Increasing Productivity in Your Store: Credit Card Applications

Part II

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.