I had a Fashion Bug credit card for a few years and then I was hit up by a Fashion Bug employee to upgrade to a Fashion Bug premier credit card. There is a yearly fee of $25 or $30, but the membership comes with a free gift that is worth about the same amount.
The premier credit card is different from their regular credit card in that you earn rebate certificates for every $100 that is charged on the card. Having a premier card also makes you eligible for savings during special events. These special events include the occasional 15% off your entire purchase and special sales for premier card holders only. There is also a yearly $5 off birthday coupon that is mailed out.
Feeling that it was a good deal, I signed up for the Fashion Bug premier credit card. I didn’t have any problems with my account. But then one renewal a few years later, a glitch happened and I didn’t receive my free gift. Considering I had chosen a one year subscription of a magazine as my free gift, I wasn’t about to just let it go. I wanted my magazine.
I called the store where I signed up and they referred me to the credit card company. The credit card company gave me the phone number for the magazine subscriptions, but they couldn’t simply give me a free subscription without me proving that I somehow was owned one.
I called the credit card company back and they kept saying the same repeated thing – Call the magazine people, there was nothing they could do. I got a manager on the line and they were supposed to have tried to fix this, but they were unable.
In the end, I contacted the local store back and the manager there was going to try to fix this problem. She was also unable. This battle went on for three months until I finally cancelled my premier membership because I felt very much ripped off. Since I never got my free gift and hadn’t used my premier card during that time since the renewal, I asked to be refunded the fee for the premier card. After all, I never got the free gift. They couldn’t even manage to do that for me.
Rather than canceling the credit card itself, I downgraded to a regular Fashion Bug credit card. But then not even a month later, Fashion Bug started repeatedly mailing me premier cards with instructions to activate my card. I called them a few times and asked that they cease this marketing attempt. I felt it was unsafe to have so many credit cards going through the mail, and besides that, I didn’t want another premier card.
I ended up canceling the Fashion Bug card because they wouldn’t stop with the high-pressured marketing tactics. The Fashion Bug Premier Card is only a good deal if you shop there a lot and don’t care if you receive the free gift.
