"No thanks" is my standard answer when salespeople suggest I open a store credit card. I know they're just trying to fill a quota placed on them by their managers, and in some cases they earn commission, but any sympathy I feel for them having to ask that dreaded question has never prompted me to open an account.
MSNBC recently shared the story of Mary Uhazi, who is struggling to repay the $60,000 she owes on credit cards. Mary's hours were recently cut at work, so it's tougher than ever to keep up with her debt, and she says the debt compiled without ever making any major purchases. She juggled 13 credit cards and admits that if someone asked her to open a store credit card, sometimes she would agree because she used to work in retail and knew the salesperson would get a commission.
Have you ever opened a store card out of sympathy?
Barbara Bui
Fornarina
Ludd
Not really the main issue of the post, but I don't feel sympathy for her. Just because you open a store card doesn't mean you have to use it. Most store cards have a really high interest rate. I have two store cards (Macy's and Nordstrom) and I pay them off right away.
1When I was young and stupid, yes. I am much better about debt now. I used to have at least half a dozen store cards, how insane is that? Ugh, I have a strict no-store-cards policy now.
2No.
3what store did she work for? most retailers don't give employees anything for opening a card!
4I opened a Zale's account in April 2007 out of sympathy. Never used it and then closed it in May 2008.
I actually just applied for a Best Buy card this morning, but with good reason.
5Nope, and hate it when they are super pushy about it.
6no. and i think that feeling bad for someone is a lame excuse for racking up debt!
7nope - i haven't but i've worked on the other side of it and it's not that we got a quota to make a certain amount of people sign up, we just got incentives to get more people to sign up (i.e. $1 per card or something)
8The reward/punishment depends on the store. Some stores just encourage you to sign people up, some set quotas, some pay you, some have drawings for prizes; it varies pretty widely.
9No. I have sympathy for others however not enough to create credit card debt.
10I work at retail store and every store has a percentage of apps to denies to met, 0.7% or something.
Each cashier is scored and it effects their yearly performance ratings and the front lane supervisors (me) have to get a certain amount of apps on their shifts.
Its annoying but oh well!
11No way. I'd rather just use my regular credit card and get the cashback reward from it. When my sis worked at Menards, my dad opened a Big Card so she'd get a commission and then just paid the balance right away.
12I used to work at Sears as a cashier and the rules that applied when I worked there were this: you have to get 3 customers out of every 100 NOT using a Sears card to apply for a card, or they have incentive to fire you (and it happened quite often). The monetary rewards were tiny. I think it was something like two dollars per application AFTER you had gotten five applications for the month (or maybe pay period...)
I absolutely HATED pushing the cards and when I realized that if I worked in the right places people that needed credit would come in and ask to apply I stopped asking. The interest rates on those suckers STARTED at 24%!
13if you work at debenhams in the uk, if you don't open up a certain amount of store cards per month (granted it's only about 3) you can get a warning.....
not good.
14I work for Target and even though we're required to ask every guest if they would like to open a credit account, we don't receive commission or rewards...
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