With so many cards to choose from you may be wondering if it is still worth having account cards for the big organisations such as Marks & Spencer and Debenhams. These cards are also known as store cards and generally speaking they may only be used at the store named on the card. Some cards like the JJB Sports card have many different partners where you can shop, it goes under the name of a Duet card and you may use it wherever you see the Duet sign. It doesn’t seem to matter if you can use the card at one store or many, as there is one factor that remains the same, high interest rates.

If you have an outstanding balance on a high interest store or credit card for example you may wish to take out a card with a low balance transfer rate. Some cards like the Barclaycard offer extended warranties on some purchases, which may appeal to you. Other cards offer selected travel benefits for example. Therefore, different cards may suit different lifestyles and each one may have a totally unique purpose.

You will need to provide your name, address, date of birth, employment and income details. You must be aged18 years or over and have been a UK resident for at least 12 months. You must either be in permanent paid employment with a minimum of 16 hours per week, self employed or retired or in receipt of invalidity or disability allowance. The application will only take around 5-10 minutes online and about the same in store. If you apply in store you are usually given a paper account card that you may use until your permanent card arrives which should be within 8 working days. You will also currently receive 10% discount on all purchases for the first week. When the card arrives it will be Blue in colour with the Debenhams logo and a silver circle in the middle. Your account number will be printed along the front of the card along with your full name. You must sign it on the reverse immediately as you will be assigned a credit limit and as with any credit card it could be subject to fraudulent transactions. It doesn’t appear to have an expiry date so unless you loose your card or it stops working you probably won’t be sent another one for a long time, if ever.

You can register to check your account details online and you will be given a long user ID number to sign in with and a passcode. I always forget mine, which is a bit of a pain. I can understand the number being a long one so that it is hard for people unauthorised to log in to your account but it’s no good if you have to write the number down. I wanted to log in to my account and I couldn’t remember my details so I telephoned them. They asked me some security questions and they gave me the User ID over the phone, they then emailed me my passcode, obviously they checked the email address with the one registered.

You may be wondering why I have not yet gone in to detail about the interest rate as I mentioned earlier. I simply wanted to tell you about the card as I feel if you use it correctly then the interest rate doesn’t really matter. I would NEVER use a store card with the intention of keeping an outstanding balance, especially when credit cards are so competitive at the moment. The monthly rate at the moment on the Debenhams card is a staggering 2.08% which equates to 28% APR. Under no circumstance would I be prepared to pay interest on my account. Why do I have a card then?

Debenhams also have a Gold Card but this is by invitation only. To qualify you generally have to spend £500 in a six to twelve month period. On my recent statements it has been counting down the amount I need to spend. I telephoned yesterday to see if I had qualified. The gentleman I spoke to was very helpful and although I was a little short he transferred me over to Gold Card status. You also qualify automatically if you use the wedding list service.