Hanks Credit Card | 5 Reasons It’s A Mistake!

The short answer is:

• Likely only a good card for large-one time purchases where you’re sure you can payoff the promotional balance within the promotional timeframe 
• Severe drawbacks if you don’t carefully follow the terms and conditions of the promotional period, like a ~30% interest rate!

The Hanks credit card is a co-brand card with the Synchrony Home Credit Card. Remember that Hanks is not a credit card company and that you are really dealing with Synchrony financial (a reputable bank) and Mastercard (the credit card processor). Synchrony financial is the actual issuer of this card and who your account will be with.

Customers of this card get special discounts and rewards on furniture, appliances, decor, and even flooring, making it a great financing option for die-hard home shoppers.

The Hanks credit card comes with some limited benefits and features that might make you want to get one yourself – primarily 0% financing. This article discusses all these benefits, including its interest rates, rewards, features, and drawbacks.

Let’s dive right in!

Long-Term Promotional Financing

Depending on how much you spend, you can apply for up to 60 months of interest-free promotional financing with your Hanks Furniture Credit Card.

This is extremely useful for homeowners looking to finance an expensive home-improvement purchase over the course of at least six months.

These are the available financing options:

●     $299 minimum purchase: 6 months

●     $1,000 minimum purchase: 12 months

●     $2,000 minimum purchase: 24 months

●     $2,500 minimum purchase: 36 months (in-store only)

●     $3,000 minimum purchase: 48 months (in-store only)

●     $4,000 minimum purchase: 60 months (in-store only)

It’s important to note that while this offer comes with a no-interest fee, it does come with a deferred interest offer. This means that it’s absolutely critical to pay off the full promotional balance by the due date, or you will face a very high purchase APR interest rate.

If you’re able to pay in full before the promotional period is up, you won’t pay for the interest. But if you haven’t managed to pay in full after the deferred period ends—even if it’s just $5— you’ll incur an ongoing charge of purchase APR of 29.99%. That’s jaw-droppingly high!

Rewards Rate

It appears that at one time the Hanks Credit Card offered 2% cash back on certain home-related purchases. From what we can tell, this offer no longer exists, however. It has become very rare to find credit cards that have both 0% financing and any kind of rewards rate, so you will likely need to choose which is more important to you in a particular purchase decision.

A counter-example you might consider is the Lowe’s Advantage Card—issued by the same company—offers up to a 5% discount on eligible purchases.

$0 Fraud Liability

If you accidentally lose your card, you won’t be responsible for unauthorized charges thanks to the $0 Fraud Liability benefit.

Make no mistake; you’ll still be subject to verification and investigation, but once the purchase is confirmed not to be yours, you won’t have to worry about the extra charges.

This is a fairly standard benefit these days and not a differentiator.

Free access to your credit score

This is rapidly becoming a standard perk with most credit cards, however, it is still a nice benefit, if you don’t already have this through another card.

Other financing options Hank’s Fine Furniture Offers

Hanks fine furniture offers other ways for payment of large purchases. These can be helpful if you have weak credit and might not receive credit approval for the card:

• Smart Sales and Lease (note we have not reviewed this product, so we neither disclaim nor endorse it). This is only available in store and still requires a soft credit check . It appears they purchase the product for you, then lease it back to you, with a buyout option.
• Customer can also pay with Affirm, a buy now pay later provider. Note that this may still incur interest charges.