Ikea credit card application warning – here’s what you definitely need to know about the Ikea credit card. Don’t apply without reading this credit card review.



When it comes to buying furniture, this Swedish mega-retailer has become the choice for many. How many people? Well let’s just say that the company’s founder – Ingvar Feodor Kamprad – is now estimated to be the 5th richest person in the entire world… with over $35 billion! But enough off-topic chatter, let’s get back to their credit card!

The Basics
The Ikea credit card can be used at their stores (and their stores only) to purchase a karlstad sofa, frosta stool, salone vase, or whatever your heart desires. It carries no annual fee and is accepted at all Ikea stores within the United States.

The Bait
What they’ve been offering for a while (and at the time of this review) is their promotional offer… with the Ikea card they give “no interest if paid within 90 days on purchases over $299.” At first the above offer sounds okay, right? Who doesn’t want to save a little money on interest? Well saving money is always good, but unfortunately, it doesn’t look like this card is the way to do so. Here’s why…

The Switch
Once you comb over the fine print, you discover the real deal behind that so called deal.
Retroactive Interest: Guess what happens if it takes you longer than 90 days to pay off that purchase in full? They slap you with interest retroactively… going all the way back to the date of purchase. So if it takes you 3 months and 1 week to pay it all off, you will be paying interest for that entire period.

Excessive APR: To make matters worse, the APR is extremely high to say the least. Many people would even go so far as to call it usury. At the time of this review, the standard purchase APR is a crazy 25.99%. Store charge cards are notorious for having high interest rates, but the Ikea credit card takes it to a whole other level. Suddenly, any bargain you get at Ikea will become a ripoff if you have to pay that kind of interest on it!

Lack of Benefits: So being that this credit card is definitely a bad way to finance your furniture purchase, you would think it would have some redeeming qualities, right? Well, it doesn’t appear to. For example, they list things like “View, manage and pay your account online” as a bullet point for their cardholder benefits. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like any special “benefit” to me!

Bad Customer Service: I spent a while looking up Ikea credit card reviews, comments, and complaints online. Surprisingly, I actually didn’t see a single positive opinion about the card. Reportedly, many card members have felt deceived by the back interest “bait-and-switch” and have stated they were not told that by the sales associate that peddled them the card.
Conclusion
I see a lot of bad cards out there, but the Ikea credit card is one of the worst ones I’ve ever came across. Almost any credit card on the market gives you an APR lower than 25.99%, so just about anything is better than this one.

A Better Option (sponsored)
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