Store charge cards offering more rewards

Department stores and specialty shops are giving their "very special" card customers another reason to shop: rewards.

After years of piling on the perks, many major store cards have added rewards. The aim? To keep loyal store card customers coming back for more, of course.

But don't let the promise of a 10 percent discount, exclusive offers and rewards lull you into agreeing to a lousy card deal. There's nothing rewarding about having your money sucked away by high interest rates.

"These rewards don't come for free," says Paul Richard, executive director of the Institute of Consumer Financial Education. "Put the pencil to it and see if it's really going to benefit you."

With most reward programs, you earn points for a rewards certificate good toward a future purchase at the shop or department store. Rewards certificates range from $10 to $25 and the rate that you earn rewards varies widely from store to store.

Expensive bonuses
Charge $250 on a GapCard or a Linens 'n Things card and you earn a $10 rewards certificate. The variable interest rates on the cards, 16.55 percent at the Gap and 16.85 percent at Linens 'n Things, aren't sky-high but they're not all that great either, especially when you consider all the zero-percent credit card offers available now.

With a store card from Nordstrom, you'll have to spend a whole lot more than $250 to cash in on any reward. And like any department store card the interest rate is through the roof. You pay a 21 percent interest rate any time you carry a balance on your Nordstrom card, and the rewards are tough to land.

You earn just one point for every dollar you charge on your Nordstrom card. To earn a $20 certificate from Nordstrom, you'll need to rack up 2,000 points, which means you'll need to charge a cool two grand. But at least you earn points from your very first Nordstrom card purchase.

At Bloomingdale's, you've got to do some serious charging before you earn even a single rewards point. To qualify for rewards at Bloomingdale's, you have to spend at least $1,000 annually on your Bloomingdale's card.

Three percent of each purchase you make goes into your rewards tally. So spend $100 and you've earned three reward dollars. To earn 25 reward dollars, you'll need to charge about $834. If you shop at a double rewards event when 6 percent of each purchase gets counted toward rewards, you only need to spend about $417 to earn a $25 rewards certificate. It's too bad this deal isn't available to everyone who carries a Bloomingdale's store card.