Pros and Cons: Lovesac Credit Card

Cons

Summary and introduction

The Lovesac Credit Card is a co-brand/store credit card that offers some limited benefits for shoppers. It has no annual fee and offers a 0% APR on your first receipt’s purchases for the first 12 months (still requires monthly minimum payments along the way). Yep, that’s about it.

It’s mostly only useful as a 0% loan to spread out payments of a large, one-time purchase at LoveSac. Which can be a great benefit if you want it. But that is about it.

If you have fair or poor credit, you might have a better chance of being approved for a store-branded credit card, like the Lovesac credit card, than a regular card. This is because they are trying to help you make a purchase from their store by offering financing, rather than offering you a card you can use on anything, like many cards. Credit approval is not guaranteed, however, and you will still be subject to credit approval.

Note that this is really just a co-branded Synchrony Bank Home Care Card. You can check out the website for that credit card here.

A typical LoveSac storefront. You can apply for their credit card online or in store

Anyway, let’s dive into all the details ⏩ ⏩

• 0% APR on your first purchase (one receipt’s worth of items) for the first 12 months. This is great if you don’t want to pay for a large purchase all at once
• No annual fee ($0 annual fee)
• Lovesav claims you will receive ‘special offers throughout the year.’ We think that likely just means you will get more marketing materials and promos for them once they have your address
• You can apply online
• You can manage your lovesac credit card account online
• Instant credit decision if you apply online (note that this isn’t guaranteed, you could be subject to a longer credit approval process)

LoveSac is famous for their highly customizable and comfortable couches. This one was a bit too stiff for my preferences

So what are the downsides to the Lovesac Credit Card? Well, there are a few things to consider. First, after the introductory 0% APR period expires, the interest rate on this credit card on purchases will be a whopping 29.99%. Whoa! You will certainly want to make sure you don’t carry an interest-bearing balance on the LoveSac credit card, otherwise, that furniture purchase will quickly become much more expensive!

Many store cards offer extra discounts and perks if you’re a frequent shopper at their store. This card does not! Lovesac does mention that you will receive ‘special offers,’ but this appears to just mean more marketing material now that they have your contact information! No actual additional rewards or perks for being a card member, as far as we can tell.

You can think of this card as essentially a one-time, interest-free loan in the form of a credit card. Remember it’s only interest-free if you:

• Make the minimum monthly payments along the way (the amount will vary by your purchase/balance amount)
• Payoff the full promotional purchase balance before the end of the promotional period. We can’t stress this enough

Lovesac does not make it clear whether this card will actually work anywhere besides in a Lovesac store. It’s not clear if it’s accepted anywhere else. We think it’s unlikely to be accepted anywhere else, seriously limiting the utility of the Lovesac credit card account.

The interest rate is sky-high at 30%

This is an extremely high-interest rate that you will pay if you fail to make minimum monthly payments or if you do not fully repay the promotional balance within the promotional period. Remember that you are not completely deferring all payments during the period, there will be some nominal payments required.

Deferred interest

If you don’t fully pay off the promotional balance during the promotional period, you will face deferred interest charges. This means that interest is accruing during the promotional period, which you will have to pay if you don’t fully pay off the balance by the end of the promotional period.

So, if you have a 12-month promotional period, for example, you might not think it’s a huge deal to pay in month 13. After all the 30% interest rate divided by 12 months, should mean you only pay ~2.5% of the purchase price for being a month late. Maybe that’s an ok amount of money for you to defer payment for one more month.

The problem is this is wrong!!! You will actually pay a full year’s worth of interest, this is the deferred interest, that Lovesac and Synchrony let you defer, only if you fully repaid the balance within 12 months. That’s why it’s called ‘deferred’ interest.

I found this option to be a little more comforatable

Is this card good for me if I’m a frequent Lovesac shopper?

Actually, no! The reason is that the promotional offer only applies to “single-receipt” purchases. Meaning you only get the promo one time, for one purchase, for all the items that were on that one, single receipt.

While Lovesac promises exclusive offers for lovesac credit card holders, having personally worked inside these companies, we think that really just means you will be added to their promotions list and receive lots more marketing outreach. That means promo mailers in your mailbox, emails, and potentially even texts and calls. Their website is very light on details in this area.

What are other options for financing a purchase at Lovesac?

You should always consider all your financing options when making a large purchase. Remember to only buy what you can afford to pay. Especially in the discretionary purchasing like furniture. We really like Lovesac, their couches are ridiculously comfortable, but there are much more affordable options out there. If you can’t comfortably afford this purchase price level, consider finding a cheaper option.

If you want to finance the purchase, though, instead of paying cash consider your other options, which might include:

• A personal loan or bank loan
• Other credit cards – perhaps ones with rewards like cash back
• An SBLOC or margin loan
• A Buy Now, Pay Later loan. Lovesac partners with Affirm to make this possible for purchases in their stores. Consider that interest rates on these loans can also be very high, depending on your credit.

You can open a LoveSac credit card to help finance the purchase of a beanbag chair like this one, which they call a “Sac,” and range in price depending on size from ~$875 – $1,650. I didn’t find it as comfortable as it looked, so lost interest quickly

Other common questions about the Lovesac credit card

Wait – who is Synchrony Bank?

Synchrony Bank is a large, public, trustworthy financial institution. They are the bank partner for many store-branded credit cards (the Container Store Credit Card is another good example). In fact, most store-brand credit cards are just one of a few variations of the same credit card product, just with that store’s branding attached.

Synchrony Bank is one of just a couple of large, financial institutions that issue and service the vast majority of store-brand credit cards.

Synchrony also offers other financial products, like their own credit cards, savings accounts, and business financing.

Synchrony Bank issues the card and takes care of all of the servicing. You will log into their portal to make payments, etc. If you have any issues with your card, you will need to contact the synchrony bank customer service team.

I already have a Lovesac credit card but have an issue, where can I get help

• You can log in to the account management portal here
• Or try calling Synchrony Bank Credit Card Customer Service at 1-800-333-1076

I don’t want to call, how else can I reach Synchrony Bank customer service?

Synchrony Bank also offers a 24×7 support chat option. Look for the chat icon on the login screen. It’s also available once you’ve already logged in and on mobile.

Do you have a Lovesac credit card?

No one on the Personal Finance Guru team currently has a Lovesac credit card in their wallet. Information for this review was gathered primarily from the Synchrony bank website, the Lovesac credit card website, and various credit card rating reviews and sites.

Would you use the Lovesac credit card yourself?

We would consider it if we felt the need to spread out payments for a large furniture purchase at Lovesac and we were 100% sure we could meet the minimum monthly payments and fully repay the promo balance within the promo period. We would also want to be sure we could keep track of this and not forget. This happens to a lot of well-meaning people, who simply have too much going on in their finances to manage properly and end up missing a payment or more. There is a lot to be said for simplicity!

Does Synchrony Bank make it hard to pay?

As mentioned above, we don’t have the Lovesac credit card in our wallet, so we don’t have full access to their servicing portal. However, it does appear that Synchrony tried to make things straightforward, by offering things like auto pay, a mobile app where you can pay, payment without login, etc. So no big red flags here.

LoveSac stores tend to be quite small