These days, lots of individuals are in search of bargains on their purchases as much as possible.  Paying for less than the retail or sticker price always gives all of us a sense of shrewdness as customers.

Just few of the ways we can get bargains are via discount sale periods and haggling but there are some schemes which attract a lot of people to sign up and luring them into an unfair contract.

Store cards are just one of the schemes that falls in this category.  Store cards work similar to credit cards but SCs can just be used on particular stores and their branches and credit cards have a more versatile use.  The most seductive portion on acquiring a store card is that it promises to award shoppers up to 10% discount on all of their purchases. 

The customary way store cards are being sold to shoppers is by way of store employees offering you promising deals in discounts on their store.  This ordinarily occurs when you enter or leave the store and these personnel get some sort of incentive for each store card purchase. 

Apart from the initial attractive discount offered, signing up for a store card can even grant shoppers free subscriptions to store magazines, gifts, and special previews to new items.  But in the long run, you may be getting a lot of headaches due to the outrageous heavy interest rate that are widespread with store cards.

More than 25% interest rate can be charged from a store card holder, making a credit card with the highest interest rate more attractive.  A lot of people get duped into getting these store cards because most, if not all, of the stores that present them do not really inform customers everything they should be aware of, especially the most important information.

So how do stores still manage to lure customers into getting to sign up for their store cards?  Non-transparency for one.  They will only tell unsuspecting customers about the good things and advantages attached to their store cards and would likely not tell their customers on the subject of the very high rates.  In addition, young employed customers who are just establishing their own independence are often being targeted by stores to get store cards. 

Using store cards can easily get someone in debt and they can even incur a much larger debt than credit cards.  If you are the type of individual who has a track record of not paying your balances in full, maybe signing up for a store card is something you should stay away from.

People age 21 and above are believed to own store cards and only 2/3 pay their full balance every month.  The remaining 1/3 who do not pay-off their overall monthly balance have a tendency to keep their store card debt.

If you are planning to acquire a store card, think about other options that might be more fitting with your finances.  In some ways, using a credit card will be much easier because it has a much lower rate. 

You should also look at the form meticulously and make sure you understand each and every section particularly lines that have words and figures such as rates, percentage (%), monthly and annually, and numbers.  If a line or paragraph seems too tough to comprehend, take the form with you and ask someone who knows about these things such as a financial advisor or debt experts.

If you believe that getting a store card would really lend a hand with your expenditures, make sure you’ll be able to pay it in full every month.  If you already have a store card for some time now and already have debt from it, you can opt to move it to a credit card that offers low or 0% rate.  It is absolutely possible and it can make a big positive difference in getting you to pay-off your debt much quicker and much efficiently.