Fingerhut How Doth Thou Know Thee

A few days ago I went out to check my mail and was nonplussed to see the usual stack of catalogs and magazines, but something caught my eye. I had received two Fingerhut catalogs. Fingerhut if your not familiar is a mail order company offering a wide variety of mediocre quality stuff. To be more specific I had received a catalog and my adult son had received one. What caught my eye was the bold front cover, it proclaimed “Sue Johnson Pre-Approved Credit”. Hmmm I thought, that could come in handy with the holidays right around the corner. So my curiosity piqued I flipped open the front paper printed cover and went in search of just how much credit was being offered here.

On the inner glossy cover I find yet another proclamation “ Start Your Holiday Shopping Now with Pre-Approved Credit!” and in fine print below “product order up to $100 with a new Fingerhut credit account”and again on page two a little card shaped area that has my name and approved up to $100. Okay so I’m fairly disenchanted by the offer, but thats not the real kicker. I happen to glance at the other catalog at this point and big as day on the front “ (my son’s name) PRE-APPROVED $400 CREDIT!” at first I’m only slightly taken aback, then as I flip into the actual catalog I come to the realization that the glossy cover and second page are also printed with this exclamation and I’m completely flabbergasted. I mean I’m the first one to admit that my credit isn’t great, okay its not even really good, but come on! They printed an entirely different set of catalogs for people like him (my son) and people like me who apparently can’t be trusted with a hundred bucks! It probably cost them more than that in printing segregated catalogs.

I do understand the companies that offer you credit and you call the number or fill out an application and they either approve you for so much or deny you, but apparently Fingerhut has come into possession of the magical credit looking glass because without any information from my son and I they were able to pre-determine exactly how much money we were good for, and then happily announce this psychic knowledge all over the front of a catalog.

Well all I have to say is I think whatever future sight technology this company has acquired it should be shared throughout all credit based companies be they catalog or card so we know longer have to fill out lengthy credit applications or loan papers we could just get told ahead of time what they are willing to give us.