We have possessed three store charge cards in our joint lifetimes: a The Bay card, Bon Marche card, and now Target.
Target I can actually walk to, and now that it's expanded its offerings to include dairy and fresh produce I can see myself using it. As a bonus I'd hoped to give some money via the RedCard to my school.
My school has been in existence for three years. It is not in the Target "Take Charge of Education" database. Nobody in the school administration had added it, no PTA fundraising coordinator thought to include Target.
I thought if I had the school's tax id number I could call Target and get it added, but no. I had a 89%-misunderstood conversation with a woman who thought "Tax ID" was "Target ID" and that strictly kindergarten-to-twelfth-grade schools were allowed in the database. She even thought that when I told her of the elementary schools, middle schools, parochial private schools, alternative K-8 school and high school listed in the database.
So now I have a Target RedCard temporary slip so I can get my 5% discount right away. We'll see if the school PTA board responds to my ideas about public awareness. Our school isn't even in Wikipedia.
I caved into getting a store card, after 10 years
November 3rd, 2011 at 11:04 pm
November 4th, 2011 at 12:16 am 1320365819
November 4th, 2011 at 12:17 am 1320365864
November 4th, 2011 at 12:48 am 1320367715
It's so much easier than all those bake sales and gift wrap fundraisers.
November 4th, 2011 at 03:40 am 1320378030
Yeah, I asked my husband to talk me out of the RedCard, but he rarely talks me out of anything and saw no reason to talk me out of THIS store card. It's true we don't spend enough to go crazy with the card -- Target awarded me a $2500 credit limit, which is about 2.5 times what I thought I'd get. I know MSN Money published an article on five reasons store cards can be bad, but tough times necessitate creative revenue streams for our schools.
November 4th, 2011 at 03:16 pm 1320419813
I'm saving the GM Box tops for Education, and though our school doesn't save Campbell's labels, our Admin's daughter's school does. I don't like it; I want proper school funding, but everything helps these days.
November 4th, 2011 at 04:53 pm 1320425617
November 4th, 2011 at 05:29 pm 1320427769
I also looked really carefully at the bank underwriting the Target RedCard before I applied: I don't pursue charge cards underwritten by HSBC or JP Morgan Chase or FIA Card Services, but this was underwritten by Target National Bank.
November 5th, 2011 at 01:07 pm 1320498448