Legacy Credit Card Review: Friend or Foe?
Q: Should I apply for a credit card from Legacy to rebuild my credit? I heard their name on the forum but am having a hard time finding information about them.
Here is some information I dug up about the issuer and their credit card offers…
Who issues the card?
The Legacy Visa credit card is issued by First National Bank. Their name is a bit confusing, because there are many different banks in America that have “First National Bank” as part of their name, so it’s easy to mix them up.
Is this bank reputable?
As of the time of writing, their website (http://www.firstnationalcc.com) has almost no information about the company. For example, I do not see any “Contact” or “About” page anywhere. The website is shrouded in secrecy.
It appears this website is only for those who have received Legacy credit card applications in the mail and would like to apply online, because a “reservation number” from the offer must be entered. There is also a login for current cardholders. Besides those two groups of people, this website doesn’t tell you much about the credit card or the company.
With that said, First National Bank is a real, legitimate company based in South Dakota. They are a member of the FDIC. Aside from that, I can’t really tell you much more about them since so little information is provided on their website.
Is their card any good?
Although I am not able to access the Legacy credit card application directly, their website did have a link to “credit card contracts” which I could view. There were 4 different offers listed and as of February 2011 here’s the information that was contained in those contracts:
- Offer #1: no annual fee, 15.6% interest rate, minimum credit limit not disclosed
- Offer #2: $75.00 annual fee, 21.99% interest rate, $300 minimum credit limit
- Offer #3: $75.00 annual fee, 29.9% interest rate, $300 minimum credit limit
- Offer #4: $75.00 annual fee, 29.9% interest rate, $300 minimum credit limit (appears to be the same as #3)
If the Legacy Visa offer you received is #1, that appears to be fair being that there’s no annual fee and an average APR. As far as the other 3 offers, it seems like you might be paying a hefty annual fee for a minimum credit limit that isn’t very high.
Should you apply or not?
Obviously if you have bad credit your options are going to be limited. But even taking that into consideration, is it worth paying a $75 annual fee to get the Legacy credit card, that might have a limit as low as $300? If you are okay with that, then by all means go ahead and apply. However I would recommend shopping around and considering all your options because Offers #2 thru 4 from Legacy are definitely nothing special!
Alternatives?
Credit Card Forum maintains a ranking of secured credit card offers you should check out.
Just a quick note, of all the credit card offers I have gotten and accepted to “rebuild” my credit, this is the only card I still have. Yes, 21.9% is high, as well as $75.00 a year fee (option 2 above) but if people didn’t screw up their credit in the 1st place, me included, they wouldn’t have to go this route. I for one am glad I accepted their offer, and after 4 years, have gotten credit limit increases and apr reductions.
I had got this card, when I went to make my payments online the website was down for 3 months in a row and trying to get ahold of them on the phone is extremely hard to do. They post your payment the day after it is due even if you pay before so you still collect a late fee. DON’T GET THIS LEGACY CARD!!!
Shae are you sure that when you made your payment that you chose a specific date for them to charge your bank account or whatever account you were paying your bill through? I know that with my JCPenney’s card they have a default payment date set when you make a payment online and I have to go into that and change the date accordingly so that my payment will post before the due date! It took me a coupe of months to figure why my payments weren’t posting until the day before or on the due date! Hope this helps!
If your credit rating is bad, this card is a way to build it back up, but it will take some time. Yes, the 29% interest is high, but just use it to buy things you buy anyway and always pay it in full, and no interest is charged. After a year, your credit rating will greatly improved. Cards like this help those with crappy credit rating build it back up.
I received the offer. I think the post by Creditcardguru is right on target. Paying 29% interest in addition to 75 annual fee for 300 limit is not worth it.