AGMA members received notification in the mail that AGMA has become a member of the Union Privilege “Unite” credit card program. After reviewing the materials, it is clear that singers should proceed with caution before applying for this card.
Good news: the card has no annual fee. You can transfer your other credit card balances to this card and get a fixed 9.99% rate–and you can keep that interest rate until transferred balances are paid in full. No interest is charged until 25 days after new purchases, and you can skip up to two payments a year. Also, should you be involved in a union-authorized strike for 30 days or more, you can skip payments for up to three months without penalty or credit rating problems. There is also a “Union Member Advocacy Program” to help members resolve any disputes with the account. The promotional materials also mention that the cards helps support the “Union Privilege Scholarship Program.”
Bad news: The 9.99% rate applies only to transferred balances. New purchases on the Unite MasterCard will be charged according to your credit rating. If you have credit problems, your interest rate on new purchases could be a whopping 19.24%! No matter how good your credit, your interest rate will never be lower than 12.99%. That is still higher than many credit cards. Also, when you skip payments, as with other cards, interest continues. The 25-day grace period can catch you unaware if you pay bills monthly.
Shop around. There are many lower rates out there that have most of the benefits above. An example is First USA VISA. They offer a card for 3 month special for 3.9% but then you have to watch because the rate will rise. However you can ask for a fixed rate of 9.9%. Some singers have become experts at moving money around shopping for specials. Use the Internet and you can find some great deals. Doing a quick search on the Internet, I found a Visa card that lets you skip three payments in the summer with a 10.9% rate on new purchases (www.missionfcu.org/htdocs/ccard. html).
Summary: The Union Privilege credit card doesn’t offer anything not offered better by other institutions, except perhaps the scholarship program. There are many cards with very low rates. The one advantage would be that the Unite card might be more willing to accept a singer’s sporadic income than a traditional card and perhaps the advocacy program could be helpful. At these rates, one would hope so.
You can request an application by calling 800.557.5635. The small print says you must be a union member, however, singer experience with Union Privilege is that they often don’t check even for huge ticket items like their mortgage program. With these rates, the warning isn’t very severe: “If you are no longer a union member, you are not eligible for this pricing and your account may be re-priced.” Since they are already charging more than double available rates, the risk is not great.
If you decide to apply, please let CS know of your experiences so we can pass it along to others. Write to creditcard@classicalsinger.com.
