The other day I went to Tjmaxx to get diapers and at the register the sales clerk asked “Would you like to sign up for the Tjmaxx credit card and get 30% off your purchase today?” I said “30% off 3 packs of diapers? Really?? No”.
Then 45 minutes later Victoria’s Secret asked if I owned the 'Exclusive Angels Card' when I said “Yes, but I’m no longer using it” The girl spent 10 minutes explaining why I should use my credit card today.
Anyways, I went into 3 more stores and all asked me the same question.
After my drive home I peered into my wallet to see what 'Store Credit Cards' I owned and if they are even worth owning.
You see, I have collected quite a few “Store Credit Cards” and all are either cut in half or locked in the safe. This is because overtime I realized store credit cards aren't worth owning. Below you will see my reasons behind this statement, a list of what cards I own, and which I feel is okay to own.
Why these cards SUCK.
- Rewards are 99.99% only for that store/brand. Unlike regular credit cards where you can redeem for flyer miles, gift cards, or cash back - store cards are just ‘points’ off your next purchase to the actual store itself.
- The interest is triple what a regular credit card would be. (This is no joke. One store card is 40.25% interest vs my discover which is only 11% interest).
- Many require you to meet a certain yearly purchase rate to even get some ‘perks’. For example: Ulta requires you to spend 450$ just to get your points to NOT expire for 1 calendar year. And you have to keep that 450$ track record going every year or your points will be erased.
- A lot of cards claim you will be invited to ‘exclusive events’ but be warned; so is EVERYONE else who owns that card. Which is A LOT of people. One VS PINK event I went to had 400 people waiting to get in. By the time I got in the ‘drinks and free gifts’ were gone.
- Having a card or not, they still only want ONE thing from you - money.
- A lot of stores use the credit card sales as ‘bonus’s’ for the associates. So the constant pressure to get you to sign up is so that associate will get an extra vacation day or extra $20.00 on their quarterly sales goal.
- If your card gets stolen and used; store cards normally don’t refund you AKA: they still expect you to pay off the balance - even if your card was stolen. This happened to me at Express and I still to this day refuse to shop at Express.
What cards do I own? *All Cards are no longer in use*
-Victoria’s Secret
- Ulta Beauty
- Nordstrom
- Express
- Amazon
- Rewards are 99.99% only for that store/brand. Unlike regular credit cards where you can redeem for flyer miles, gift cards, or cash back - store cards are just ‘points’ off your next purchase to the actual store itself.
- The interest is triple what a regular credit card would be. (This is no joke. One store card is 40.25% interest vs my discover which is only 11% interest).
- Many require you to meet a certain yearly purchase rate to even get some ‘perks’. For example: Ulta requires you to spend 450$ just to get your points to NOT expire for 1 calendar year. And you have to keep that 450$ track record going every year or your points will be erased.
- A lot of cards claim you will be invited to ‘exclusive events’ but be warned; so is EVERYONE else who owns that card. Which is A LOT of people. One VS PINK event I went to had 400 people waiting to get in. By the time I got in the ‘drinks and free gifts’ were gone.
- Having a card or not, they still only want ONE thing from you - money.
- A lot of stores use the credit card sales as ‘bonus’s’ for the associates. So the constant pressure to get you to sign up is so that associate will get an extra vacation day or extra $20.00 on their quarterly sales goal.
- If your card gets stolen and used; store cards normally don’t refund you AKA: they still expect you to pay off the balance - even if your card was stolen. This happened to me at Express and I still to this day refuse to shop at Express.
What cards do I own? *All Cards are no longer in use*
-Victoria’s Secret
- Ulta Beauty
- Nordstrom
- Express
- Amazon
Honest Opinion on Which I'd Keep
Out of all these cards the only one worth having would be the Amazon because you get a cash back percentage back on all purchases + points to use on your future Amazon purchases.
Express I refuse to use because of the situation I mentioned above.
Nordstrom you get “Nordy Points” to use on your future Nordstrom purchases but to move up you have to spend THOUSANDS of dollars and keep up yearly or your will be bumped down.
Ulta Beauty you get 2x the points on Ulta purchases (which they do double points days already; so this is a worthless perk), 1 point PER 3 Dollars outside Ulta (Do the math $3 for gallon of gas = 1 point). You must spend 450$ to move to level 2 and actually keep your points longer than 1 year.
Victoria’s Secret has went DOWN HILL. At one point you got monthly coupons for things like $10 off a bra, Free panty your choice, 40% off a beauty purchase, etc. Now they moved to a tier level where you must spend so many hundreds of dollars to move to the 2nd level and only get $15 off a credit card purchase reward.
So, if you’re thinking about building your credit, stick to a boring card that gives you cash back or where you can redeem for gift cards ANYWHERE. I know the store cards might be pretty and make you feel ‘exclusive’ BUT remember what I said before…. At the end of the day with or WITHOUT a card - they still just want you to buy something.
Express I refuse to use because of the situation I mentioned above.
Nordstrom you get “Nordy Points” to use on your future Nordstrom purchases but to move up you have to spend THOUSANDS of dollars and keep up yearly or your will be bumped down.
Ulta Beauty you get 2x the points on Ulta purchases (which they do double points days already; so this is a worthless perk), 1 point PER 3 Dollars outside Ulta (Do the math $3 for gallon of gas = 1 point). You must spend 450$ to move to level 2 and actually keep your points longer than 1 year.
Victoria’s Secret has went DOWN HILL. At one point you got monthly coupons for things like $10 off a bra, Free panty your choice, 40% off a beauty purchase, etc. Now they moved to a tier level where you must spend so many hundreds of dollars to move to the 2nd level and only get $15 off a credit card purchase reward.
So, if you’re thinking about building your credit, stick to a boring card that gives you cash back or where you can redeem for gift cards ANYWHERE. I know the store cards might be pretty and make you feel ‘exclusive’ BUT remember what I said before…. At the end of the day with or WITHOUT a card - they still just want you to buy something.
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