by WW
Even though I am a former Sears saleserson, even I was in the dark until recently about the Sears Credit Protection Plan ono the Sears Credit Card.
The sales pitch on it is so tricky that even sales associates at Sears and customer service reps at Sears Credit Central don’t know how it actually works. All they know is the short sales pitch that they’ve been taught, which is:
"The Sears Credit Protection Plan protects the purchases you make with your Sears Card by replacing them if they get damaged or lost due to fire, flood, earthquake, etc. and it only costs $0.85 for every $100 balance you have on your card. It also makes you minimum monthly payment if you should become involuntarily unemployed or if you should pass away."
There are several parts of this pitch that are very misleading and give the wrong impression to both customers and even to the sales associates who present it.
To get the facts and conditions on it, don’t call Sears Credit Central themselves, because many of their customer service reps don’t know all the details themselves. Instead, call the Credit Protection Plan Office at (800) 366-2286 or (800) 776-2077 and they’ll be required to give you the real details, such as:
- First of all, it does NOT cover your purchases if they get damaged by simple causes like rain, sun or even theft. It only covers your items in conditions of disaster.
- Second, the customer is left with the impression that if they pay off the balance on the card in full each month, then they won’t be charged anything for the CPP. Most sales associates also have this misconception as well, as I did when I presented the CPP while opening Sears cards for people. I only found out the truth when I called the CPP office, which told me that the $0.85 per $100 charge applies to ALL cumulative charges made for the month, no matter when you pay off your balance. What this means is that if I charge $100 on the card one day, paid it off the next day, and did the same for ten days, I would have accumulated $1000 in total charges on the card. That means the CPP fee would come out to $8.50.
- Finally, the worst thing of all about the CPP is that in order to collect on any claims, you can’t just call them to make the claim and collect it just like that. For example, if you were to claim involuntary unemployment status in order for them to make your minimum monthly payment for you on the Sears card, you would have to file through Allstate Insurance, go register with the Unemployment Office, get a written statement from your former employer to prove that you were involuntarily discharged from your job, etc. I can’t imagine that the process for claiming replacements for purchases damaged by fire, flood, earthquake, etc. is much easier! So even if I bought a $15 dollar sweater with my Sears card and it got damaged in a disaster, I would have to go through several bureaucratic procedures in order to file that claim.
I suspect Sears knows that most sales associates and customers are misled about how the CPP really works, but is it in their best interests to educate you on that?
In fact, if you apply for a Sears card, get approved, but don’t sign up for the CPP, you’ll get called twice by Sears Credit Central to try to sign you up for it and you’ll also get an offer in the mail to sign up for it by returning the SASE. All they want you to do is sign up for it, no need to tell you much about it.
