The Home Depot is one of the largest retailers of home improvement products in the United States. The company supplies all kinds of tools, construction products, and services. On February 6,1978, the Home Depot was founded. Its work is centred around many big-box format stores that are located in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Home Depot has its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. It also operates within the countries of China, South America, and the United Kingdom. Home Depot supplies a wide range of home appliances, window blinds, building materials, decoration and furniture items, doors and windows, electrical appliances, hardware, floor and area rugs, hardware, heating and cooling appliances, kitchen essentials, paint, plumbing, and a lot more. The Home Depot offers a 12-month finance option on the purchase of 299$ or more. The company also offers credit card service to its customers.
Credit system
The Home Depot uses a number of bureaus to offer credit card service to its customers. The common credit bureau used by Home Depot is Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. These bureaus check the eligibility of customers to avail of store credit. Credit bureaus used:
1.Equifax
Equifax is an American customer credit reporting agency that collects and aggregates over 800 million customers in 88 million businesses around the world. The company was founded in the year 1899. Equifax has investments in 24 countries in the continents of Asia Pacific, Europe, and America. The annual income of Equifax is $3.1 billion. The company employs around 10,000 people.
2. Experian
Experian is an Anglo-Irish customer credit reporting agency that collects and aggregates 1billion people and businesses including 235 million individuals. The company was founded in the year 1996. The annual revenue of Experian is $5.18 billion. The company provides employment to 17,000 people. Experian operates in 37 countries including Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United States. in addition to credit services, Experian also offers decision-analytic assistance to various businesses, including individual fingerprinting and targeting.
3. TransUnion
TransUnion is an American credit reporting agency that collects and aggregates one billion individual customers. The company was established in the year 1968. TransUnion has an annual revenue of $1.3 billion, in the year 2014. Among Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, TransUnion is the smallest credit reporting agency. TransUnion also offers the facilities of market credit reports and various other fraud protection products.
Procedure of offering credit
Home Depot offers credit card facilities to its customers using these Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit bureaus. In order to avail credit card facility at Home Depot, a customer must have a minimum decent Cibil score of 640. Cibil score is the 3-digit score that determines a person’s credit history, reports, and ratings. Cibil scores are given on a scale of 300-900, where 300 is the lowest score, which means the person has a very poor credit history. On the other hand, 900 means an excellent score which implies that the person is eligible for further credits.
Ways of availing credit card
The store credit card of Home Depot can be availed by filling in an application form either online means through the credit card services portal or by just visiting some Home Depot store. A customer needs to submit their personal details, social security number, and contact details to avail the credit card at Home Depot. The Home Depot performs a very strict check on the customer details and verifies every available information before approving the credit card to the customer. It is mandatory for every customer to pass this eligibility and security check in order to avail of a store credit card.
Demerits
The only demerit of the credit card of Home Depot is that the person who does not qualify the given requirements to obtain a credit card will have his/her credit score lowered down by around 5 to 10 points after the unsuccessful must check that they have no blockages or freezing in their credit card and that they have the minimum credit score to pass the eligibility check.
Merits
There are various advantages of the Home Depot store credit card, some of which are 0% initial rates, annual APR rates as per usage, specified credit cards for project usage, and a lot more. However, customers availing of the credit card must repay their credit amount within the finite time period, as specified by the company. The Home Depot uses the three biggest credit reporting agencies of America, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to determine the eligibility of its customers and offer them a store credit card. The company analyses the credit history of every customer and offers them a credit card. To avail credit card, it is mandatory for the customers to have a good credit history and a decent Cibil score. So, customers achieve a good credit history and enjoy all benefits of having a store credit card at the Home Depot!!
