What is credit? Simply stated, credit is money available for a customer to borrow. When it is a store credit card, credit can be considered an arrangement for deferred payment for goods purchased within the store. Basically, a customer uses a credit card to buy an item now and pay for it later. If a credit card bill isn’t paid in full by the due date, interest accrues.
With the JC Penney credit card, the APR (Annual Percentage Rate) is 21%. If a customer is late in making their payment more than twice in any six consecutive month billing period, their APR increases to 24.99%. If a payment is late, a late payment fee will appear on the customer’s credit card. The amount of the fee depends on the outstanding balance of the card: $10 if the new balance after the payment due date is under $50; $20 if the new balance is $50-$99.99; $25 if the new balance is $100.00-$499.99; and $29 if the new balance is $500 or more. These fees only apply if the bill isn’t paid on time. The interest only accrues if a bill isn’t paid in full.
Applying for a JC Penney Credit Card is completely secure. The only “person” who considers the customer’s information is GE Money Bank, the bank that operates the JC Penney Credit Card. A small sheet is filled out on the back of the major application, which simply asks for the customer’s name, signature, birth date and last 4 digits of their social security number. The customer then follows through the prompt through the touch-screen with the sales associate. The sales associate asks a series of questions and requests the customer’s driver’s license. The information requested can usually be taken off of the driver’s license: birth date, address and full name. The remainder of the information requested is the entire social security number, whether the customer rents or owns their residence, and whether or not the amount of their purchase is over $500.
As soon as that information is entered, the results of the application can be obtained. The customer has an immediate answer as to whether or not they were approved for a JC Penney Credit Card. All of their information is erased from the computer it was entered into, and stored in the credit mainframe with GE Money Bank. The sheet that the customer originally filled out is attached to the code associated with the credit application and brought to the credit desk. It is a completely secure transaction.
The most important part of the transaction is making sure that the customer signs the temporary credit card that they receive. The customer must understand that this is the credit card they are to use until they receive their plastic card in the mail.
Many people do not want to apply for a credit card because they are worried that it is going to affect their credit report negatively. For every 7 credit inquiries, a credit score drops one point. These inquiries have to be back-to-back to affect the credit score, such as applying for seven different credit cards in one week.
A lot of customers do not want to apply because they have a low credit rating, and feel that they will not be approved. With store credit card, this is not necessarily the case. Banks are more inclined to approve those with lower credit scores with a low credit limit. This is because the account can’t be used for any other store nor can it be used to obtain cash advances.
A store credit card can actually help a customer’s credit rating. If payments are made on time and/or balances are paid in full, the customer’s credit rating will increase. This, of course, depends on the payment habits of the customer. With credit comes responsibility.
