The Store Card Trap

Never Ever Use Store Cards

If you have ever been shopping in a large department store you will no doubt have been offered a store card at some point during your visit. Quite often at the point of sale at the till, usually you are advised that you will be able to make a big saving on your purchase by taking a store card, with an offer of a 10% or even 20% reduction on the purchase you are making that day, which to be fair all sounds very attractive, who wouldn’t be tempted by savings as high as this as well as not having to pay for your purchases there and then? But and this is a huge but, they will not tell you how much you will be paying for this little service, if you were to ask the sales assistant just how much the APR is on the card they are selling the chances are they would have no idea at all. You may be surprised to learn that the APR can be as high as 29%!

My advice is simple, Never ever be tempted to take out a store card, if you want to make a purchase using credit then look for the best deals on a credit card, and if you can’t get a good deal because you have a poor credit rating then simply walk away and buy on a day when you can afford cash.

The lovely people at Love money and Money facts have put together the chart below which shows you who the worst offenders are in this market, take a look and if you have one of these cards, pay it off and then cancel it immediately, If you are struggling with repayments then go to our help page to see what you can do to get back on track.

Store card	APR (if you pay by direct debit)	APR (if you don’t pay by direct debit)
Argos – Home Retail Group	29.90%	29.90%
B&Q Account Card – HFC Bank	23.90%	23.90%
Brantano Store Card – Creation Financial Services	27.80%	30.90%
Burton – Santander	29.90%	29.90%
Debenhams – Santander	19.90%	19.90%
Dorothy Perkins – Santander	29.90%	29.90%
Edge Card – Santander	29.90%	29.90%
evans – Santander	29.90%	29.90%
Fortnum & Mason – Fortnum & Mason Plc	15.30%	15.30%
Homebase – Home Retail Group	29.90%	29.90%
House of Fraser Recognition Account Card – Santander	19.90%	19.90%
Karen Millen – Ikano Financial Services	28.90%	28.90%
Laura Ashley – Santander	19.90%	19.90%
M&Co. Store Card – Creation Financial Services	24.90%	24.90%
Miss Selfridge – Santander	28.00%	29.90%
New Look Card – Ikano Financial Services	28.90%	28.90%
Oasis VIP – Ikano Financial Services	28.90%	28.90%
Outfit – Santander	29.90%	29.90%
Quiz Store Card – Creation Financial Services	27.80%	30.90%
Russell & Bromley – Santander	23.90%	23.90%
Selfridges Store Card – Creation Financial Services	27.70%	27.70%
Topshop /Topman – Santander	19.90%	19.90%
USC Store Card – Creation Financial Services	27.80%	30.90%
Wallis – Santander	29.90%	29.90%
Warehouse Card – Ikano Financial Services	29.90%	29.90%