Pottery Barn Credit Card Reviews – Best Option or Not?
Q: While shopping today I was asked if I wanted a Pottery Barn credit card application to pay for my soon-to-be new living room. I don’t like feeling pressured, so I took the pamphlet home with me. It looks like it has good rewards! Would you recommend this card?
A: Pottery Barn is an excellent store to pick up home furnishings. While they make great stuff, unfortunately it’s rather pricey… so any sort of rewards program would definitely be nice!
In a nutshell here is the Pottery Barn credit card rewards program:
- For every $250 spent at their stores, you get a $25 rewards certificate that can be redeemed via store, catalog, or website purchase at Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, and PBteen.
- The reward certificates are issued with your monthly statement and expire 180 days from the date they were issued.
- Reward certificates cannot be sold or transferred. If they are lost or stolen they will not be replaced.
So by getting $25 in rewards for every $250 spent, you are basically getting 10% back on your purchases. This is definitely one of the better rewards programs I’ve seen for a store credit card! There’s no annual fee, which is also a major plus.
Are there any drawbacks?
Unfortunately this card is not associated with any major payment network (like Visa, MasterCard, AmEx, or Discover) and that means it can only be used for purchases at Pottery Barn stores. The APR on the Pottery Barn card is extremely high – 19.99% to 24.99% at the time of this review. Therefore this would definitely be a bad card to ever carry a balance on.
Verdict?
There are no negative credit card reviews on our forum for this card, nor have I seen any negative reviews elsewhere for it. If you find yourself spending a lot on queen duvet covers, euro shams, or any of the thousands of other home furnishings they sell, then it may not be a bad idea to apply for a Pottery Barn credit card. However if you ever carry a balance, then it may be best to avoid this card.
Other great ways to get rewards?
While you’re at it, you should also take a look at your main credit card… how much in rewards does it give you? Check out our list of the best cash back credit cards so you can save the most amount of money everywhere you shop, because hopefully Pottery Barn isn’t the only place you spend your money :p
Written or updated April 2011
My gripe with the Pottery Barn credit card is in redeeming the rewards. We signed up for a PB card when we bought a sofa and some other furniture, to take advantage of the 10% rewards. So now we have a $325 rewards certificate. Went in to the store and we were going to buy a $200 lamp and a couple other small things, and buy it with the rewards. But, we were told that if we didn’t spend over $325, we’d loose the rest of it, in this case over $100. The sales person was all “Oh, just buy some more stuff!”, and I was like “Huh, buy stuff I don’t want/need right now? Just to use up the stupid rewards? No thanks.”
Gonna spend that rewards money, and cancel the card.
Do not get this card. My interest rate jumped up for no apparent reason. Also, if you are ever late (even <30 days), they will harass you and ring your phone literally 10 times a day. Not worth the harassment and honestly, lots of their stuff is made in China and isn't really worth what they charge in many cases.
I would not recommend the Pottery Barn card. I purchased $6,322 of furniture from pottery barn online using this card. On the same day, I processed a payment in the same amount to Pottery barn credit card as I don’t like to carry a balance. A week later, I called to check on delivery because I hadn’t heard anything. I found out that PB credit had declined my purchase, but kept my payment, making a credit balance in $6322. PB then held my order. Neither had tried to contact me. I then cancelled my order and requested a refund. The customer service person told me that because the amount is over $5000, it would take 5-7 days instead of 2-3.
Two days ago, Pottery Barn Customer Service called and tried to rectify the situation. They offered to cover the shipping cost if I would redo the order. So, I went through the entire order again. Today, Pottery Barn called again and said that PB credit had declined the purchase again, even though it is now less than my credit balance. PB credit card customer service said that because my amount is over $3000 (different than $5000 said before), they aren’t going to process my refund until after 10 working days, which excludes the holidays. The next customer service person said that they are holding it because of FDIC rules and the amount is over $2000. Yes, the amount keeps changing. I then asked why don’t they approve the new current purchase and cancel the refund. They stated that my credit limit is $5000, even if I have a credit balance of $6322. That’s right, I cannot spend my credit amount, and they will not increase the “credit” balance even though I will not actually be borrowing for any of the purchase.
So, I can’t fix the purchase with Pottery Barn because PB credit card will not let me use my money nor refund it for weeks. It makes absolutely no sense as they can’t approve this purchase now for less than the $6322 that they currently have of my money. So while Pottery Barn store is trying to fix this, and Pottery Barn credit could fix this, they are closing their eyes to the whole issue and trying to hold on to my money for as long as possible.
Applied for this credit card and received a letter saying my credit received a 986 out of 999 in their scoring system, but they were rejecting me for too many recent credit inquiries. The only credit inquiries I’ve had in the past three years were when I applied for a mortgage the previous month and applied several places to compare rates. Apparently Pottery Barn doesn’t want the business of people who just bought a home and are trying to furnish it. And there is no phone number to call after they reject you. You only have the option of writing them. So not worth my time.
My wife, who has been a long term customer of Pottery Barn, accepted a PB credit card. Her online payment was acknowledged but subsequently rejected. She received no notification and none of the online statements she had requested. On discovering the error, she spent hours trying to sort it out both with PB and the World Financial Network Bank. She insisted on closing the account (which took some time) and paid off the outstanding balance by check. She then received further finance charges that WFNB insisted were valid even though the account was settled and closed.
Beware the World Financial Network Bank.
I would not recommend this pottery barn card. After paying the balance on time for over a year, the company suddenly without warning cancelled my card. I called customer service who was no help and said I would be getting a letter in the mail explaining why in 10 days. In my opinion, bad business practices.
I would not recommend the Pottery Barn credit card. In fact, I would strongly recommend against it. I was sucked in by the rewards program. Here is my experience: I made several purchases, the last involving 3 items. Subsequently, I returned 2 of the items but the credit never materialized on my account. When I called World Financial Network National Bank, I was told that credits often take “some time.” I paid my account balance (minus the amount of the credit on my receipt), only to get another bill assessing me a finance charge for not paying the balance in full. After reviewing my account online, I see that the credit never did post. I spent HOURS trying to reach a person at the credit card company, who was not at all helpful. I cancelled my account despite having a coupon for 50% off that then become invalid. I also figured it was just easier to pay the $40 balance rather than try to figure out what happened to the credit.
I ended up calling the store with my receipt in hand. Unfortunately, the Naperville, IL store could not access records older than 30 days. I ultimately called the corporate office, who contacted the regional office, etc. It turned out that my purchase was credited to someone else’s card (someone manually entered the # and transposed the last 2 digits). The store then ended up crediting my account.
Given the sheer effort, number of hours, etc. spent on trying to have my credit correctly applied, I may never step foot in a Pottery Barn again, and I definitely will NEVER apply for a credit card like this. The issuing bank was virtually impossible to contact, the customer service reps are unhelpful/surly, and no one was at all sympathetic to my plight. Despite pushing its customers to pay their bill online, pay a fee of $10 to process a withdrawal from a checking account, no statements if the account is paid in full and there are no new purchases that month, unwillingness to let a customer submit a payment at the PB stores, the bank asks that concerns such as mine be mailed!
My husband and I applied for a Pottery Barn credit card through their credit card company: World FInancial Network National Bank. We have pretty good credit. Our debt-to-income ratio is incredibly low. We recently moved and have to furnish our new place. The PB rewards certificates sounded like a great incentive. At any rate, we were refused for having no other outstanding credit than credit cards (isn’t it good that we don’t owe lots of money to lots of different folks) even though our credit reports clearly show that we have paid off various stu loans, car loans, etc. You know, like you’re supposed to do?? Also, we apparently have fraud indicators…not that the company could shed any light on what these are. Could it be that we move every 6 months to two years for work (pain in the butt, but the job is great!). Also, apparently we had too many credit checks in the past 6 months. Of course, they were all for utility companies and our apartment complex. Seriously??? So, you can only get a PB credit card if you have an outstanding mortgage, car payments (outstanding), student loans (outstanding), have never changed addresses, and are not moving into a new place. I called to get some perspective, and they were totally unhelpful. All thumbs down.