Just discovered this one – GE Money 28 Degrees Mastercard part Two

It’s always fun to go on journeys, especially brand new exciting credit card journeys. And that’s exactly the reason why I have decided to share my journey with the GE Money 28 Degrees credit card. That way we can look back and see if it was worth all of the effort.

After my last post on this credit card, I decided to apply for it…

Part of the bargain was that we cancel the card that Hubby hadn’t had the heart to cancel previously. It was a silly expensive one anyway and because it was in his name, it often got forgotten and I didn’t have the authority or ease of managing it. Me being in charge is much better all round!

I used the online form to apply for my credit card. It didn’t quite happen as fast as they said it would (even though I actually had all of the information I needed on hand before I started), but I think I was done and dusted in under 45min, which isn’t so bad. They decided, by means I don’t and am not quite sure I want to understand, that I was eligible for a credit card with a limit of $3500. I didn’t have to provide any proof of my current situation. All I had to do was enter it it all in.

Because my lovely hubby would hate for me to have a new credit card that I didn’t share with him, I decided that it was only fair to let him in as an additional card-holder (seeing as it was his income that got me the card in the first place, I figure that’s fair). The interesting part about this is that my credit card was posted to me in the mail, but for privacy and security reasons, hubby has to go to the post office to verify his identity before he is allowed to get his card.

How did they know that I am me? I filled out all the same details for him as I did me. What was the difference? Again, I’m not sure I want to know.

Once my card arrived in the mail, I needed to ring up and activate it. This was all pretty easy. A part of the phone process was a friendly offer of insurance from my customer service representative. Ah insurance….I love you so dearly…almost as much as I do banks.

The girl at the other end offered me a seemingly perfect insurance plan. I would be able to claim all these wonderful things (like it it broke within 6 months and it was my fault) and it would only cost a percentage of what I spend on the card, rather than a fixed fee. In fact, it sounded so wonderful that all my warning bells were ringing extra loudly. Especially seeing as I chose this card particularly because it wouldn’t cost me anything if I used it carefully.

So I asked for an explanation of costs and processes involved when claiming. I thought I was very smart to be asking this because everyone knows insurance agencies are very sweet until you actually make a claim.

The answer given to me was that claim process was still simple and easy, but I was still not told what costs or issues a claim would incur. In order to hear those, I would have to accept the product and then listen to the terms and conditions before I can find that sort of stuff out.

As a result, I opted out of the insurance. In the end I decided it was safer to avoid any additional costs, even if they could potentially save me money in the long run.

If you have this card and went for the insurance, how did it work out for you?