In this day and age, plenty of individuals are seeking to get bargains on their purchases as much as possible.  Paying for less than the retail or sticker price continuously creates some type of sense of satisfaction and the feeling of being wise with our expenses.

One of the few things you can do to pay less for something is by haggling but there are certain schemes which attract plenty of individuals to sign up guaranteeing them reasonable discounts that will be advantageous for them but will demonstrate to be the opposite.

One such infamous scheme are store cards.  The function of store cards are similar to those of credit cards except store cards can only be used on certain stores and their branches but credit cards have a wider reach.  The most seductive portion on getting a store card is that it guarantees to give shoppers up to ten percent discount on every purchase they make. 

The typical protocol in getting someone sign up for a store card is by way of store personnel offering you promising deals in discounts on their store.  This ordinarily occurs when you enter or leave the store but seeing as store staffs receive incentives on these deals, it could occur at any place and anytime inside the store. 

Besides the preliminary discount, signing up for a store card can even give shoppers free gifts and quarterly magazines get delivered to you for free.  But in the long run, you may have trouble with your finances due to the outrageous heavy interest rate attached to it.

A lot of store cards have interest rates ranging from 25 to 30 percent, which is double the usual credit card rate.  A lot of people are lured into getting these store cards as most, if not all, of the stores that present them hold back valuable facts that customers themselves should know about.

So why is there still a lot of people getting duped into getting store cards?  The most common tactic is non-transparency.  Stores will only tell unsuspecting customers about the returns and gains tied to their store cards and won’t tell them about the high annual percentage rates (APR.)  What’s more, young employed customers who are just starting their own independence are often being aimed at by stores to get store cards. 

Store cards can easily bring about debt and they can even incur a much larger debt than credit cards.  If you have a tendency to skip payments or not paying in full, store cards is probably not a good idea.

It is said that nearly 40% of people ages 21 and above are store card holders and only 2/3 pay their full balance every month.  The remaining 1/3 who do not pay-off their complete monthly balance have a tendency to keep their store card debt.

If you are planning to obtain a store card, think about other options that might be more fitting with your finances.  You might as well sign-up for a credit card which has a much lower rate. 

You should also look at the form meticulously and make sure you understand each and every paragraph especially lines that have words and figures such as rates, percentage (%), monthly and annually, and numbers.  If you are not certain about one or several policies indicated in the form, take the form with you and consult someone who knows about these things such as a financial advisor or a debt management specialist.

If you believe that getting a store card would truly help with your financess, make sure you’ll be able to pay it in full toward the end of the month.  If you’re an existing store card holder and already have debt from it, you can opt to transfer it to a credit card that offers low or 0% rate.  It is certainly possible and it can make a substantial positive difference in getting you to settle your debt much sooner and much effectively.