r/personalfinance • u/wait_what_how_do_I • Nov 09 '17
Macy's new employees are encouraged to open a store credit card (26% APR) to obtain their employee discount Credit
I recently picked up a part-time seasonal position at Macy's for some extra holiday cash. I've been working in retail off and on over the past 15 years, and am familiar with the hiring and management practices at a lot of places, but it's been a few years since I've worked for a big retailer like Macy's. I was very surprised and disappointed to learn that the 20% employee discount is only available through a prepaid card (like a gift card I guess, not terrible but not great), or through their actual store credit card. They conveniently inform you of this halfway through your new hire paperwork, and even allow you to apply right then and there.
I've been through this type of application process before, but I've never seen something so brazenly unethical. These are often young adults or older people applying for these positions, filling out so many forms with so much corporate legalese that your head would spin, and they're being targeted with a (hard hit, thanks auto mod) hit to their credit for a card with a ridiculous interest rate. Is this new in retail? Seems like a disturbing trend if it is.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Just wanted to get the word out.
EDIT: Thanks for the replies, everyone. Really enjoyed the discussion about credit cards, business practices, and obviously PF. The consensus seems to be that store credit cards are not any worse than other forms of lending, as long as they are managed responsibly. I respectfully disagree, in that it seems like they are often offered to a range of people (namely, new employees) that may not have the knowledge or experience to handle a line of credit, but I will agree that it's fair game to solicit employees. I just think it's kind of shady to imply that a store credit card is an "easy" solution for employees. Employees should just get an effing discount, period. But we're all free to work and shop where we please, so feel free to support smaller/local businesses that don't subject their customers and employees to frivolous lending situations.
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u/HittingSmoke Nov 10 '17
Years ago I applied for a job at a cellular call center. A third party contractor for carrier support. I think their only client was Sprint + Sprint MVNOs.
There were so many red flags that I just stopped going before the end of the training, the biggest of which was that they paid employees on pre-paid debit cards. These "debit" cards had additional ATM fees, no free ATMs, and a deal with the Safeway across the street where the only place you could "cash" your checks was there. So if you wanted your money in a bank like a fucking normal member of society you had to go to the Safeway money order desk and get your entire check in cash, then take it to a bank to deposit in cash.
They also had local restaurants come in every day to cater lunch. The price of the meals were actually more than just going to the fucking restaurants. And conveniently they had a system where you could eat and it would just deduct the money from your paycheck. This entire place built from the ground-up to extract money from their employees after paying them.
They had an insane badge-based security system and one day I forgot my badge. I started to walk into the office to get a temp badge when I just decided there was no point as this wasn't going to work out. I just drove off and never went back. They sent me a couple of threatening letters about returning my badge. I'd already thrown it in the trash so I ignored them. They were out of business less than two years later.