.

"No problem", she says, "You can open three accounts"!
Again - couldn't say yes fast enough.

So - thanks to Home Depot - I managed to get a 12 V Makita 3 3/8" saw, a 4.0 A battery and a 2.0 A battery and charger for - $$68.95.
It would have only been $9.95 had I not messed up and bought the 4.0 A battery - but - so what, I'll use it at some point.

Not too happy taking the hard inquiry on the credit score at this particular time, but, I saved a total of $79. plus $60.00 on the tool - just to fix my mistake,

Good for you Rich. I have several Home Depot credit cards and I received the same offers and courtesies as you when I opened them. I have also taken advantage of the Home Depot offers for no interest for 6 months on several of my larger purchases. Most people don't know this, but when you cancel a credit card it can adversely effect your FICO credit score. If you decide that you don't want them anymore, it is better to just hold on to them and not use them.
David

[Rich Engelhardt]

Yeah - Menards rebates and sales rock. They also have their Big Card that gives you 2% back on every purchase in addition to the other discounts & sale prices.
When the bill comes it has coupons in it!

Lowes has their consumer charge card that discounts every purchase by 5%.


Cancel the HD cards on their website once you pay them off. It's pretty easy.I've heard it's best to just toss the card in a drawer and let them close the account for non-use. Closing accounts you don't use goes against your credit score if you initiate the closure.

[David Buchhauser]

What I just said Rich!

[Frederick Skelly]

Most people don't know this, but when you cancel a credit card it can adversely effect your FICO credit score. If you decide that you don't want them anymore, it is better to just hold on to them and not use them.
David

They also bite you the other way. When you apply for a large purchase, the lender considers how many open credit cards you have - even if $0 balance. The way it was explained to me, even though you don't have a balance on 3 open cards, you COULD go out tomorrow and charge each of them up to their limit. That impacts your debt vs income and thereby potentially increases the lender's risk. There are factors and variables here, like the magnitude of your income and how much you are trying to borrow. But it sure looks to me like the MBA's have all the angles figured. :)

[Tom M King]

I quit using credit cards, or really credit for anything. I don't even want a credit score. I know you can make a few percent return, but we've had too much trouble with hacking, and fraudulent charges, that I just don't want to think about it. Keeping a low, or next to nothing balance is fine until someone hacks it, then you might not believe how much trouble that can lead to. We had several with high limits, and no balances that were hacked, and I ended up going to court on a couple of them to ever get it cleared up. I hope my credit score is really low now.

[Gary Ragatz]

Most people don't know this, but when you cancel a credit card it can adversely effect your FICO credit score. If you decide that you don't want them anymore, it is better to just hold on to them and not use them.
David

Cancelling a card can hurt your score because it increases the percentage of your available credit that you're using. But opening new accounts can also hurt your score.

The "special deals" various retailers offer to encourage you to open a credit card account are great, as long as you're not planning to take out a serious loan (e.g., a mortgage or a car loan) in the near future. If you are, the $50 or $100 you save when you open the account could be eaten up pretty quickly by the higher interest rate you'll pay on the serious​ loan.

[Bill Space]

Good for the OP in getting a great deal...

But I can not help but remember that as a for profit enterprise, if HD loses in one way, it must make up the difference in another way. So we all end up paying more over time...including the OP.

Personally I have more credit cards than I really need. Always decline offers like the HD one for that reason. Although I do not care about it, my credit rating is in the high exceptional range.

I use one card exclusively. Pays 2% cash back. That adds up over a year. Use it for utilities and everything else, and even home and car insurance. Price would be the same if I wrote a check. I’ll happily take 2% on everything I spend in a year, for the most part.

Edit: I do realize that by paying with a credit card that also drives up prices. BUT as an example I recently ordered a load of crushed limestone. Price was about $680. I asked about payment. Price was the same check or credit card. So I could get about $14 returned to me by using the credit card. And save a check as well. (Checks are free so that did not matter...)

Bill

[Ed Henderson]

BE AWARE

I discovered that some purchases like "Lotteries" trigger the account to start charging interest on the entire outstanding balance and the account will charge interest for two cycles on the highest monthly balance even if the account is paid in full. So buy your lottery tickets with cash.

[David Buchhauser]

Once again, you guys are over-thinking this. Just like any other credit card company, Home Depot relies on the fact that may of the card holders will not pay off their balance each month. This results in the Home Depot interest rate being applied (and accrued) to the unpaid balance. If you pay off the credit card balance every month, you will not be subjected to this fee. This interest fee could be in the range of from 20 to 30 percent of more. If you pay off the entire credit card balance when it is due, then none of these fees would apply to you. So - this is a "numbers game". Once you have a Home Depot credit card (or any other credit card) and you don't want to use it anymore, the best thing to do is just put in the drawer and don't use it . If you close it out, this will adversely effect your FICO credit score much more than having this additional line of credit.
David

[Frederick Skelly]

Once again, you guys are over-thinking this. Once you have a Home Depot credit card (or any other credit card) and you don't want to use it anymore, the best thing to do is just put in the drawer and don't use it . If you close it out, this will adversely effect your FICO credit score much more than having this additional line of credit.
David

I mean no offence in any way here David. Are you in the credit reporting or the lending business, or are these your personal observations? I ask because my experience as a Consumer is different than what you've said here. But like I said earlier, I know there are multiple factors involved in how this works.
Fred

[Rich Engelhardt]

David's advice is exactly what I've heard & experienced.

Credit Karma, IIRC, also recommends the same thing - set unused cards aside and let them expire on their own.

I don't pretend to even begin to understand why it's like that. Since having a credit card with nothing on it is in essence an unsecured loan, you'd think that closing any unused ones would help your FICO score.

[Barry McFadden]

Not trying to hijack the thread but it seems to have turned into a credit score debate. I don't really understand the paranoia about credit scores in the US. All the commercials I see about checking your credit score are US based. They talk about things like, if checking your score lowers it or, in this thread, if cancelling a credit card lowers it or missing a payment lowers it. I have never checked my credit score in my life and even though I have misplaced bills like the phone or electric bill and failed to pay them on time I have never been refused a car loan or a mortgage or any other type of credit. These commercials tend to make me believe that people check their credit score daily or wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat worrying about it. Is that the case or is it just blown out of proportion by the commercials?

[Bill Dufour]

Back on topic: I would have used a router with a guide bar of scrap wood. have to trim the corners square with a saw or file.
Bill D

[Ed Henderson]

Not trying to hijack the thread but it seems to have turned into a credit score debate. I don't really understand the paranoia about credit scores in the US. All the commercials I see about checking your credit score are US based. They talk about things like, if checking your score lowers it or, in this thread, if cancelling a credit card lowers it or missing a payment lowers it. I have never checked my credit score in my life and even though I have misplaced bills like the phone or electric bill and failed to pay them on time I have never been refused a car loan or a mortgage or any other type of credit. These commercials tend to make me believe that people check their credit score daily or wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat worrying about it. Is that the case or is it just blown out of proportion by the commercials?

I'm not trying to hijack your non hijack but you should know....You may never have been refused a loan but you may have been charged a bit more interest on your loan because of missing the odd payment like a phone bill or electric bill. So if the best rate offered, sometimes under the table, on say a car loan is 3.5% you might have paid 4.5% on the loan and thought you were getting the best deal just because the loan was approved. That's not necessarily the case. Every loan provider has latitude in the interest rate game and every sales org, particularly sellers of items like auto's, get kickbacks on every extra cent they can gouge you for.

So in my humble opinion, keep your payments up to date and watch your credit score because credit rating agencies do not always employ top people at top salary.

[Barry McFadden]

Appreciate your input.... but I don't think that is happening... My line of credit is Prime plus 1/4% which is as low as they offer and we just bought a car and financed it and before I even told the salesman who I was I confirmed the rate with him... It's not as if they did a check and said "your rate will be..."

[Ed Henderson]

Appreciate your input.... but I don't think that is happening... My line of credit is Prime plus 1/4% which is as low as they offer and we just bought a car and financed it and before I even told the salesman who I was I confirmed the rate with him... It's not as if they did a check and said "your rate will be..."

Excellent!

[Rich Engelhardt]

Back on topic: I would have used a router with a guide bar of scrap wood. have to trim the corners square with a saw or file.Bill - thought about doing just that, but, since the counter top is installed, there wasn't enough room to fit my compact routers (DeWaly 611 & Makita cordless compact) in there. I very briefly considered the Rotozip - but - dismissed that idea. :Last time I tried the Rotozip for something like that it ended badly.

[David Buchhauser]

I mean no offence in any way here David. Are you in the credit reporting or the lending business, or are these your personal observations? I ask because my experience as a Consumer is different than what you've said here. But like I said earlier, I know there are multiple factors involved in how this works.
Fred

"Should you cancel your credit card? Probably not"

"Depending on your total available credit, closing a credit card account with a high credit limit could hurt your credit score, particularly if you have high balances on other cards or loans. ... If you have zero balances, your credit utilization rate is zero, and won't be impacted by the loss of a balance."

"The first question to ask yourself before canceling a card is: Do you really need to cancel it? Or would it be better to just put it away and not use it? Having an available line of credit on a card with no balance always helps your credit score, and it could come in handy in an emergency (https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/should-you-use-credit-card-as-emergency-fund.php) or if its terms improve in the future.

However, there are two occasions when closing a credit card is called for:


You can’t control your spending and need to remove the temptation.
You are paying an annual fee for a card you do not use.

In those cases, it makes sense to cancel cards, since they are unnecessarily costing you money."

[Frederick Skelly]

"Should you cancel your credit card? Probably not"

"Depending on your total available credit, closing a credit card account with a high credit limit could hurt your credit score, particularly if you have high balances on other cards or loans. ... If you have zero balances, your credit utilization rate is zero, and won't be impacted by the loss of a balance."

"The first question to ask yourself before canceling a card is: Do you really need to cancel it? Or would it be better to just put it away and not use it? Having an available line of credit on a card with no balance always helps your credit score, and it could come in handy in an emergency (https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/should-you-use-credit-card-as-emergency-fund.php) or if its terms improve in the future.

However, there are two occasions when closing a credit card is called for:


You can’t control your spending and need to remove the temptation.
You are paying an annual fee for a card you do not use.

In those cases, it makes sense to cancel cards, since they are unnecessarily costing you money."

Sure looks like you're right David. I looked up creditcards.com and it looks like they have expert background and they dont appear to be an "industry sponsored" site. What they're saying runs contrary to what I experienced, but Im definitely NOT an expert. So, maybe something has changed or my circumstances made a difference. Regardless, thanks for clearing it up and thanks for the info.
Fred

[Rich Engelhardt]

Back on track....

I just saw on the Home Depot site that you can get up to $100 off on a purchase by signing up for HD credit.

[Matt Day]

If HD gave away $100 for free, no strings attached, they’d go out of business. I’m not a CC expert, but signing up for a CC at every place that gives you some kind of sign up bonus can’t be a good idea.

[John K Jordan]

If HD gave away $100 for free, no strings attached, they’d go out of business. I’m not a CC expert, but signing up for a CC at every place that gives you some kind of sign up bonus can’t be a good idea.

I'm sure they are banking on the customer returning and using it. But I wonder what getting multiple cards does for the credit rating.