A couple years ago on the forum, there was a man who had a Merchant’s Tire credit card account. Even though he lived in Virginia, his soon to be ex-wife allegedly raked up $1,500 in charges on his account in a totally different state, Florida.

How did that happen? Well according to him, she allegedly was able to access his credit account at a Merchant’s Tire location in Florida by just giving them his Social Security number. Fortunately, the credit card’s customer service department eventually refunded him the money and turned the case over to law enforcement.

Whether things happened as he described, that’s impossible to know. But what I do know is that Merchants Tire is fairly aggressive with peddling their credit cards, at least from my experience.

What this card does (and doesn’t) offer

Obviously a credit card from Merchants Tire and Auto isn’t going to be super exciting. Its basic purpose is for financing.

The credit card offers may change periodically but this is what the application listed when I checked…

• 6 months deferred interest on purchases of $250 and up
• 12 months deferred interest on purchase of $750 and up

As I’ve said before with similar cards, keep in mind that these deferred interest plans work different than what you would be getting on a major bank credit card:

• In order to not pay interest the balance must be paid off within the specified promotional time-frame.
• If you don’t pay it in time, then the interest will be charged to your account from the purchase date (same holds true if you make a late payment).

On a $1,000 that would be almost $300 in interest charges after the 12 month “no interest” period is over, when you take into account the 28.99% APR.

On the brightside, there’s sometimes the occasional rebate or coupon offer made available only to those with the Merchants Tire credit card.

One example was a $25 Visa prepaid card for spending $250+ or a $50 card for spending $500+ before taxes. Is that enough of an incentive to apply for the card? I’ll let you be the judge.

Review written or last updated Jan 2012