Brand Source Redeeming Circuit City Credit Cards

Extended Finance Promo Part Of Gambit For Circuit Share

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 2/6/2009

Anaheim, Calif. — Brand Source and its member dealers will begin offering holders of Circuit City credit cards a $25 gift certificate and 12-month, no-interest financing on purchases in exchange for the private label plastic.

Circuit City customers can mail the credit cards to Brand Source headquarters here, or bring them in to one of the buying group’s more than 3,000 stores nationwide to make the exchange.

The cards, which were by administered by Chase, are no longer being accepted at Circuit City stores.

Bob Lawrence, CEO of the $11 billion buying group, said the demise of Circuit City has left millions of its credit card holders stranded. “These are challenging times and consumers should not have to figure out where they have to look for their next purchases,” he said.

The gift certificate and extended finance offer are good toward purchases of $299 or more on all products sold by Brand Source dealers, including CE, major appliances, bedding, furniture and floor covering.

The offer has been posted on the Brand Source Web site at www.brandsource.com, and will be advertised locally by dealers.

Brand Source dealers have also been accepting Circuit City gift cards as part of a concerted effort to pick up market share from the failed CE chain. “We've been handed an opportunity like never before and I don't intend to pass it up,” Lawrence told TWICE last month. “We have a national brand and can fill that void.”

Other merchants vying for Circuit City share include hhgregg, the multiregional CE and appliance chain, which has been accepting Circuit City gift cards since November and more recently began performing manufacturer-warranted repairs on products purchased at Circuit City stores. President/chief operating officer Dennis May acknowledged during a Feb. 5 conference call that the company is “aggressively pursuing Circuit City’s old market share” in TV and other overlapping categories like notebook computers and video games, and is “optimistic the expected market share gains will benefit our business over the long term.”