Store Credit Cards

The easiest department store credit card to get approved for is the Fingerhut Credit Account, but that’s only if you count an online retailer / mail catalog as a department store. It’s the only store card you can get with bad credit. Pretty much all other store credit cards require fair credit (640+ score) for approval. But that still means most department store credit cards are easy to get for most people. It also means you should choose your card based on where you shop the most and which offers the most rewards, since there isn’t much of a difference in their approval requirements. Let’s take a look at a few good options.

Here are some of the easiest department store credit cards to get:

• Target REDcard: For people with fair credit or better. 5% off at Target and Target.com. Returns extended by 30 days. Free shipping. Yearly 10% off coupon. No annual fee.
• Walmart Store Card: For people with fair credit or better. $35 off a $75+ purchase the same day you get approved. 3% Walmart.com discount, 2% Murphy USA and Walmart gas discount, 1% Walmart in-store discount. No annual fee.
• Kohl’s Credit Card: For people with fair credit or better. 30% off your fist purchase. 15% off coupon by mail. At least 12 special offers per year. Spending $600 makes you a Kohl’s Most Valued Customer and entitles you to 18 discounts per year. No annual fee.
• JCPenney Credit Card: For people with fair credit or better. 1 point per dollar on qualifying purchases. Save 5%-15% on select items. $10 rewards by email. Prepaid card by mail worth $100-$500 when you buy 2 or more appliances starting at $398. No annual fee.
• Fingerhut Credit Account: For people with bad credit or better. Easiest store card to be approved for. No rewards. No annual fee.
• Amazon.com Store Card: For people with fair credit or better. 5% off at Amazon.com if you have a Prime account. $10 gift card after approval. No annual fee.

There are plenty of other department store cards with great deals too. For example, Lord & Taylor, TJX, Saks Fifth Avenue and Sears all give savings and perks that are worth looking at. Just remember that department store credit cards can only be used at the store that issued them (and sometimes affiliates), so apply for a card from somewhere you know you’ll shop on a regular basis.

Many people refer to store cards as charge cards, making talk of a Sears charge card, a Walmart charge card, a Kohl's charge card or a Disney charge card quite common.

However, in most cases, store cards are credit cards, not charge cards, and they do not require that you pay your balance in full each month. A good rule of thumb to remember is that if it has an interest rate, it's not a charge card.

You can’t use store credit cards anywhere. They only work at the merchants they’re connected with. For example, Target Credit Card, the REDcard, is solely for Target purchases. It’s not always one retailer, though. If multiple brands are owned by the same parent company, you should be able to use any one of their store cards for purchases from all of the brands. For instance, you can use the Old Navy Credit Card at Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta, Intermix and Wedding Way in addition to Old Navy. And you can use the Amazon.com Store Card at most merchants that accept Amazon Pay, such as RedBubble, Guess, CarParts.com, Build.com, Woot! and Authenticwatches.com.

What’s confusing is that some credit cards are affiliated with specific retailers but qualify as co-branded cards, not store cards. The difference is that a co-branded credit card belongs to a card network: Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover. And it can be used anywhere that network is accepted. So if your card doesn’t have a network logo on it, it’s a store credit card.  

Here’s why you can’t use store credit cards anywhere:

• Store credit cards can only be used at the retailers they’re affiliated with, which may include more than one merchant.
• The fact that store cards have limited acceptance is part of the reason they’re easier to get, generally requiring just fair credit for approval.
• Store cards are not the same as co-branded cards. Co-branded cards are associated with a particular company or organization but also belong to one of the four major card networks. So you can use them anywhere that accepts credit cards.
• The visual difference between store cards and co-branded cards is that co-branded cards feature the logo of a credit card network (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover) while store cards do not.

Many retailers actually offer two versions of their cards: one co-branded and another store-only. And there’s often just one application. The issuing bank decides which one you get, if any, based on your credit standing. You’ll generally need good credit or better to get a co-branded card. You can check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub.

The easiest jewelry credit card to get is pretty much any jewelry credit card, including those from Helzberg Diamonds, Iddeal Jewelry, and Zales. You have about the same chance of getting all of them because they all are store cards that require fair credit (640+) for approval. So your best bet is to go for whichever jewelry store’s card has the benefits you like best. You could also consider a more general store card for a place that sells jewelry among other things, like JCPenney.

Keep in mind that it’s best not to use a jewelry credit card for financing because most, if not all of them, use deferred interest. In other words, they give you a low introductory (often 0%) interest rate but still calculate how much interest you would have accrued during that period at the normal interest rate. If you don’t pay off your balance in full by the end of the introductory period, you owe the interest. So that’s something to be wary of.

With that said, let’s take a look at the benefits and terms of some of the most popular jewelry cards.

Here are some of the easiest jewelry credit cards to get:

• Helzberg Diamonds Credit Card: 10% off repairs. $50 off $200+ purchase on your birthday. Free shipping. 0%-9.99% deferred interest for 6-36 months. Exclusive coupons by email. No annual fee. Fair credit needed.
• Zales Credit Card: 10% off repairs. $50 off $200+ purchase on your birthday. Free shipping. 0%-9.99% deferred interest for 6-36 months. Exclusive coupons by email. No annual fee. Fair credit needed.
• Iddeal Jewelry Credit Card: Flexible payment plans to help pay off your jewelry purchases. No annual fee. Fair credit needed.
• Maui Divers Jewelry Credit Card: 10% off your first purchase of $200+. No annual fee. 12 months of 0% deferred interest on purchases. Fair credit needed.
• Gordon’s Jewelers Credit Card: $50 off a $200+ purchase on your birthday. Free shipping. 10% off repair. 0%-9.99% deferred interest for 6-36 months. Exclusive coupons by email. No annual fee. Fair credit needed.
• The Jewelry Exchange Credit Card: 12 months of 0% deferred interest. No annual fee. Fair credit needed.

Riddle’s Jewelry Credit Card: 24 months of 0% deferred interest. Promotional offers at certain stores. Free shipping for online purchases. No annual fee. Fair credit needed.

If you want a store card that can be used for jewelry but also for other things, here are some other good options: The JCPenney Card gives you 15% off select jewelry and 1 reward point per dollar on all purchases. The Amazon.com store card gives 5% off all Amazon purchases when you have a Prime account. And the Target REDcard gives you 5% off all Target purchases.

You could also consider non-store cards with good bonuses. For example, the Capital One Venture gives you 50,000 miles when you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months of account opening. You could use it to buy an engagement ring and save on your honeymoon with the miles. It’s easy to use credit cards to your advantage if you plan ahead.

There are very few store credit cards for bad credit. Nearly all store cards require at least fair credit for approval, according to WalletHub’s database of 1,000+ credit card offers. But there are exceptions from time to time. Right now, the best store credit card for bad credit is the Fingerhut Credit Account. You can get it with a poor score and there’s no annual fee. Plus, it reports to the credit bureaus every month, which will allow you to build credit if you pay your bills on time.  

Fingerhut is an online retailer that sells a broad array of goods from major brands, often at a discount, and allows you to pay for them in monthly installments. You can buy TVs and computers for up to 25% off, for example. 

There are other types of cards to consider, too. They include unsecured credit cards for people with bad credit as well as secured credit cards, which give you the highest approval odds. Some even offer rewards and are affiliated with a popular brand. In other words, they’re like store credit cards for bad credit, but you can use them anywhere. You can check out WalletHub’s top picks below. 

Here are the best store credit cards for bad credit:

A store credit card is one that can only be used to make purchases from whichever retailer it’s affiliated with. And there’s only one of those available to people with bad credit right now: the Fingerhut Credit Account. So that has to be the best store credit card for bad credit, if you’re looking at things literally. 

But there are a number of co-branded credit cards for people with bad credit, too. They’re connected to airlines, hotel chains and other companies but allow you to make purchases anywhere.

Just bear in mind that the best store-affiliated credit cards for bad credit aren’t necessarily the same as the best credit cards for bad credit overall. In particular, all of the very best bad-credit cards don’t charge annual fees. That’s important if your top priority is to rebuild your credit standing, as opposed to borrowing money for emergency expenses. A secured card is all you need if you’re not in the market for an emergency loan. Secured cards also tend to be far cheaper than unsecured credit cards for bad credit. 

All major secured credit cards report account information to the credit bureaus each month. So as long as you pay your bills on time, if you even make purchases with your card, that info will be positive. And that will gradually offset the negative impact of past mistakes. 

3 Tips for Getting the Best Store Credit Card with Bad Credit

1. Store credit cards don’t have the highest approval odds.Nearly all store credit cards require at least fair credit for approval. 
2. Store credit cards and co-branded credit cards are different. A store credit card works at no more than a few retailers, but usually just one. A co-branded credit card is affiliated with a retailer or other company but can be used anywhere Visa, Mastercard, Discover or American Express is accepted. 
3. Secured cards are best for credit repair. Store credit cards for poor credit are barely a thing. Secured credit cards, on the other hand, were made to help people with bad credit rebuild.

If you’re interested in more advice, sign up for a free WalletHub account. You can check your credit score for free, with daily updates, and receive personalized credit-improvement tips and recommendations for credit cards with high approval odds.