If you live in the Phoenix, Arizona area, you’re probably familiar with a retail chain called Curacao. This company offers furniture, household appliances, computers, jewelry, and a host of other items. If you’re new to Curacao, the first thing you’ll notice is that the retailer strongly encourages their customers to sign up for its branded credit card. A quick glance through the company’s website makes it clear that most of the Arizona consumers who shop with Curacao do so with credit. It’s also obvious this retail chain largely caters to the Hispanic community.
On the Curacao website, most items that are over $50 have a “per month” price listed below the buying price. Shoppers can purchase big ticket items by making small monthly payments over time. Retailers like Curacao give Arizona consumers the opportunity to buy products that they are not able to afford outright. However, the stores also enable customers to build debt, default on payments, and eventually ruin their credit scores. Are the potential opportunities worth the risks?
How Arizona Consumers Can Benefit from Using a Curacao Credit Card to Pay for Big Ticket Items over Time
First, skeptical Arizonians realize that, if managed properly, credit cards can be used to build good credit scores. The Curacao credit card is fairly easy to obtain (even for consumers with less than perfect credit). Yet, those with bad credit who still qualify for Curacao credit may get a 35% APR. Credit cards issued to applicants with good credit come with a 20% interest rate.
Higher credit card interest rates aren’t a problem if you pay off balances in full every month. This is how Arizona consumers can build or rebuild their credit scores with any type of credit card. Just use the credit card to make small purchases here and there, don’t use more than 30% of your available credit, and pay your balance off every month.
A Curacao purchase can serve as a valuable credit building tool. Say you’re in the market for a computer that the whole family can use, and you’re also interested in improving your credit. Here, it might make sense to finance the computer. Just be aware of the fact that sticking to the minimum payments due every month makes the computer cost substantially more than its out-the-door price suggests.
How Arizona Consumers May Run into Trouble with Credit Card Purchases
Curacao has a lot of negative online reviews from unhappy customers who’ve run into problems with making payments. It seems that a lot of Arizona consumers don’t understand how much paying interest charges over time actually costs. If they miss payments or stop making them altogether, they get calls from very unsympathetic customer service representatives.
Building up unmanageable debt isn’t specific to the Curacao credit card. If not managed well, any credit card can lead to trouble. Debt builds up, monthly payments get higher, and credit scores eventually drop. If credit card accounts go unpaid and go to debt collections, credit scores plummet. This is when the debt collectors usually start calling.
Many Curacao customers who leave negative online reviews complain about verbal abuse and harassment from Curacao representatives. Unfortunately, there are no federal laws in place to regulate the behavior of first party debt collectors. However, with a third party debt collection agency, a federal statute called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) protects your rights. Therefore, Arizona consumers can make third party debt collector abuse stop. They can also seek legal action against debt collection agencies that are in violation of the FDCPA.
How Arizona Consumers can get Help with Abusive Debt Collectors
If debt collectors are hounding you, help is available. Arizona residents can get a FREE credit repair lawyer to stop debt collection attempts that are unlawful or unnecessary. If debt collectors report inaccurate debt to the credit bureaus, causing your credit score to drop, we can help with that too.
Don’t let errors on your credit reports bring your credit score down. At Arizona Credit Lawyers, we’ve been cleaning up credit reports for consumers since 2008 for free. How do we do it? All of our fees come from the defendants in settled cases. This is why our clients pay nothing for the work we do.
Let’s start the conversation about what we can do for your credit. Set up your free consultation today by calling Attorney Gary Nitzkin at (888)293-2882 or sending him a message through our contact page.
