Can a Credit Card Help You Buy a Home?

|

I’ve heard of saving your way to a new house, but spending your way to one? That’s the point behind a new card being marketed by a Connecticut entrepreneur named Jack Loop.

Loop is a proponent of homeownership, but he thinks that a lot of people are locked out of buying a place of their own because they don’t have enough money saved up for a down payment. His solution: The HomeCard, which is being marketed as a “savings tool” to help consumers stash cash for a down payment, closing costs or home repair expenses.

Under his plan, the more you spend with your HomeCard, they more you’d save – because you’d get up to 25% cash back on your purchases. That money would then go into a savings account for your future home.

Problem is: Loop needs a bank to partner with him and so far, no financial institutions have stepped up. This is Loop’s fourth try to bring the HomeCard to market.

It’s not hard to see why his card – which will be either a debit card or a credit card – is a tough sell. Coming out of the foreclosure crisis and the mortgage meltdown of recent years, I don’t think we really want to send the message that having a home is as easy as spending your way to get there.