topic Re: Store cards in Credit Cards

Store cards

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 04:03:47 GMT

Besides boosting available credit limit, and therefore lowering your total utilization - what uses do store cards have?

I'm not taking about store credit cards linked to a network (Visa, MC) but pure store cards that only work at the store. I understand if you're totally devoted to the store, spend thousands already at their stores you may enjoy the rewards, and that they may have lower UW criteria thus helping you rebuild, but otherwise, why not reap the rewards with a card that could earn better rewards? (PS: I'm a big fan of keeping it simple with only 3-4 cards I'll regularly use)

Also are the store 'debit' cards any good? For example the Nordstrom Debit/Target Debit - you want to reap the rewards but don't want to open a store cc and get an HP, have a reporting account

Re: Store cards

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 04:15:34 GMT

The only real advantage I can see with store cards are 0% financing offers. Handy if you're going to make a large purchase. Otherwise I steer clear. I don't tend to buy things with credit cards that I don't already have the cash for. There are a lot better cards out there for earning points/miles.

Re: Store cards

dragontears — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 04:41:13 GMT

In my opinion, the only reason to have a store card is if it is a place you shop at and it offers good discount/coupons or special financing. Otherwise you will be wasting money by buying stuff you normally wouldn't just to keep it active

Re: Store cards

Royalbacon — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 04:43:45 GMT

My 2 favorite store cards

Kohls - I shop there a lot and the coupons you get from having the card save you a lot money.

Target - 5% off everything in store immediately at checkout. No brainer. I live in a suburb of Minneapolis (Target started in the Minneapolis/St Paul area) and they still outnumber Walmart by a decent amount in the Minneapolis/St Paul area (Though Walmart has recently opened more stores in the past few years, they still got quite a ways to go to catch up to Target) So I do a lot of shopping at Target. Outside of the MPLS/St Paul area in rural Minnesota Walmart easily outnumbers Target though.

With Kohls and Target (or any store card for that matter, or credit card in general) always pay in full, or else the interest will cancel out any money you save from using the card.

As far as the debit card for Target, it takes a few business days for it to withdraw the money from your checking account. I'd rather have the credit card so it reports to the credit bureaus and helps your credit. Plus in the event of a data breach, i'd much rather have to deal with fraudulent purchases on a credit card then a debit card (which is linked to your checking account and could potentially give the thieves access to your cash)

Re: Store cards

creditguy — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 04:50:28 GMT

The best part of having a store card is, When they ask you at the register if you would like to apply for their card you tell them you already have it and they will leave you alone. Of course saying "No Thank You" works too I guess, . The only real reason to have a store card is like Dragontears said, Special financing and promos for cardholders. I have a seven year old that changes sizes monthly it seems and Kohls is right down the street and offers lots of discounts for using their card so it works for me, other than that most reward structured non store cards would be the better option.

Re: Store cards

austinguy907 — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 06:44:32 GMT

If you like to leverage your money then thinking big is the 0% factor on purchases.

If you're rebuilding and need something to boost your potential new limtis then having a high limit can possibly influence your new lender decision by showing you're not maxing out your 25K xyz store limit.

Debit offerings are something new and not quite sure why they're doing this since if you have a bank account w/ a debit card why would you want to setup a 3rd party card to link to your checking account to get a small discount? Seems like more of a liability linking your cash account to this type of setup.

Thinking big though would be some of the sky high limits for a remodel like Home Depot and Lowe's if you need tons of matierials to do something and can get 6/12/18/24/48 month terms on while working through the project. Ideally after the project is complete it's PIF or transfered into a HELOC or another card through checks.

Otherwise it's not worthwhile to get a store only card unless there's a chance it can convert to V/MC and carryover the same benefits as the store card.

Re: Store cards

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 06:53:38 GMT

My personal opinion is that large store cards with large limits can be good. For example a person buying a new house or moving, the Lowes and Amazon cards with high limits can fabricate a whole house at 0% APR while taking the burden off of your "cash anywhere" cards leaving them empty. Little cards at little stores to me not worth having unless needed for starting out then just get a couple, or you are a shopping fanatic at that store and they offer large discounts with their card like Kohls for example.

Re: Store cards

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 09:24:45 GMT

RoyalBacon - I live in Fridley not too far from the cities

I also prefer using both Kohls and Target cards for the same reasons. They may not give huge CLI'a but the coupons and discounts make it worth my while. There's a lot of SuperTargets out here in MN so you can shop for mostly anything.

Re: Store cards

SouthJamaica — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 12:00:25 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Besides boosting available credit limit, and therefore lowering your total utilization - what uses do store cards have?

I'm not taking about store credit cards linked to a network (Visa, MC) but pure store cards that only work at the store. I understand if you're totally devoted to the store, spend thousands already at their stores you may enjoy the rewards, and that they may have lower UW criteria thus helping you rebuild, but otherwise, why not reap the rewards with a card that could earn better rewards? (PS: I'm a big fan of keeping it simple with only 3-4 cards I'll regularly use)

Also are the store 'debit' cards any good? For example the Nordstrom Debit/Target Debit - you want to reap the rewards but don't want to open a store cc and get an HP, have a reporting account
I personally stay away from store cards.

Re: Store cards

accidentalpancake — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 12:34:59 GMT

0% financing, as others have said, is the primary draw for those who have no problem getting prime cards.

Another benefit, which is dubious to me, but somewhat valid, is the value of rewards earned by certain stores (most clothing retailers, for example).

Let's use Banana Republic, since it's a card I've had for many years. My family shops there for clothes, independent of having the card. It's a place we would shop with no card (and do, most of the time). The card accumulates points that turn into "cash" certificates for future shopping. If we exclusively used the card for clothing purchases, which we have done in years past, we would end up with upwards of $100 annually in rewards, which in turn gets us "free" merchandise.

The problem with this scenario is that we're being enticed by a currency that is only good for redemption at this particular retailer. Sure, we can justify it by saying that we shop there anyway, but in reality it causes people to buy things they otherwise wouldn't. There's always a point at which you're going to look at your rewards balance and realize that you have to go buy something or your certificate will expire, when you had no intention or need to buy anything at that moment. Brilliant, whoever came up with the whole scheme.

I'd much rather put my purchases on a card that generates rewards that I will use for offsetting the costs of other things, like travel. If I'm going to spend $1000 on clothing in a year, why not make that money work for me by lowering the cost of a vacation, rather than giving me rewards so that I end up with $1150 worth of clothing (of which I've now spent an actual $1050, not $1000, since reward redemption almost always causes you to spend a little out of pocket)?

Re: Store cards

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 17:46:31 GMT

It depends on what kind of consumer and Shopper you are. If you give certain places repeat business, youre receiving literature on how to maximize savings already. If it's store card necessary bump it up another 10 bucks a visit then consider it.
Home Improvement I can see going both ways. My draw is the differred financing. If you have excellent credit you can run out and get a new credit card with 0% introduction rate.
However that bite you in the butt if something large in house breaks yearly. You can't just go out and get a new card every year or can you… haha

Re: Store cards

Dalmus — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 17:48:47 GMT

My Amazon Prime store card is the only store card I don't "regreat" having. Besides the 0% financing on larger purchases, every purchase is an automatic 5% credit to your statement. This makes it better than most of the prime rewards, other than the Category Cards.

The only other store card that I actually use is JCrew, which only gets used for the occasional purchase of unmentionables. The ever-growing credit limit amuses me, and I just want to see how high it will go.

Wayfair, Overstock, HSN etc... are useless, IMHO, if you have "prime" cards with rewards.

When I buy my next house, or need to make a major appliance purchase, I may consider a Home Depot or similar card for special financing if I don't have any decent BT offers available on my regular cards.

Re: Store cards

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 18:04:14 GMT

There is nothing wrong with getting a Home improvement credit card early, you can let that thing grow just by buying yourself hand tools, or even gifts. Single ladies talking to you. I know it's more rebuilders' experience but it sucks to see stories where people close a house and get $1,000 limit when finally ready to get the ball rolling.

Re: Store cards

EAJuggalo — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:37:05 GMT

I have a Target Debit and Kwik Trip debit. We were shopping there anyway, when I lived in MInneapolis either my wife or I were at Target about every other day. Rather than just have that money come out of the debit card we got the Target debit for the 5% and free shipping on online orders. Kwik Trip is 3 cents back per gallon of fuel and 10% on anything purchased in store, which can be quite a bit with their great prices on some things.

I have two store cards, Amazon and Victoria's Secret. I get coupons quite a bit for Victoria's Secret that make that worth having, and with our new house we've put almost $700 through Amazon in the last month.

Re: Store cards

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 02:16:56 GMT

@dragontears wrote:
In my opinion, the only reason to have a store card is if it is a place you shop at and it offers good discount/coupons or special financing. Otherwise you will be wasting money by buying stuff you normally wouldn't just to keep it active

Agreed!! This is why I have a VS and Williams Sonoma cc. I shop at these stores ALL of the time and definitely benefit from the coupons, rewards and special access to sales. I have the Walmart store card and it's basically useless... even with the 3-2-1 (cash back/statement credit) rewards. I shop at Walmart but not enough to get a real benefit. This was one of the cards I signed up for early in my rebuilding phase so I'm keeping it for now. I use it once a month just to keep it active and to stay in Synchrony's good graces. This card started with an $800 CL and now sits at $6k.

Re: Store cards

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 02:20:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It depends on what kind of consumer and Shopper you are. If you give certain places repeat business, youre receiving literature on how to maximize savings already. If it's store card necessary bump it up another 10 bucks a visit then consider it.
Home Improvement I can see going both ways. My draw is the differred financing. If you have excellent credit you can run out and get a new credit card with 0% introduction rate.
However that bite you in the butt if something large in house breaks yearly. You can't just go out and get a new card every year or can you… haha

I'm there are some folks here who do... lol...

Re: Store cards

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 03:11:11 GMT

My area floods a lot so having a Lowes card is like having a credit insurance policy if you will. As a home owner I do shop at Lowes, but nowhere near enough to have a Lowes card. As a home owner with a house that has flooded...twice, Having a Lowes card is something I hope I'll never need, but it will be nice to have 5% off of a future $50K worth of purchases if it does happen again.

Re: Store cards

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 01:19:30 GMT

I personally have no need for them. I don't have a family and thus don't make any big purchases where I'd need the 0 percent financing. Nor do I shop at any one store that much. I prefer to earn miles and cash back.

Re: Store cards

CreditDunce — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 04:04:28 GMT

Store cards are mostly popular around here for rebuilders. In moderation, they can help someone rebuilding. It isn't really bad or good to have store cards, but it can clutter your credit report. Store cards should not be used for credit anchor cards. Stores go out of business all of the time. If your oldest card is a store card and it goes out of business, you just lost your oldest card. You really want no AF cards from banks for your anchor cards. The other negative is it can hurt your auto/home insurance score. Although, I don't think having a couple of store cards will do much damage, it could cause you to pay slightly higher rates.

Once you have good credit, the only reason to have store cards is if the benefits/perks are better than your other options. My two store cards are stores: 1) I shop at and 2) both have 5% off (Lowes and Target). I know I could work the gift card option for a bigger discount, but gift cards are too much work for me. If you have good credit and PIF, util padding isn't needed.

Here is the thread I book marked when I was considering which(if), store cards I would apply for. It gives you an idea of some of the perks available on different store cards.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Store-Card-Perk-List/td-p/2459079/highlight/true

Note: it is from 2013.

Re: Store cards

Chris679 — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 12:22:13 GMT

I have been anti store card for years for all the reasons mentioned already. However, a couple people at work have been talking up the Kohls card and the massive discount coupons you get in addition to the Kohls cash you get for each purchase. Plus it's like a 30% discount when you open the card. I might have to jump on it. Whole point of good credit is to save you money I always say.