The other day I was having dinner with family and not surprisingly, the topic of credit cards was brought up and it quickly veered towards one specific card…

My aunt: “Do you know anything about the Woman Within credit card?”
Me: “No, why?”
My aunt: “Because they have a new rewards system. Tell me if it’s any good.”

It’s a plus size clothing company for women and being that I’m a guy, at the time I didn’t know a whole lot about them. However per my aunt’s request, I did quite a bit of research on their new credit card program and here are my findings…

It comes in 3 levels. The level you get is determined by how much you spend.

• Standard – This is the card everyone starts out at. As a listed benefit it says “Save 30% off your favorite item” but no details were given. I called customer service and they told me it meant that you get a 30% an item of your choice.
• Gold Card – After you spend $250 and assuming you continue to spend at least $200 annually, then you get the Gold level. With this one it’s 35% off the favorite item (instead of 30%).
• Platinum Card – This is reached after spending $500 and it is maintained as long as at least $350 is spent annually. This comes with the highest Woman Within coupon of 40% off an item. It also comes with one coupon for free express shipping.

All of the credit cards from Woman Within also come with a coupon for your birthday, for your account anniversary, and other various seasonal offers.

As far as a signup promotion is concerned, when I checked what they offering wasn’t all that exciting: for every $75 in spending, $5 worth of rewards was given (this was over a 3 month period). Not very lucrative considering that even if you spend $500 during that brief period, your rebate would only equal a bit above $33.

So basically, it boils down to coupons…

Since their credit card doesn’t regularly earn you points or cash back, it sounds like the only reason you would get it is for the coupons. There’s no denying that the 30% to 40% coupons are enticing. However you may be surprised at all the savings opportunities you can find even without their card. Here are 3 examples…

1. Twitter

Here are a couple examples I found on the Women Within Twitter account:

2. Facebook

A quick glance of their wall also displays regular postings for saving:

3. Entertainment Book

I also saw stumbled upon this conversation on their wall. Apparently you may be able to score 40% discounts thanks to the Entertainment Book (if you’re not familiar, it’s a yearly coupon book you can buy):

Should you get the card or not?

If I were my aunt, I would see little incentive to apply for yet another credit card under these circumstances.  It seems like with all the generous deals you can find for Woman Within elsewhere, why bother with the hassle? Then again, if you do spend an crazy high amount with them regularly then it might be worthwhile.

However whatever you do, DON’T use this card if you are the type of person who doesn’t pay their bill off each month. Why? Because the APR was 24.99 percent!

Other good options would be the Chase Freedom or the Citi Dividend, since both offer extra rewards on clothing stores for part of the year. If you have an experience with the Woman Within card, please share it below.

Written November 2011