Target will stop issuing Visa Target cards next week and instead will offer cards that can be used only in its own stores, Stacey Vanek-Smith reports. The company says that customers who use
store-brand credit cards spend more money than customers who have Visas they can use anywhere. A pitch that offers 15% in savings to people who sign up for the card helps to seal the deal.
"It's part of a bigger strategy," Nick Bourke, who runs the Safe Credit Cards Project for the Pew Health Group, tells Vanek-Smith. "It's really about driving people to come into your store
more often and to spend more money at your store."
Store cards are also filling a void created when card issuers began to get tougher on credit lines. And, points out Ben Woolsey of
CreditCards.com, store cards skirt some of the new credit card regulations, allowing customers who have trouble getting a Visa card to still buy on credit.
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