Having bad credit can feel like you've been branded for life. You might have fallen victim to any number of circumstances in the past – from being out of a job to losing a primary breadwinner, or even having to shoulder a big move – and aside from whatever immediate stress they caused, there might have also been more lasting damage.
If you found yourself juggling a tight budget and with a lot of debt on your plate because of any of these things, you are not alone. Struggling to pay back banks or other financial institutions on time or even cover bills when they are due affects most modern populations. With this being as widespread as it is, banks became more cautious over their losses from this.
Based on a compilation of the credit reports you get on an annual basis, your credit score goes either up or down. The worse part is, it is much easier to get stuck on a downward spiral. If a money tussle like this has led to you getting a bad rating, it can almost feel as if you've been handed a scarlet letter that everyone from then on out can see and judge you by.
[lwptoc title="Amazon Credit Builder Scam: What You Need To Know"]
Amazon Bad Credit
If your credit becomes too bad, you might find yourself:
- Paying higher premiums on your car or other vehicles than what's normal
- Being required to put down substantial security deposits before you can make individual purchases or get on new utility plans
- Only being granted access to smaller and short term loans (and these tend to come with higher interest rates too)
- Not being allowed to get new credit cards.
Suppose you've got plans to go into certain types of agreements later on or run into another emergency. In that case, that means you have to borrow or even go out for a particular kind of office, and it gets found out you have bad credit, you could find yourself up against a wall.
Amazon Credit Builder Chances
As one of the most popular and innovative virtual stores around, Amazon had a plan to give people having issues with their regular cards another chance.
The company launched the Credit Builder Card as part of their range to ensure they could cater to customers in different financial situations. The idea behind it was simple; to offer a card with relatively few hurdles to jump over that patted you on the back for practicing restraint and making a real effort to get your finances back on track. Because, if we're honest, most of us spend more time on the array of online shopping platforms than we likely should.
Closing Your Account
Users who were struggling with paying back other cards could sign up for the Credit Builder and pay a deposit for it being issued. But, here's the catch: if you close your account and can pay back in full or upgrade to an unsecured Amazon Store Card, the bank behind the Credit Builder will recognize this and refund your collateral in full.
This was essentially allowing those with bad credit to enjoy similar benefits to regular cardholders on this secure card by providing a credit line equivalent to whatever amount you put in at first.
And the card worked well. Not only were there circumstances where you were eligible for no interest financing and given a chance to upgrade to an unsecured card if you stayed careful, but you paid no annual fee whatsoever. The rates, in general, are also relatively user-friendly, and there was a low margin to qualify for it (compared to a score of over 600 needed for any other card).
But, like everything else online, as long as you find some worthwhile avenue that draws a crowd, you're also bound to see those who are looking to make a less than honest profit off any straggler's ignorance. And if there's one thing living in the digital age has taught us to keep an eye out for, it's online fraudsters.
Funded By Synchrony Bank
The Credit Card Builder is funded by the Utah-based institution Synchrony Bank, a trusted provider for years to their clients. When this sender popped up in many customers' emails for mentioning strange funding applications, it stirred up quite a wave of panic.
Amazon Credit Builder Scam
As best as anyone can tell, the wave of the Credit Builder Scam began in late 2019 when a whole host of emails went out to Amazon users, most of whom had never even heard of this particular service. The email will claim that a deposit has been made into these people's accounts, and in moving forward with the provision of credit, they were meant to take some action.
When customers discovered how widespread the emails were, they started jumping to all sorts of conclusions. People called out Amazon itself for it, but the most popular opinion seemed that hackers had broke in and got a hold of their personal information. Eventually, though, the bank came out to make a statement on Twitter concerning the supposed attacks.
"We are aware of an unplanned customer notification that affects some consumers & is investigating the issue. We apologize for any confusion & concerns this may have caused. You do not need to take any further action at this time," Synchrony maintained at the time. Amazon also came out to reassure its client base that the messages resulted from a "glitch" and vigorously asserted that there was no phishing attempt.
Amazon is aware of a notification that was distributed by Synchrony in error to some customers. They are investigating the root cause. Additional inquiries can be sent to Synchrony.
However, since the entire shuffle was resolved on those last few days of November, there has not seemed to be any more concern about privacy violation, and the service has gone on as usual.
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