Choice Gold Card vs Perpay

Quick Summary of Perpay and Buy On Trust

Both the Choice Gold Card and Perpay give you unsecured credit lines where you can shop at their online stores. In Choice Gold Card's case, it is their proprietory store www.myuniquoutlet.com. The Perpay marketplace has partnerships with many online stores and sells a much wider variety of products (including brands like Apple, Nike, Playstations, Kitchen Aid). Both Choice Gold Card and Perpay allow you to pay over time and do not charge any interest rates (ie APR for both is 0%).

While Perpay is free and charges no fee, Choice Gold Card charges $19.95/month membership fees (this works out to $239.40 annually). Choice Gold Card membership benefits include roadside assistance, prescription RX and prepaid legal assistance.

While Choice Gold Card does not report to any credit bureaus, Perpay will report to all three major credit bureaus TransUnion, Equifax and Experian when you sign up for Perpay+ (this cost $3/month).

In this comparison, I will demonstrate why Perpay is the better than Choice Gold Card.

What is Choice Gold?

Choice Gold Card is a close loop online merchandise credit card which extends you a $1,000 unsecured credit line and only allows you to buy products from their online store www.myuniqueoutlet.com. Choice Gold Card charges a $19.95 monthly membership fee which works out to $239.40 a year. You will get benefits like roadside assistance, prescription RX and prepaid legal services for the monthly fee that you pay (in addition of being able to shop at their online store).

Choice Gold Card does not perform any credit checks and all that is required is if you provide a debit card to pay your monthly fee.

Choice Gold Card does not report to any credit bureaus (they used to report to TransUnion but stopped doing so in 2022).

What is Perpay?

Perpay is a financial platform that allows you to shop for products and pay over time through easy automatic payments from your pay check. Unlike other Buy Now Pay Later or lease to own stores, Perpay does not charge any interest rate (ie 0% APR). Consumers can choose to pay over time up to 6 months. You will get a starting credit limit of up to $1,000 and with regular use, get credit limit increase. Perpay requires you to split your payroll direct deposit and payment for your products are taken directly from your paycheck.

Perpay requires you to have income for at least 3 months, no active bankruptcies and in good standing in all financial obligations. They do not perform any hard inquiries nor rely on FICO scores to approve you.

Perpay reports to all three major credit bureaus after 4 payments of at least $200 in total. In order for Perpay to report to all three major credit bureaus, you have to enroll in Perpay+, which cost $3/month as long as you are making payments for your product. If you are making any payments on your products (because you have finished paying), you will not have to pay the $3/month fee.

Choice and Perpay are similar in the following ways:

No Hard Inquiries - Do not rely on FICO scores

Choice Gold Card does not perform any credit checks or hard inquiries. All they require is that you provide a valid debit card number for you to pay their monthly fee.

Perpay also requires you to have steady income (though no minimums) for at least 3 months that are paid via direct deposit, no active bankruptcies and no current delinquencies.

0% APR

Both Choice Gold Card and Perpay allow you to pay for your products over time at 0% APR.

Credit Limits

Choice Gold Card will give you a credit limit of $1,000. Perpay is quite similar and will give you a starting credit limit of between $500 and $1,000.

Differences

Buy On Trust and Perpay are different in the following ways:

Perpay reports to credit bureaus while Choice Gold Card does not

Choice Gold Card does not report to any credit bureaus while Perpay reports reports to TransUnion, Equifax and Experian (the three major credit bureaus). Having a credit line with Perpay and making purchases through will help you build or rebuild your credit history.

Choice Gold Card has high fees

Choice Gold Card charges $19.95 a month for their membership fees. This adds up to $239.40 annually. You do get the roadside assistance, prescription RX and prepaid legal assistance as benefits but I doubt you would actually use these.

In contrast, Perpay has no annual or monthly fees. If you want Perpay to report to the three credit bureaus, you have to sign up for Perpay+, which cost only $3/month when you are paying installments on your purchases. There are no fees when you are not using Perpay or when you have finished paying for your purchases.

Perpay has wide variety of products while Choice Gold is limited

Choice Gold Card allows you to buy products from their online store www.myuniqueoutlet.com. MyUniqueOutlet.com has extremely limited products and hardly any branded products.

In contrast, Perpay has partnerships with many online stores and you can purchases almost anything with Perpay and not just an an electronics online store. You have a much wide variety of products you can purchase through Perpay. You can buy branded products like Apple, Nike, Kitchen Aid etc from the Perpay Marketplace.

Different Credit Limits

The maximum credit limit that you can get with Buy on Trust is $5,000 though most of you will get a starting credit limit that is significantly less than that. Perpay will start you off between $500 to $1,000 in credit limit. Perpay does not state what is their maximum credit limit though you can get credit line increases over time.

Different Payment Period

The minimum payment for Choice Gold Card is 15% of your balance (product price) or $25. If the product you bought cost less than $25, you have to pay in full.

Perpay allows you to choose payment period up to maximum of 6 months and pay with equal payments.

Which is better? Perpay or Buy on Trust

After reading this comparison, you should not be sitting on the fence. In every aspect, Perpay is better than Choice Gold Card. It is significantly cheaper in terms of fees, has a wider product variety and most importantly, it reports to all three major credit bureaus.

Perpay also does not rely on your FICO scores but instead requires 3 months of employment and income and no present delinquent accounts.

Another unique feature of Perpay that I like and think is good is that you have to split your direct deposit and pay Perpay directly from your payroll. This helps prevent getting delinquent (which is what you want to avoid) and is also easy to set up.

To sum up, if you are considering the Choice Gold Card, forget about it and get Perpay instead.