en-us http://backend.userland.com/rss Your Friends @ Myvesta.org.uk (stever@myvesta.org) myvestaukblog_archive.html stever@myvesta.org 112718781129422695 Today there are 14 million active store cards with only half of card holders paying their balances off in full. The rest are making lots of money for card issuers.

Store cards typically charge much higher interest rates than a regular credit card. They are also only accepted at that retailer making them less useful than a major credit card.

With interest rates as high as 29.9% being charged on store cards, consumers continue to get hooked on these cards through the false sense of savings offered by the retailers through “enrol today and save” discount offers. Any savings at the time of enrolment is earned back many times over by the retailers through high rates of interest that they charge.

Consumers bear an equal amount of responsibility here as well. I don’t know if it is brand loyalty or lack of attention but the reality is that consumers are significantly less sensitive to the actual APR charged by these cards.

Today, there is actually little need for a pocket full of store credit cards. A couple of major credit cards are all that consumers need to play in the credit world. Major credit cards are advantageous because of stronger competitive market pressures that create good pricing plans and of course, universal acceptability.

In the future, as more people come to this realization, the popularity of store cards will begin to decline, just as it did in the US.