While talking credit cards over the weekend with an old friend of mine from Michigan, she mentioned that she was going to apply for a Peebles credit card (if you’re not familiar with them, they’re a department store).

Unless you have subpar credit that won’t qualify you for a normal credit card, I see little reason to get a card like this…

Problem #1: You need to earn 750 points for the extra benefits

There’s the Peebles VIP Gold card, Silver card, and Bronze card. However, you don’t start off at any of these levels.

So it’s not until after you’ve earned 750 points with their credit card that you start getting the perks.

• VIP Bronze card – To get this you must have earned 750 or more points within a single year
• VIP Silver card – Have to earn 1,000 or more points annually to get this
• VIP Gold card – Requirement of 1,500 points or higher

Since there’s only 1 point earned per dollar and you only start off with 250 points, that means after you apply for the credit card you will typically need to spend $500+ annually to get the other benefits.

Problem #2: The rewards and benefits suck

So what do you get for these points? Not much.

There will be chances to earn double or triple points during some “special events.” But whether you accumulate a little or a lot of points, the benefits are pretty boring and seem to fall under these two main categories:

(a) Peebles coupons and sales
(b) Discounted or free gift wrapping

With most credit cards, points are converted into cash back or reward certificates. For example at department stores the Blue Cash Preferred earns you 3% rewards.

However that’s not the case with the Peebles credit card. Instead, the number of points just dictates what tier the account is at. There’s no cash back or gift certificate coming your way for all that spending.

Problem #3: The card is of little use

Forget using this thing to finance a purchase. Why? Because the interest rates are way up there at 24.99%.

And because it can only be used for purchases at a Peebles department stores (and affiliated stores) it’s a card that will be taking up real estate in your wallet, while serving little purpose.

And don’t even get me going on the issuing bank’s customer service and how applying for unneeded cards can affect your credit score…

Written or last updated January 2012