I Am Being Bombarded...

[RJM62]

... with credit alerts.

Last night I decided to get an Amazon Store Card (not the Amazon Visa that they've been offering me for years). Because of past breaches that compromised my banking information, I don't allow merchants to store my credit card information unless it's their own store-branded, single-store card. Single-store and other limited-scope cards reduce risk exposure and are less valuable to miscreants.

Until last night, I would add a credit card to my Amazon account every time I placed an order, and then remove it when the order was received in good condition. (Removing it before then complicates things if the order has to be returned.) That was starting to get monotonous, so I decided to just get their store card from Synchrony Bank.

Holy crap. Opening that account triggered a flood of alerts from all the credit monitoring services that I've been enrolled in, all courtesy of the various companies whose breaches I've been caught up in. Every one of them has sent me at least one and sometimes two alerts: one for the credit pull, and one for the new account. The first ones started coming in about an hour after I opened the new account.

I'm actually pretty impressed.

As for the Amazon card itself, as is the case with all cards issued by Synchrony, the Amazon store card features no annual fee, interest-free periods on most purchases, and Shylock interest rates on the whole balance from date of purchase if you owe so much as a penny on it once the interest-free period expires. That works for me. In fact, I have about half a dozen Synchrony cards. As long as you pay your bill in full every month (or within the interest-free period on bigger purchases), Synchony cards are a great deal.

One Synchrony card in particular, CareCare1, has saved me more than a grand in tires and wheels over the years. They frequently offer absurdly generous rebates (sometimes as high as $100.00 for a set of four tires or wheels) on orders made through Discount Tire Direct. When combined with rebates from the tire manufacturers and/or from DTC itself, the total discounts have occasionally exceeded half the cost of the tires or wheels. Woo hoo! The fact that DTC happens to be my favorite merchant in the world in terms of their customer service just makes the deals that much sweeter.

Synchrony figures that the Shylock interest rates will offset the rebates. But if you pay off the bill before the interest kicks in (typically six months or a year on tires and wheels, depending on the total cost before rebates), you can really save a bundle. In addition to the tire and wheel discounts, the CareCare1 card is also a good emergency card to carry around because many car repair shops and some auto parts shops accept it. It's also accepted at ExxonMobil stations, which helps me keep the card alive between tire and wheel purchases. (Synchrony will cancel cards that are inactive for a long time.) Most importantly, it has less value to hackers because it's a limited-scope card.

The Amazon store card is pretty much the same deal. There's no annual fee and the interest-free periods are based on the size of the purchase. But again, the real attraction to me is the limited scope. Having had to replace all my plastic too many times, I've become a real fan of limited-scope credit cards.

Rich

 

[DJTorrente]

Synchrony figures that the Shylock interest rates will offset the rebates. But if you pay off the bill before the interest kicks in (typically six months or a year on tires and wheels, depending on the total cost before rebates), you can really save a bundle.

The credit card companies call people like you -- who may your bill on time and in full -- "deadbeats". Can't you see you're taking money out of their children's trust funds?!?

 

[RJM62]

The credit card companies call people like you -- who may your bill on time and in full -- "deadbeats". Can't you see you're taking money out of their children's trust funds?!?

I know. Sometimes I feel so guilty about that...

Rich

 

[Hank S]

The credit card companies call people like you -- who may your bill on time and in full -- "deadbeats".

And here I thought a deadbeat was someone who racked up bills and never paid them . . .

 

[Everskyward]

I got the Amazon store card too, mostly because I'm a Prime member so it gives me a 5% rebate.

 

[denverpilot]

Thanks for the tip Rich. Both the Amazon and CareCare1 for Discount Tire sound pretty good, since we are fans of both.

Love DT. They've never once screwed me on tires and they have gone way out of their way to keep me happy more than once. Including honoring my deceased father's road hazard coverage on tires he bought there, and even the same on a vehicle I purchased from someone else.

I have peeked over their shoulder at their computer system and I can clearly see why they try to keep me happy. There's still notes in there about the first sets of tires I bought from them on vehicles I sold ten years ago.

They do stuff right. I've only bought a set of tires from somewhere else in two decades once, and it was for a sale on BFG AT KOs at, of all places, Sears, that I couldn't beat anywhere. Those silly things are going on 50,000 miles I think on the Yukon with no significant wear.

 

[Clark1961]

Thanks for the tip Rich. Both the Amazon and CareCare1 for Discount Tire sound pretty good, since we are fans of both.

Love DT. They've never once screwed me on tires and they have gone way out of their way to keep me happy more than once. Including honoring my deceased father's road hazard coverage on tires he bought there, and even the same on a vehicle I purchased from someone else.

I have peeked over their shoulder at their computer system and I can clearly see why they try to keep me happy. There's still notes in there about the first sets of tires I bought from them on vehicles I sold ten years ago.

They do stuff right. I've only bought a set of tires from somewhere else in two decades once, and it was for a sale on BFG AT KOs at, of all places, Sears, that I couldn't beat anywhere. Those silly things are going on 50,000 miles I think on the Yukon with no significant wear.

BFG KO's are amazing tires. I'm on my third set with my 200,000 mile Explorer. YMWV.

 

[Hank S]

BFG KO's are amazing tires. I'm on my third set with my 200,000 mile Explorer. YMWV.

Not sure what KOs are, but I love my Comp TAs!

 

[denverpilot]

Not sure what KOs are, but I love my Comp TAs!

They're kinda the next gen of the All Terrains. Came out many years ago. They added Kevlar and for a while you could get the KO (Kevlar) or non.

They wear extremely well for such an aggressive tire. Especially if you make sure to rotate them regularly and properly.

In return they're mildly noisy if you have a truck with weak outside road noise filtering/attenuation and they're a touch slipperier on snow and ice than the original All Terrains of years ago.

Most of us are driving ABS equipped stuff these days anyway so you just mush the pedal and wait a second longer than maybe you could have gotten away with on the older softer version long ago.

One downside. They are almost completely worthless on real ice. But a lot of tires are.

Some people hate the noise and the extra hardness. Had a friend put them on a Toyota FJ and they were just too noisy on the highway for him. But I suspect that's more the FJs fault than the tire's fault. Even normal tires sound awful in the FJ, IMHO.

I have to "off-road" regularly to mountain radio sites and even now that the county built the last pavement needed to get to the neighborhood from either direction on the county road, there's still two miles of dirt road back to the house. They handle dirt, gravel, and even rock crawling, very well.

Only thing that ever slowed one of mine on two different vehicles down was a screw jammed straight into one and a nail jammed into another. Ha. Such is life.

I don't think they make them in a high enough weight rating for my dually though, which makes me pout. Probably have to do the BFG Long Trail T/As on that truck after the Michelins die.

Don't like how the Michelins are wearing or how they ride at all, which is a bit of a surprise for Michelin. They're even worse in snow/ice than the BFGs, too. Way too slippery for my tastes but that truck isn't a daily driver and can sit parked when it snows. Duallies suck in snow anyway.

 

[RJM62]

Thanks for the tip Rich. Both the Amazon and CareCare1 for Discount Tire sound pretty good, since we are fans of both.

Love DT. They've never once screwed me on tires and they have gone way out of their way to keep me happy more than once. Including honoring my deceased father's road hazard coverage on tires he bought there, and even the same on a vehicle I purchased from someone else.

I have peeked over their shoulder at their computer system and I can clearly see why they try to keep me happy. There's still notes in there about the first sets of tires I bought from them on vehicles I sold ten years ago.

They do stuff right. I've only bought a set of tires from somewhere else in two decades once, and it was for a sale on BFG AT KOs at, of all places, Sears, that I couldn't beat anywhere. Those silly things are going on 50,000 miles I think on the Yukon with no significant wear.

DT has no physical stores in New York (as of the last time I checked, at least); but their online store, Discount Tire Direct, is without a doubt my favorite online retailer. Whether you're buying tires for a whole fleet, or a two-dollar spacer ring that they're losing money on after shipping, they treat you like you're their most important customer in the world. I haven't bought tires or wheels from anyone else since I started dealing with them.

As for tires themselves, it actually was DTD that converted me from a Firestone fan to a General fan. I'd been using Firestone tires for a long time. But I'd had a falling out with the Firestone store that I'd been using because they tried to bamboozle me on a state inspection on my old Kia Sportage. So the next time one of my cars needed rubber, I shopped around.

I'd heard good things about DTD, but they didn't have the specific tire I was looking for on their site. Also, I have this policy of calling new (to me) online vendors on the phone before using them for purchases of more than a few bucks, just to get a feel for their customer service. So I called DTD, and the fellow I spoke to was an actual tire expert. He asked me questions about the car, where I lived, my driving habits, and so forth; and then consulted some database and pulled up the tires that similar customers had been most happy with for that particular car (one of my old Saturns in that case).

As it turned out, one of the top two results was a General tire. Customers were equally happy with both tires on their Saturns, but the General tire was on a then-current promotion. There was a generous rebate from General, and an even more generous rebate from Synchrony (then GE Capital Finance) if I used their plastic. I forget the exact numbers, but the rebates came out to about half the total cost of the tires. So I decided to give them a try, liked them, and have been using General tires ever since.

I especially love the General Altimax Arctic winter tires. They've proven themselves to be an exceptionally capable winter tire, especially with the studs. Priced at the lower-middle range of the price spectrum, they're a good value even at full price. But factor in the $200.00 in rebates ($100.00 from General Tire and another $100.00 from Synchrony) on a set of four that you usually can get from DTD if you use the CarCare1 card and time the purchase right, and they're a no-brainer.

I bought my present set from DTD in September of 2014, the same day I bought the car they'd be going on. Around 6:00 a.m. or so on the morning after I placed the order, I got a phone call from DTD. The fellow apologized for calling so early, but he needed to call me before a shipping deadline. It turned out that DTD's nearest warehouse to me was out-of-stock on those tires, so it would take three days instead of two for the tires to get to me. Shipping would still be free, but they wanted to make sure that the extra day wouldn't be a problem.

It wouldn't be, of course. You can't legally use studded tires in New York until October 16th anyway. But I was impressed that they called. They're definitely an outfit that has their **** together and knows how to keep their customers happy.

Rich

 

[denverpilot]

I'm glad you clarified that you're using the online site. We've had their real stores here all my adult life and I've always just gone in.

It's pretty impressive when a company has their stuff tight on both in person and Internet business sides of the house. That's relatively rare in my experience.

May have to try the online thing next time. The stores have never steered me wrong on tire selection but once in a while you get the feel that they found the "perfect" tire in their computer and then saw that it was out of stock and went to the runner up because they had them there. They're not against ordering in, of course, but I try to make sure to tell them specifically if there's a great choice, I'll happily wait until it can be ordered in if they're out of stock. They lean toward trying to get you changed out right then.

Never seen one of their retail outlets that wasn't busy either, so it'd be nice to set it up as an appointment type thing. Did that with the fifth wheel tires and man they were ready to go when I got there early on a Saturday. I had to park the thing blocking an entire bay and they didn't flinch at all. That bay was "mine" anyway they said. Came outside and properly jacked the trailer up and had me out of there in no time. Was way cool.

We have a local Firestone place and they're on a big non-tire service push all the time actually. It's interesting. I think they do more shop business than tire business. We've used them for a couple of things but they kinda ticked me off recently when I told them what was wrong with the Yukon 4WD system and they wouldn't believe it because the computer and the code reader didn't agree. They charged me a $100 annoyance (ahem, diagnostic) fee and told me to bring it back if it did it again. So I waited until the transfer case encoder -- a common problem on GMC and I had already replaced the control unit in the dash -- freaked out again and took it back. They now agreed the problem was what I said it was and fixed it, but comparing the part needed via other sources and what they charged for it, the gouged it pretty high. Like 100% high.

So I think we're done with them. They did some work on Karen's truck at reasonable prices for what needed to be done and I thought I'd found a "good shop" but something changed. Maybe the owner needed to buy braces for the kid or something. Ha. Hell if I know. They had help wanted signs up the last time, too. So whatever it was, the staff wasn't happy with it either.

 

[RJM62]

I'm glad you clarified that you're using the online site. We've had their real stores here all my adult life and I've always just gone in.

It's pretty impressive when a company has their stuff tight on both in person and Internet business sides of the house. That's relatively rare in my experience.

May have to try the online thing next time. The stores have never steered me wrong on tire selection but once in a while you get the feel that they found the "perfect" tire in their computer and then saw that it was out of stock and went to the runner up because they had them there. They're not against ordering in, of course, but I try to make sure to tell them specifically if there's a great choice, I'll happily wait until it can be ordered in if they're out of stock. They lean toward trying to get you changed out right then.

Never seen one of their retail outlets that wasn't busy either, so it'd be nice to set it up as an appointment type thing. Did that with the fifth wheel tires and man they were ready to go when I got there early on a Saturday. I had to park the thing blocking an entire bay and they didn't flinch at all. That bay was "mine" anyway they said. Came outside and properly jacked the trailer up and had me out of there in no time. Was way cool.

We have a local Firestone place and they're on a big non-tire service push all the time actually. It's interesting. I think they do more shop business than tire business. We've used them for a couple of things but they kinda ticked me off recently when I told them what was wrong with the Yukon 4WD system and they wouldn't believe it because the computer and the code reader didn't agree. They charged me a $100 annoyance (ahem, diagnostic) fee and told me to bring it back if it did it again. So I waited until the transfer case encoder -- a common problem on GMC and I had already replaced the control unit in the dash -- freaked out again and took it back. They now agreed the problem was what I said it was and fixed it, but comparing the part needed via other sources and what they charged for it, the gouged it pretty high. Like 100% high.

So I think we're done with them. They did some work on Karen's truck at reasonable prices for what needed to be done and I thought I'd found a "good shop" but something changed. Maybe the owner needed to buy braces for the kid or something. Ha. Hell if I know. They had help wanted signs up the last time, too. So whatever it was, the staff wasn't happy with it either.

Yeah, the Firestone shop I dealt with downstate was excellent, but the closest one to me here... not so much. I've since found a couple of excellent local mechanics, but the incident described earlier occurred when I was still new to the 'hood and hadn't yet found local mechanics that I trusted.

As for DTD, they'll ship the tires to the installer if you like. They have a bunch of private, non-DT shops that they work with. I think the shops have to be nominated by customers, but I could be wrong about that. I suppose they'd ship them to one of their own stores, as well. I imagine the variety available online is far greater than any one store could reasonably be expected to stock.

I actually have the tires or wheels shipped to me and then schlep them to my dad's mechanic 35 miles north. The reason is that my local guy's alignment machine was lost to Irene and he hasn't chosen to replace it, and the nearest shop I trust that has one is nearly as far as my dad's guy. So I combine the tire or wheel work with a trip to see my mom and dad. My dad's mechanic doesn't actually put the car on the alignment rack unless he thinks it needs it based on visual inspection and tread wear, but it's convenient that he has the alignment equipment if it's needed.

Rich