The Helzberg Diamonds Credit Card is worth considering if you have fair credit (a credit score of 640-699) and you want to make a big-ticket jewelry purchase that will take you months to pay off. This card can make sense in the right situation because it has a $0 annual fee and low-interest financing offers. 

That said, people with higher credit scores may be able to qualify for general-purpose credit cards with better financing deals. The best 0% credit cards offer 18-21 months without interest and do not use deferred interest, which is a risky feature of the Helzberg Card’s 0% APR offer.  

5 Key Things to Know About the Helzberg Credit Card

Modest rewards 

The Helzberg Credit Card offers a $100 initial bonus, plus up to $50 off a purchase of $149.99+ as a birthday gift the first year your account is open. You can get up to $75 off during the holidays, too. 

Meanwhile, the average credit card with rewards offers 1.17% cash back on all purchases. The best rewards cards give you 2%+ back across the board. And the best credit card deals have initial bonuses worth $500+, which you get for spending a few thousand dollars within a few months of opening an account.

In other words, you’ll likely sacrifice some significant savings if you use the Helzberg Diamonds Credit Card to buy your rock. After all, the average engagement ring costs around $4,000, according to WalletHub research, and that could produce a lot of cash back rewards with the right card.
 

Dangerous 0% financing 

The Helzberg Credit Card clearly has positioned itself as a financing tool, offering 0% - 9.99% for 6 - 60 months, depending on how much you spend. You can get:

•    0% deferred interest for 6-18 months if you spend at least $299 or 
•    9.99% interest for 36-60 months if you spend at least $2,999. 

Offering financing deals makes sense considering how much engagement rings cost. The execution just isn’t very good. The plans are either too risky or too expensive.

Like all other major retailers offering 0% intro APRs, the Helzberg Card uses a sneaky feature known as deferred interest. That means interest charges will retroactively apply to the full amount of your purchase if you leave even the smallest of balances unpaid when the 0% period concludes. So, you shouldn’t mess with the interest-free offer unless you’re very confident you’ll be able to pay on time and you don’t have better financing options. General-purpose credit cards with 0% introductory APRs don’t use deferred interest, but they typically require good credit or better. 
 

High interest rate normally

The Helzberg Credit Card’s regular APR adds to the danger posed by its deferred-interest clause. It’s well above the 32.95% average among store cards, according to WalletHub’s latest Credit Card Landscape Report, and it’s about double what the average credit card for excellent credit charges.

If such a high rate gets retroactively applied to your original purchase amount, you could face hundreds of dollars in unexpected finance charges. For example, let’s say you spend $4,000 and leave a 1 cent balance when the 0% period ends, triggering deferred interest. You’d wind up shelling out more than $2,500 on interest if you repay your balance in 36 months. Even the average credit card for someone with fair credit would save you over $700.
 

No annual fee

The Helzberg Diamonds Credit Card is not unique in not charging an annual fee. Hardly any store credit cards do. And while this will save you about $27.85 per year compared to the average credit card market-wide, that isn’t nearly enough to solve the Helzberg Card’s glaring problems.
 

Requires fair credit or better

The Helzberg Credit Card’s fair-credit minimum approval requirement is standard for a store card. But unlike most store cards, whose terms appeal to people of all credit levels, the Helzberg Card only makes sense for folks with fair credit. And even then it’s a stretch. 

Sure, very few general-purpose 0% APR credit cards are available to people with fair credit at the moment. But plenty of credit cards for fair credit have regular APRs lower than Helzberg’s. Plus, credit scores can change a great deal from month to month. So, you could save a bundle by delaying your purchase until you’ve gotten to good standing.

You can check your latest credit score for free here on WalletHub to see where you currently stand. You’ll also get personalized credit-improvement advice and a sense of how long it will take to reach the next credit tier.