The Many Benefits of Store Credit Cards

While you may think that store credit cards are a waste of space in your wallet, there are many reasons why you should have a few on hand for your favorite retailers.  If you do not have enough space in your wallet to carry all of the cards with you at all times, keep them at home until you know you will be visiting those particular stores or shopping from them online.  While other credit cards often come with reward programs that provide you with perks such as travel miles, cash back, and other merchandise discounts and rewards, store credit cards come with rewards of their own.

Instant Decisions

Many store credit cards are made available to you after just a few minutes of submitting an application at a retail location.  The customer service representative will ask you to fill out a short application and will then submit all the necessary data to the credit card issuing company.  Within minutes, you will know whether or not you have been approved for a line of credit within that store and, if you are approved, you will receive a temporary paper credit card that you can use until your real credit card arrives in the mail within a few days.

Being able to get an instant decision on whether or not you are approved for a store credit card means that, if the store is running any special promotions such as no interest for a year or a discount on purchases made for the first time with the credit card, you will reap those benefits right away.

Perks of Store Credit Cards

Store credit cards not only increase your credit limit, which can look great on your credit report as long as you properly and responsibly manage your debt, but they also come with many other great perks.

Customers who are members of a store’s credit card program receive deeper discounts throughout the store and on its website than do those customers who are not cardholders.  In addition, credit card holders receive coupons and other special promotional deals in the mail or via email.  Therefore, customers can take advantage of special sale prices and discounts at certain times of the year that they normally would not have had access to if they did not have the store card.  However, in order to receive these discounts, the store credit card, and no other, must be used on those purchases.

Some store credit cards can be used at partner retail locations, while others can double as regular credit cards that you can use anywhere outside of the retail chain.

What to Watch Out For with Store Credit Cards

Some store credit cards come with high interest rates and late fees, so make sure you do not overspend while using these cards in order to keep your payments manageable.  Pay off your bills in full and on time, just as you would any other credit card, in order to avoid falling into debt and ruining your credit score.