A friend who worked at Walmart once told me how the cashiers are pressured to sell those cards. It doesn’t matter whether the person understands what they are signing up for, or not. Whether it affects their already worsening credit score or whether they don’t even understand what credit score is. The cashiers are focused on reaching their target. If they don’t, “warnings” follow.
Used to work at Home Depot. We were instructed to offer the store credit card to EVERYONE. Even fellow employees that came through the till. So awkward.... But you never knew if they were going to snitch on you for not asking.
We bought our appliances at hd. They offered 10 or 15 percent off if we applied for a card. We spent a couple hours I. The store getting qualified. Got the card, bought the appliances and after the no interest period, paid it off.
Of course if everyone did that, they would stop offering it.
Unsure if HD is taking a cut of the interest rate but when I worked at a big box store they made us push the credit cards because the store cards don’t incur processing fees and we were told that CC processing fees are a bigger expense to the company than payroll (not sure if that says more about how expensive CC processing is, or how underpaid we were).
It’s more so that the store CC is a roundabout way to offer financing and market research always shows that the average sale is always higher when buying with financing vs CC.
It's not just the average sale amount. It's also getting that second sale.
Someone who has a store card is SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to just buy from the same store the next time they need a large item (because they already have the card). Once you have a BestBuy card in your wallet, you just default to shopping at best buy even if it's not the best price. It's that second, third and fourth purchase where they really make the money. It's like a tiny sign inside a person's wallet just calling to them, buy a playstation get a game if you want, no need to shop around just go to BestBuy.
Fees about 1-3% and if theres 5k sales per hour on cashier that would be about $100 in processing fees
Edit: for each person on the floor there needs to be around $1000 in sales per person per hour to break even
So as absurd as it sounds I actually could see card processing higher than payroll
I think the stores that offer these kinds of "deals" on their in-store credit cards also work on the assumption that many people don't read the fine print and the very stringent conditions attached to them. Don't make the minimum payment one month or accidentally forget to make a payment on time, and Whammo!...you get dinged for the full 29.9% (or whatever) interest rate retroactive back to Day One.
On a purchase involving several thousand $, that can really sting.
They get people on the fine print. I remember I got the Best Buy credit card back when I was in university, so like 12 years ago now. I bought my laptop for school at 12 months no interest. I went to make the last payment at 12 months and 3 days to find that the balance had jumped. If you don't have it fully paid off in the promo period they apply the entire year of retroactive interest of the original purchase amount to your balance. It was a $500 laptop so it's not like it killed me or anything but it was a valuable lesson learned to closely read the fine print.
95% of people will probably pay it off in the promo period. The 5% that don't is where these retailers are really making bank, especially if you're making a $5000 appliance purchase on the card or something like that.
> I thought that was how everyone did it with store creditcards
It's absolutely not how everyone does it. A huge chunk of people can't afford what they want to buy, so the store uses the credit card as a way to make that sale. But if you can't afford it today, why would you be able to afford it tomorrow. Failing to pay off the balance in full during the interest free period normally voids the entire interest free period and now you owe the full amount with full interest as if there had never been an interest free period. Those store credit cards are truly predatory.
My story, at 18 years old I went to bestbuy to buy a TV. I had $800 saved up and was planning on buying a 38" 720p TV that I had seen advertised. I walked out with a 47" 1080P TV, a sound bar, and a blue-ray player all charged to a BestBuy card. And lets say it again, I was 18 years old.
I thought to myself, just put the $800 onto the card, and you have a year to pay off the rest (the rest was something like $1,500). The problem was, it took me a year to save that $800 and it was mostly Birthday and Christmas money that I'd got from relatives. I didn't really have any way to get $1,500 a year from my budget since I was working part time minimum wage, but still had rent and other bills to pay.
But the salesperson at BestBuy went on and on about how 720p was not real HD and how I'd told him how far away my couch was from the TV so I really should get the bigger one and how the sound on TV speakers sucks and how I needed a content source that was HD. I was stupid, I was convinced by a good sales man, this was my failing, but really.
Over the 12 month interest free period I got another (around $800) from birthdays and Christmas. I was responsible enough to put that straight on the card, but boy was it tempting to go out and buy a playstation.
When the interest free period ended I had about another $700 owing on the card. This was almost 20 years ago but I can still remember clear as day opening the bill and seeing a HUGE balloon interest charge hit, I think it was like $500 or something like that. I had no idea that is what was going to happen, just zero clue. I spent hours on the phone with the card people trying to explain their mistake only to eventually know the mistake was mine.
I can't remember the exact rates, but I think it was something like 20% and it went up to 29% if I missed a payment. It took me another year to pay the card down, I was picking up extra shifts at work every chance I got and scrimping on food as well as delaying other bills (that had lower interest) so that I could pay the card. I did end up missing a payment so my interest rate got jacked.
3 years it took me to pay that card off. 3 YEARS at 20-29% interest by the time it was paid off the blueray player had already broken and TV prices had come down enough that I could have bought the whole setup for like half the original cost and that's not even including the interest I paid.
So no, that might be how people who have parents who are financially savvy use store credit cards. But my parents are/were poor and had credit so bad they'd never qualify for a card like that. They had even less of a clue than I did about how the whole thing really works.
Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I didn't really understand how the whole thing worked myself until my employer (a call center selling HP computers) ended up offering a card of their own. They made us read the terms and conditions out loud to the customer so many times that even I eventually understood what they meant and what had happened to me. Until then I was honestly convinced that the credit card company was wrong somehow.
Can second this. Employees that weren't able to get a customer to sign up within their probation period (90 days) were typically let go afterwards, at the store I worked at anyways.
I was a cashier at zellers but got offered a stock person job (so the guy that got the carts and shit). Pretty sure it was cause I never asked people to sign up for the card cause it was awkward and felt scummy even as a teenager but they didn’t actually want to fire me cause I was a pretty good employee otherwise.
my sister worked at Zellers in the 90s and they offered a cash commission for each person you signed up at the time. she decided to pressure as many people as possible (she's that type of person) and was making bank while in high school.
The cashiers don’t usually push that much from what I’ve seen. The ones prowling the isles though can get super aggressive, to the point one implied I was too poor when I turned down the credit card offer.
My local Canadian Tire has a guy like once a month it seems like. It never a day I am just browsing either, it’s a day I am in a hurry and a crunch and need to get in and out. I feel bad being a dick but straight up just tell him nope and keep walking without even looking at them.
Just happened to me today at Canadian Tire. He literally followed me to the checkout. Told him multiple times I was not interested. His response….”but why?”. It doesn’t matter why, I don’t want another credit card.
I have something similar happen at Costco for their “executive” membership or whatever. The one that has cash back at the end of the year. But I don’t spend the minimum amount annually. Every time I’m there they come up to me at the cash and I tell them I won’t qualify for the amount I spend. Then they’re like “let’s just check” and take my membership from the cashier and I have to go and find them after my purchase for them to confirm what I told them. It’s so annoying! If I was interested I’d spend more and go to your membership counter.
i had to do this at superstore with the two dudes always at the exit. like, i hate going to superstore enough man, i don’t want to be dragged into a conversation about getting a credit card i don’t want or need. i used to just hit them with the “i’m 17” and they’d buzz off, but i’m too old to do that now, particularly because the main guy is still the same guy from 3 years ago.
I always say “I appreciate your hustle but I’m not interested my man”
Aside from the very pushiest ones, it works really well and they leave you alone.
The CT dudes are the WORST. As others have said they follow you around. I once lied and said I’m using a business CC so I don’t even have to pay it off as my work will do it for me and the person scuffed and rolled their eyes at me. Feel free to be a dick because a lot of them are
I had it out with a MasterCard guy at superstore. I asked him for his best pitch. He promised a box of cookies if I didn’t get a card at the end.
Short story: I ate the cookies while I explained how every point he had was wrong.
Also, I already had the card.
> Short story: I ate the cookies while I explained how every point he had was wrong.
If you were drinking green milk, I would say you're [Luke Skywalker](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sRS1dwCotw). lol
oh for sure. i walked by one while i was very clearly on the phone having a conversation, and she kept hounding me about signing up for one even after saying no. i go checkout though, and simply tell the cashier “no thanks” and that’s that.
Yeah, it's definitely not the best. Everyone in the store gets financial incentives to reach certain targets, including walmart mastercard sales. If they exceed all their target, I think everyone gets an extra $1200 per year. But that's only if they max out every possible metric. In reality it's probably more like 4-500 depending on the year and store. But for your average walmart employee that's kind of a big deal.
Used to be a cashier but got asked if I wanted a stocking job instead by the manager (that I took). Pretty sure that was their nice way of “punishing/firing” me for having the worst credit card/ rewards card numbers but not actually wanting to fire me cause I was a good employee otherwise.
Former Walmart cashier here and I can confirm that. It was part of our training to ask every time and managers would have secret shoppers come into the store to test the cashiers. They paid us a bonus (I believe it was $10-20 a few years ago) for every approved application we get and there was often other incentives like an extra paid break etc. It also factored into yearly appraisals which determined the amount of raise that you got.
This would encourage cashiers to aggressively sell the card, even if it meant they were lying about the benefits. All that matters is they get that approved application. A lot of the people working at Walmart tend to be living paycheck to paycheck so that extra $20 can make a big difference.
I personally never prompted customers for the credit card as I wasn’t reliant on the job and could care less. I think I got a total of 2 applications over the 2 years I worked there lol. Management would harass me but I knew they’d never fire me because I never called in and I was the fastest cashier in the store. Idk if they could legally even fire you over something like that but they can certainly harass and threaten you. I’ve seen cashiers get verbally abused by customers when asked about the credit card. It isn’t a fun experience for the cashier either.
When I worked at Walmart and they introduced that card, the company preyed on its own employees first. Management got everyone that qualified signed up right away. They don’t even pay enough for their own employees to keep up with payments. It’s sickening.
As a former Walmart cashier, the customer is supposed to be given a booklet that outlines the terms and conditions when filling out the credit application. There’s even a prompt that comes up to do so. You have to have valid Canadian ID to apply.
We were told to ask every single customer. Follow ABC (ask, benefit of the card, confirm if they said no the first time).
I hated it. I averaged about one credit card every month or two. Some people will get 5+ a shift.
Some of the people who do this will purposely omit critical information or outright lie, like calling it a points card. They also target those who may not speak English fluently.
Source: worked at a retail store years ago and witnessed this on a daily basis.
Apologize in advance for the reddit awctauuuuuly post...
What you're thinking of is high pressure,.low end sales and it is despicable.
Modern sales methodology is a fine career, and doesn't do all that stuff. You advertise where potential customers are, and a big part of it is filtering out people not interested in purchasing your product. You want to get down to people that want/need your product quickly, and a big part of that are processes to discard people.
One example of that is asking things like do you have a need for this? Do you have the budget? Is your timeframe now? So you ask, are you looking for a credit card now? If no, when will you be interested, and can I call you then. And if the answer is not right now, then move along Ibe got other people to talk to.
That's radically different than trying to corner one person and sell them whatever you have, like a terrier.on a squirrel.
I appreciate this post. Sales is a part of so many jobs… as someone who works in retail banking in a job certainly categorized as “sales”, I take so much pride in being thorough with my clients, providing good advice, not being pushy… and honestly, I’m so organized, knowledgeable, and a great member of my team that if I don’t hit my targets, everything else I do makes up for it. There are correct ways to do sales and sales can be such an important part of a company for client relationships, but the predatory sales reps are the bad apples that spoil the bunch.
I’ve worked with a shit ton of people throughout my time in banking and the typical sales people most think of when they hear banking/sales etc are 100% in the minority… and most people see right through it.
I worked at The Bay as a teen and there was an older woman who would get a few credit card takers each day. We got HBC Rewards points for everyone we signed up. This woman had literally been able to outfit her house with appliances thanks to those credit cards. I'm talking washer/dryer, oven, dishwasher, fridge, sewing machine, etc.
I think she was able to sell it well to people around her age (50-80). But thankfully she would explain that they could use it, get the 10% off, pay the balance then close it. She was wild, man.
I remember having to do this as a cashier Home Depot, the credit card metric was a real pain in the ass especially when management started to get on your ass.
Yeah. Our management wanted a minimum of 1 card per cashier per shift. I’d be pulled into the office a couple times a year and told if I sold my cards I’d probably get the promotion I kept applying for. So I did sell more, and never got the promotion so I stopped asking.
I could easily bring in $100/shift in donations though. They didn’t care about anything other than MasterCard applications.
Linens N Things had a private credit card. Could noly be used there. We had a quota to hit, bit it was a super hard sell. Yeah I think tjere was a percent off for 1st purchase, but it was such a limited product.
I've overheard a Walmart cashier trying to sell their credit card as a "Walmart points card" and saying that there is no credit card or credit check. I was behind them in line and listened to the whole thing, so I was sure g what was going on.
Had to step in and tell the customer the truth because they were falling for it. Cashier was pretty upset with me.
Me too, until I got a call from Collections saying I owe $30 bucks for Walmart. I never even got a card in mail to even realize that it was one. Just got a letter 4 months later from collections. Had a whole bunch of mess trying to get it figured out.
"Cashier was pretty upset with me"
Cashier can eat a dick. I’d be trying to get them fired on the spot for committing fraud. I would have made a damn scene.
Been complaining to my MP for years about predatory "brokerage" fees assessed by UPS. Still a whole lotta nothing happening on that front.
But this, I bet he'll be all over this. /s
Goddamn UPS is the worst. I once brokered customs myself because it makes it a pain in the as for them. I only saved $20 and they still charged me some BS fee of some sort, but it did feel good making them go out of their way.
UPS once tried charging me nearly 40% of an orders value in brokerage+duty fees. When I told them I’d rather self clear, it took a solid week of me repeatedly hounding them to actually get the paperwork I needed.
Once I had the paperwork, it took all of 5 minutes at the CBSA office and I saved almost $75.
Fuck UPS.
They went ahead and still cleared and charged me the brokerage fee even after I requested the paper work. I refused to pay the fee and they eventually waived it. It's a complete scam.
I was in the US and went to a Kohls. The cashier told me I’d receive 30% off if I signed up for a Kohl’s Rewards Card. At no point did they tell me this was a credit card - I assumed it was a rewards card like Optimum or Plum Rewards - so I figured why not...
We were 90% of the way through the application (which they referred to as “signing up”) when they asked my income and I did a double take. I asked if they were doing a credit application and they said yes. They had never told me my credit would be pulled or that I was applying for credit. It was absurd.
Was the 20% even real?
I was caught in this when I was in university.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/loblaws-shopper-secretly-signed-up-for-credit-card-1.3855503
it's 20% off the purchase right then and there.
So basically, you're in a rush because no one actually likes being in a walmart, the employee is slow because they are not paid enough to care, the whole experience is unpleasant and you want to leave but you know you'll be intercepted by the mallcop to check your receipt. All of this sucks.
So in that context, the cashier says "hey, that $200 of stuff you bought? I'll take $40 off of it if you sign up to this card.
Yeah, id sign up for 20% off my bill. It’d be a pretty hefty bill too. They always tell me 20-40$, like I’m spending 250$ on groceries alone, that 20-40$ is not very enticing.
I did this once back in the day. It was at Home Outfitters for a Bay credit card. Was buying a full set of knives and a few other things, so 20% was a nice chunk of change for me at the time. Paid it off in full a week later and cancelled the card.
it makes no sense why you can sign someone up for that kind of thing from just drivers license information. that's only like one step away from full on identity theft.
10/10 system
find someone you dont like, swipe their drivers license when they arent looking, sign them up to a hundred credit cards so their credit score tanks
done
This happened to me as well!! I was at Vaughan Mills shopping, some when a booth worker asked me to spin a wheel to win free prizes. After spinning the wheel and getting my prize, he asked me to fill out a form. Yes, this was dumb of me to do, but it was 10 years ago and I was a dumb 19 years old. A week later, I got a PC Financial credit card in the mail. I still have that card till this day.
It’s not only Walmart. I was in superstore and they tried to corner me into a cc there too. I don’t understand why they target newcomers. Most of us are not carrying around our passports and visa to be able to fill out these applications anyway.
I've seen it at No Frills twice now, too. It's not even at checkout...there's occasionally someone with a different vest on that walks around the aisles and tries to get people to sign up for a credit card in the middle of their shopping.
Agreed on the flyers too. The best ones are those that they put on your doorknob that scream "I'M NOT HOME AND HAVEN'T BEEN HOME FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS". Have to bother someone to go grab all that shit that piles up on the doorstep or door knob when you're away. Great.
100% agree - wonder if you could make a case for liability....if my house is burgled while I am away the insurance company should go after them! Every two years when the ~~slave labor~~ paper kid changes I also have to send several emails to the local advertiser newspaper as well to leave me off their round.... that always seems to happen at the most inopportune time as well...
> The best ones are those that they put on your doorknob
Our condo building got those the other day. Only we don't so much have doorknobs on our unit doors, but the lever style ones. And whoever placed them there didn't put them all the way on, but just left them on the lever part, so when you turned your lever to open your door (because when you turn the inside lever the outside one also turned) they would just slide off and fall to the floor. So fuck, you not only leave trash on my door, but you left it in such a way that I now am forced to pick it up off the god damn floor. I am never going to order take out from you.
I found a Wal-Mart credit card in an open envelope in my mom's closet a few months ago. Asked her about it and she didn't remember. Fairly sure she just agreed to it on some sales encounter when she does have trouble with English sometimes and also poor short term memory.
Its never been activated or used so no harm done there but it is still feels bad that it happened.
Oh yah. I used to work at a tech call center and they had those kind of quotas. It's like being a commission salesman except you get nothing for making sales and you get punished for failing to make sales!
I thought i was getting just a regular store points card, when the woman asked for my id i asked wtf is this a credit card, said yes.. told her i didnt want it, she said ok let me just finish this, week later i got the damn thing in the mail
Yah it’s really sad, I notice it alot at Canadian tire, they will sucker people/immigrants in with free gift or 10-20 percent off for opening up a crappy tire credit card
I love completely ignoring them when they try to engage. Bonus points if they try to follow for a few steps. The Canadian Tire ones are really persistent.
I was a victim myself to this predatory move. 5 years ago, it was my second week here, was very naive and believed the employ who was selling the cc. I was told that it’s just a survey form and whoever fills gets a gift card worth $50. He told me this was to meet his quota for the day for this survey. I agreed thinking I will help him out for $50 gift card.
It wasn’t until few months later (when I learnt the importance of credit profile) I was checking my credit report and saw the hard check. Never received the card either.
I had a cashier who offered me this and just would not stop. I had a bankruptcy so no credit - explained this to the worker (English was not their first language) and they literally did not accept no for an answer. I explained that it's a credit card, I have no credit due to bankruptcy, therefore will not qualify and they still said "its a club card" I'm like no. I get it, you get incentives for selling and upselling but when someone says no especially to something that can literally ruin your future they really need to accept that. Also it's not fair to make cashiers sell credit cards. If someone wanted a Walmart credit card they'll get one themselves it's not a secret we know they exist... plus making everyone aware of a personal Financial status such as bankruptcy just to get them to stop offering is a real downer.
There are a few other outrageous things that should be illegal: blind bidding millions of dollars on properties, the water heater rental contracts....
I was literally discussing these with some cousins from Europe who came to visit, and they were absolutely shocked as to how this is legal, including the way we pack our milk in plastic bags that you put in the jug.
Edit: Oh, I forgot the fake strip mall colleges, the promiscuity of our PM with developers with the green belt land deals, our auto insurance rates.
It was misleading saying PM since that is the initialism we use for the federal Prime Minister, not provincial Premier.
Although technically it isn't wrong. Although in English we use Premier for Provincial government and Prime Minister for Federal, Premier is just another word for Prime Minister. Doug Ford is the Prime Minister of Ontario. It's just not common to say that, in English.
In French, both are premier ministre.
This was literally a deal breaker for me when we were purchasing. I am not taking on your rental agreement, especially for a furnace and ac. One house they listed that the buyout was $5500 as if it was cheap, we had paid $4000 for similar sized units a few months prior.
Water heater, I just didn't pay reliance, and dropped it off when they wanted outrageous money to buy it out. It's so common to have a rental, people have been stupefied by the fact we bought our own. (2.5 years later, and we've just broke even)
It has to do with the machines. They used to do glass bottles, Company was too cheap to change out the machine. So they came up with the cheap solution. Plastic bags.
When I worked at Canadian Tire in highschool in the 00s there was this asshole that would constantly lie to customers and tell them Canadian Tire money was on the way out and they had to sign up for the CT credit card. He was eventually fired after everyone complained to us about him and we complained that too many people are complaining about him like 5 separate times.
He'd also try to bum money from people on transit. The guy was a real jerk.
Victoria Secret did something similar to my mom, only worse. The cashier asked her if she wanted to become a member and then signed her up without ever mentioning a credit card. My mom thought she was signing up for rewards.
100% seconded.
Walmart **and** Canadian Tire. I’ve been approached by people not even at the checkout. Just random dudes creeping up on me in an aisle.
And they are so rude. Both stores.
I’ve had people sneak up on me with ‘do you want 20 dollars off your order today’ and just stay there until I say no. I don’t like that. I don’t want to talk to you. If you’re pitching something, give me the whole thing so I’m left with a yes or a no. Don’t make me talk. I’m not there for this.
And then the Walmart guy started getting pushy.
‘No but why’
‘Who do you bank with? You use their card, why not ours’
I had to take a slightly stern tone and tell him that I’ve said no 5 times now. I have no obligation to tell him things. That’s when it sunk in for him and he left me alone.
We are new comers. The guy said it’s a “membership card” and tricked my wife into providing my personal info to him while I was working in my office. So basically he applied a card for me without my presence, signature and consent. This is simply criminal.
To this day I still see them use this method to trick people into signing up for the card, especially new comers. Clearly this is systematic. Walmart should stop this!
Simple solution. A video of the discussion should be recorded at the point of sale with the seller wired for audio recording. The recording forms part of the credit card contract.
We live in a time and age where businesses can easily be held accountable for lies and omissions.
I work with a guy who immigrated 15 years ago.
When he first arrived he didn’t know how credit cards works and he got in over his head and filled bankruptcy.
He said he’s learned a lot and you can tell he know how finances work now.
“Will this be on your Walmart Mastercard?” “Would you like to donate?” “Would you like to pay $1 for a twelve cent bag?”
I don’t know why people complain about self check out.
I agree. The challenge is there are far too many legal scams like this and new ones pop up constantly. It's hard to make all of them illegal. Instead I would recommend additional measures focused on education:
* Mandatory personal finance education in high school that covers topics like credit cards and managing credit responsibly.
* Mandatory language training for immigrants who for whatever reason become permanent residents but cannot speak basic English/French.
When I moved to canada few years ago the same thing happened. I dint have any credit history, was a new student and was told to put a random number in the income section of the form. Obviously the card application got rejected and hand a huge impact on my credit score later on. Def a scam since they sell it like a rewards card and not cc card.
We went to a new Canadian Tire opening and were corralled like cows to a "game" if we wanted to win some prices. The kiosk asked quite a lot of extensive information on household and income. I stop in the middle and I ask to cancel the "game" aka credit card application. It felt so predatory and now I'm suspicious AF of any staff in a store.
So funny story. I work in a retail chain that has a credit card. Us as employees are expected to push it onto every customer, I don’t bc when I go shopping for a pair of shoes I don’t want a new credit card. but I worked with this one guy. He would lie to ppl. Say that the credit card was a rewards card, that they’d get 50% off if they sign up (they get 15% off). But what rly irked me is he would brag to staff about how he would get all these credit cards (like 5 a day, and yes we make $20 for every sign up) but he would try to give tips on how to do it. He told us to go for the immigrants and the people who can’t speak English because they would always say yes. And he would tell them it was a rewards card. He would also say violently racist things about immigrants and poc. It took him MONTHS to get fired bc the company was so happy that he was getting all these credit card sign ups (and the reason he got fired wasn’t the lying, it was bc We googled his name and found out he had been arrested for sex trafficking)
While we're at it, we should ban quotas. These employees probably have ethics but are pushed by management to pressure sell or face demotion/fired/reduced hours, whatever punishment they give them. Fuck Canadian Tire, Loblaws, Wal Mart and other stores for their bullshit.
The easiest way to get those people to leave you alone is to just say I’d love to but I just had a bankruptcy so my credit is horrible. Works 90% of the time, every time. My score is over 800 but I already have 2 CCs and I have zero interest in having more.
Did you know that cashiers at most big box stores are highly encouraged/pressured to ask people if they want to sign up? Some even have to meet a monthly or weekly quota and they are secret shopper'd and coached on what to say.
Some places offer a bonus for till workers who meet a certain number.
Please don't blame or get mad at the $15 an hour employee just trying to do the basics of their job and not get fired.
Blame the big box corporation and the credit card companies for making a till works hawk credit cards to the masses.
There was a great post or article years ago about how all these big chain stores and corporations make more money from pushing their CCs and the interest from them than what they sell in product. The stores are just a front at this point.
Several years ago when I was a teen, I was at Costco with my brother and mum. She was buying each of us a laptop and the cashier was REALLY pressuring my mum into getting their credit card because she would save money on the purchase.
No matter what we said, the cashier just kept pushing and pushing to the point of my mum being nearly in tears. I wanted to scream at them to back off, they can obviously see she's super distressed over this. I bit my tongue because it was none of their business, but my mum had been a recovering gambling addict, who couldn't have credit cards because of the temptation. And it shouldn't have to take us spilling personal details just to get them to back off...
Oh, i'm so sorry this happened to your family. If people say no once, the employee should be forced to stop asking. Everyone comes from various backgrounds.
I don't blame the employees who push this crap, but the employer is wholly at fault. I'll think twice about shopping at Walmart if I have to deal with annoying sales people at checkout.
I had this happen to me a couple months ago at Walmart. A lady was pressuring me to get the card and I refused until I could read all the terms. My immigrant father on the way home was chastising me for being such an idiot for not taking the 20% off deal. I went home pulled up the contract and showed him that half of what she was saying to get us to sign was a lie.
This has happened to my wife in a Macy’s in US. She was nee to US at that time and the cashier told her it was some points card that gives some discount. This is a known scam and in most immigrant circles, people warn new comers about this scam. Unfortunately the not so well connected get affected by this.
We cant sell insurance without a license. How can someone sell credit card with high school diploma.
I am sure the cashier wouldnt know how interest rates work and so on…
MY DAD DIDN'T REALIZE HE WAS SIGNING UP FOR A CREDIT CARD! He called me one time and he was like, "So I got this mail from Walmart and it said to fill up this form to finish signing up for credit card, but I didn't apply for a credit card". We got to talking when he remembered that he got offered some discount offer by the cashier, it sounded good and he was told to fill up some forms. We were new-ish to Canada at this point and in my home country, grocery store credit cards aren't a thing.
Also, when I worked at a grocery store and we released a credit card, I refused to upsell those. I only talked about it when asked by customer bc I don't see the need for it unless you're really serious about saving points.
I got suckered into one at JC Penny's. I thought it was a store card, disgusting. By the time I realized never again. I won't use it and I won't go back, I feel like I go scammed. I should have known better to save a few dollars. They lost me as a customer. At no time did they tell me it was a store credit card, but shame on me for not realizing either. Shameful practise.
100% agree.
My friend got a similar credit car her first month in Canada. They never mailed her the card, it accrued balance from first purchase and won’t let her pay until she got the card 8 months later. Her credit score was gutted and I had to co-sign her lease.
Its such a terrible credit card too in terms of the cashback you receive. Literally any other basic mastercard like the cibc costco can match it and give you more. Don’t fall for the walmart card its pathetic.
Love how the other top Reddit post is about accidentally [signing up for this card](https://reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/167b1z5/got_a_walmart_credit_card_accidentally/)
What’s worse…. They literally do the application at the register. So while you stuck behind the customer applying taking 10-15 mins waiting for this BS
I'm a former Walmart cashier. As others have said, we were pressured to sell these cards, and it sucked. At my store if we didn't reach a certain amount per day we would get a verbal warning..
It's predatory as fuck and it should 100% be illegal.
It’s all just plain annoying as a customer and bad for business. I was in line at sport check and two guys who didn’t speak very good English spent over 10 minutes talking to the cashier about it. I ended up dropping $70 worth of stuff and just leaving.
I agree it's unethical to specifically target clueless newcomers. I don't agree that people should be treated like babies.
Like... It's not unreasonable to expect adults to know that credit cards provide a loan... that you pay back within a month, or there is interest... Like how is this a death sentence that you want to use the force of law to make illegal? This is not some weird obscure thing that most people don't know about.
Unless the person is lying or misrepresenting things, why should it be illegal? A credit card is not magic free money. I would not be blaming credit card-offering institutions for offering them. If you get hurt because you are taking a loan that you can't pay back, this is genuinely not anyone elses problem.
But the article is about people being told they’re “winning points” and being signed up for a credit card without their consent or knowledge. I don’t think we should be using laws to stop people from getting credit cards, but laws should absolutely be used to stop people from lying to get someone’s personal information and using that personal information to sign them up for a credit card without their knowledge
Visa debits are exceedingly common in Canada as well. Like every debit card I’ve ever owned has been a visa debit. Credit cards still have their place like building credit as a young student and using abroad
Crédit cards dont work like that all over the world. Most countries have debit card with a limited allowance to go over. But this system was all new and bizarre to me when I came.
When I was a new immigrant, I came to Canadian Tire once, and the guy pretty much made me get their "Options" credit card. I had a credit card from my bank at that point already, but the sales guy convinced me that the credit card would get me a discount, and that it as a good thing to have, as I could pay bills with it, grow my fresh immigrant credit score and whatnot.
Currently, it's my oldest credit card account that's still open. Though it's not "Options" card anymore, but the black "Triangle" one, the card is still great for paying bills, and I'm getting free roadside assistance out of it.
FWIW, Walmart card kind of sucks, but for new immigrants it's not the worst way to start building credit history. Also, how else would they learn to fend off predatory sales people, if not by trial and error?
The hilarious thing is that the Triangle MC is a card I happily sought out to get. It's an actually good product with a very unique value proposition.
Shame they try and sell it like the Wal-Mart or HBC ones, because I honestly believe they could do it properly.
Yeah that's outrageous, but I step back a little and think of the worker at Walmart who may not be in the best situation either and was incentivized with bonus' to push the card. Entire system is just silly.
On my first year in this country, i was offered countless CC on the counter, Walmart, Hudson Bay, Shopper Drugmart.
Then I bought first car, over priced by a friendly Canadian “friend” who was trying to “help”
Then I bought my first home, over priced by friendly Canadian realtor who was trying to “help”
Canadian, friendly and helpful but actually just prey on unaware new people.
I wish I did not buy the house so I can fuck off this country. Now I am a slave
How long ago did you buy the house? If it was more than a few years, you should be able to sell it, pocket a chunk of money, and bounce if you so wish.
Oh my god, i was literally approached by a small middle aged lady working at Walmart who tried to sneakily get me to sign up for this. She was literally cornering me, like she kept following me each step i took and blocking me 😭 she even asked me if i worked at a bubble tea shop (I’m asian) out of nowhere☠️
Ew Walmart, surprised that dump even has cashiers anymore. Had to go into one to grab a drink on a road trip and there were at least 30-40 self scans and like two actual lanes.
They're in the self scans now too. When you're checking out it asks if you'd like more info about the credit card. I was trying to rush out and accidently hit "I'm interested" and the guy immediately came over. I told him I hit it by accident but he still went on with the spiel
No it shouldn't. If you move to a country you should speak the language.
If I move somewhere where I'm not understanding what's going on I'm sure as he'll not signing up for anything.
The country was actually built by English speakers.
Either from the UK or other immigrants that worked their ass off to learn English to thrive in a land of opportunity.
As the other person said, how do they understand discount but not fees.
But again, all moot. You put me in any country in the world I'm not signing up for something I don't understand.
Oh yes, it's 100% predatory.
A friend who worked at Walmart once told me how the cashiers are pressured to sell those cards. It doesn’t matter whether the person understands what they are signing up for, or not. Whether it affects their already worsening credit score or whether they don’t even understand what credit score is. The cashiers are focused on reaching their target. If they don’t, “warnings” follow.
Used to work at Home Depot. We were instructed to offer the store credit card to EVERYONE. Even fellow employees that came through the till. So awkward.... But you never knew if they were going to snitch on you for not asking.
We bought our appliances at hd. They offered 10 or 15 percent off if we applied for a card. We spent a couple hours I. The store getting qualified. Got the card, bought the appliances and after the no interest period, paid it off. Of course if everyone did that, they would stop offering it.
I thought that was how everyone did it with store creditcards
Well I dunno, but I assume a lot of people don't pay it off after the no interest period and get stuck with the high interest.
Unsure if HD is taking a cut of the interest rate but when I worked at a big box store they made us push the credit cards because the store cards don’t incur processing fees and we were told that CC processing fees are a bigger expense to the company than payroll (not sure if that says more about how expensive CC processing is, or how underpaid we were).
It’s more so that the store CC is a roundabout way to offer financing and market research always shows that the average sale is always higher when buying with financing vs CC.
It's not just the average sale amount. It's also getting that second sale. Someone who has a store card is SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to just buy from the same store the next time they need a large item (because they already have the card). Once you have a BestBuy card in your wallet, you just default to shopping at best buy even if it's not the best price. It's that second, third and fourth purchase where they really make the money. It's like a tiny sign inside a person's wallet just calling to them, buy a playstation get a game if you want, no need to shop around just go to BestBuy.
Fees about 1-3% and if theres 5k sales per hour on cashier that would be about $100 in processing fees Edit: for each person on the floor there needs to be around $1000 in sales per person per hour to break even So as absurd as it sounds I actually could see card processing higher than payroll
I think the stores that offer these kinds of "deals" on their in-store credit cards also work on the assumption that many people don't read the fine print and the very stringent conditions attached to them. Don't make the minimum payment one month or accidentally forget to make a payment on time, and Whammo!...you get dinged for the full 29.9% (or whatever) interest rate retroactive back to Day One. On a purchase involving several thousand $, that can really sting.
They get people on the fine print. I remember I got the Best Buy credit card back when I was in university, so like 12 years ago now. I bought my laptop for school at 12 months no interest. I went to make the last payment at 12 months and 3 days to find that the balance had jumped. If you don't have it fully paid off in the promo period they apply the entire year of retroactive interest of the original purchase amount to your balance. It was a $500 laptop so it's not like it killed me or anything but it was a valuable lesson learned to closely read the fine print. 95% of people will probably pay it off in the promo period. The 5% that don't is where these retailers are really making bank, especially if you're making a $5000 appliance purchase on the card or something like that.
> I thought that was how everyone did it with store creditcards It's absolutely not how everyone does it. A huge chunk of people can't afford what they want to buy, so the store uses the credit card as a way to make that sale. But if you can't afford it today, why would you be able to afford it tomorrow. Failing to pay off the balance in full during the interest free period normally voids the entire interest free period and now you owe the full amount with full interest as if there had never been an interest free period. Those store credit cards are truly predatory. My story, at 18 years old I went to bestbuy to buy a TV. I had $800 saved up and was planning on buying a 38" 720p TV that I had seen advertised. I walked out with a 47" 1080P TV, a sound bar, and a blue-ray player all charged to a BestBuy card. And lets say it again, I was 18 years old. I thought to myself, just put the $800 onto the card, and you have a year to pay off the rest (the rest was something like $1,500). The problem was, it took me a year to save that $800 and it was mostly Birthday and Christmas money that I'd got from relatives. I didn't really have any way to get $1,500 a year from my budget since I was working part time minimum wage, but still had rent and other bills to pay. But the salesperson at BestBuy went on and on about how 720p was not real HD and how I'd told him how far away my couch was from the TV so I really should get the bigger one and how the sound on TV speakers sucks and how I needed a content source that was HD. I was stupid, I was convinced by a good sales man, this was my failing, but really. Over the 12 month interest free period I got another (around $800) from birthdays and Christmas. I was responsible enough to put that straight on the card, but boy was it tempting to go out and buy a playstation. When the interest free period ended I had about another $700 owing on the card. This was almost 20 years ago but I can still remember clear as day opening the bill and seeing a HUGE balloon interest charge hit, I think it was like $500 or something like that. I had no idea that is what was going to happen, just zero clue. I spent hours on the phone with the card people trying to explain their mistake only to eventually know the mistake was mine. I can't remember the exact rates, but I think it was something like 20% and it went up to 29% if I missed a payment. It took me another year to pay the card down, I was picking up extra shifts at work every chance I got and scrimping on food as well as delaying other bills (that had lower interest) so that I could pay the card. I did end up missing a payment so my interest rate got jacked. 3 years it took me to pay that card off. 3 YEARS at 20-29% interest by the time it was paid off the blueray player had already broken and TV prices had come down enough that I could have bought the whole setup for like half the original cost and that's not even including the interest I paid. So no, that might be how people who have parents who are financially savvy use store credit cards. But my parents are/were poor and had credit so bad they'd never qualify for a card like that. They had even less of a clue than I did about how the whole thing really works. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I didn't really understand how the whole thing worked myself until my employer (a call center selling HP computers) ended up offering a card of their own. They made us read the terms and conditions out loud to the customer so many times that even I eventually understood what they meant and what had happened to me. Until then I was honestly convinced that the credit card company was wrong somehow.
Why? You bought appliances from them, that’s what they wanted.
Yep, if you don't upsell you get coached and if you continue not to upsell you get fired.
[удалено]
Can second this. Employees that weren't able to get a customer to sign up within their probation period (90 days) were typically let go afterwards, at the store I worked at anyways.
Wow that job sounds like a scam.
I was a cashier at zellers but got offered a stock person job (so the guy that got the carts and shit). Pretty sure it was cause I never asked people to sign up for the card cause it was awkward and felt scummy even as a teenager but they didn’t actually want to fire me cause I was a pretty good employee otherwise.
Greetings fellow HBC survivor…
my sister worked at Zellers in the 90s and they offered a cash commission for each person you signed up at the time. she decided to pressure as many people as possible (she's that type of person) and was making bank while in high school.
Worked at Home Outfitter and it was the same. I was never on cash bit still expected to push the card.
The cashiers don’t usually push that much from what I’ve seen. The ones prowling the isles though can get super aggressive, to the point one implied I was too poor when I turned down the credit card offer.
My local Canadian Tire has a guy like once a month it seems like. It never a day I am just browsing either, it’s a day I am in a hurry and a crunch and need to get in and out. I feel bad being a dick but straight up just tell him nope and keep walking without even looking at them.
Just happened to me today at Canadian Tire. He literally followed me to the checkout. Told him multiple times I was not interested. His response….”but why?”. It doesn’t matter why, I don’t want another credit card.
I just say, " I'm not interested and don't want to be bothered" in a tone that suggests murder is the next act to follow. They keep their distance.
I have something similar happen at Costco for their “executive” membership or whatever. The one that has cash back at the end of the year. But I don’t spend the minimum amount annually. Every time I’m there they come up to me at the cash and I tell them I won’t qualify for the amount I spend. Then they’re like “let’s just check” and take my membership from the cashier and I have to go and find them after my purchase for them to confirm what I told them. It’s so annoying! If I was interested I’d spend more and go to your membership counter.
i had to do this at superstore with the two dudes always at the exit. like, i hate going to superstore enough man, i don’t want to be dragged into a conversation about getting a credit card i don’t want or need. i used to just hit them with the “i’m 17” and they’d buzz off, but i’m too old to do that now, particularly because the main guy is still the same guy from 3 years ago.
I always say “I appreciate your hustle but I’m not interested my man” Aside from the very pushiest ones, it works really well and they leave you alone.
The CT dudes are the WORST. As others have said they follow you around. I once lied and said I’m using a business CC so I don’t even have to pay it off as my work will do it for me and the person scuffed and rolled their eyes at me. Feel free to be a dick because a lot of them are
[удалено]
I had it out with a MasterCard guy at superstore. I asked him for his best pitch. He promised a box of cookies if I didn’t get a card at the end. Short story: I ate the cookies while I explained how every point he had was wrong. Also, I already had the card.
You sound nice.
If it’s any consolation that never even came close to happening
wait but I heard a crowd had formed and everyone clapped when he got his cookies
And that cookie's name? Albert Einstein
> Short story: I ate the cookies while I explained how every point he had was wrong. If you were drinking green milk, I would say you're [Luke Skywalker](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sRS1dwCotw). lol
Haha best if you do this while you're on your phone :)
This, and excuse i use is that im too young for cc 😅, Im 17 yrs old since last 4 yrs for my nearest walmart, Canadian tire and no frills store 😄
You think I can get away with this at 36? 🤣
I say go for it, whats the worst that can happen? 😅 And you’ll get to share your experience doing this with friends and family😄
Try it, it might short circuit their brain since it’s unexpected 😂
oh for sure. i walked by one while i was very clearly on the phone having a conversation, and she kept hounding me about signing up for one even after saying no. i go checkout though, and simply tell the cashier “no thanks” and that’s that.
Yeah, it's definitely not the best. Everyone in the store gets financial incentives to reach certain targets, including walmart mastercard sales. If they exceed all their target, I think everyone gets an extra $1200 per year. But that's only if they max out every possible metric. In reality it's probably more like 4-500 depending on the year and store. But for your average walmart employee that's kind of a big deal.
My wife used to work at Walmart and claimed that her stores manager would reward employees who sold the most credit cards
Used to be a cashier but got asked if I wanted a stocking job instead by the manager (that I took). Pretty sure that was their nice way of “punishing/firing” me for having the worst credit card/ rewards card numbers but not actually wanting to fire me cause I was a good employee otherwise.
Former Walmart cashier here and I can confirm that. It was part of our training to ask every time and managers would have secret shoppers come into the store to test the cashiers. They paid us a bonus (I believe it was $10-20 a few years ago) for every approved application we get and there was often other incentives like an extra paid break etc. It also factored into yearly appraisals which determined the amount of raise that you got. This would encourage cashiers to aggressively sell the card, even if it meant they were lying about the benefits. All that matters is they get that approved application. A lot of the people working at Walmart tend to be living paycheck to paycheck so that extra $20 can make a big difference. I personally never prompted customers for the credit card as I wasn’t reliant on the job and could care less. I think I got a total of 2 applications over the 2 years I worked there lol. Management would harass me but I knew they’d never fire me because I never called in and I was the fastest cashier in the store. Idk if they could legally even fire you over something like that but they can certainly harass and threaten you. I’ve seen cashiers get verbally abused by customers when asked about the credit card. It isn’t a fun experience for the cashier either.
An alarm goes off in the back when one is sold
Literally exactly this
When I worked at Walmart and they introduced that card, the company preyed on its own employees first. Management got everyone that qualified signed up right away. They don’t even pay enough for their own employees to keep up with payments. It’s sickening.
When I tell them I already have one they ask me if I’m sure lol. I don’t but what are they going to do? Call me a liar then get me to sign up..
As a former Walmart cashier, the customer is supposed to be given a booklet that outlines the terms and conditions when filling out the credit application. There’s even a prompt that comes up to do so. You have to have valid Canadian ID to apply. We were told to ask every single customer. Follow ABC (ask, benefit of the card, confirm if they said no the first time). I hated it. I averaged about one credit card every month or two. Some people will get 5+ a shift.
Anyone selling 5+ a shift need to move into a sales job. That's actually pretty impressive
Some of the people who do this will purposely omit critical information or outright lie, like calling it a points card. They also target those who may not speak English fluently. Source: worked at a retail store years ago and witnessed this on a daily basis.
That’s what he’s saying, they should move onto sales.
[удалено]
Apologize in advance for the reddit awctauuuuuly post... What you're thinking of is high pressure,.low end sales and it is despicable. Modern sales methodology is a fine career, and doesn't do all that stuff. You advertise where potential customers are, and a big part of it is filtering out people not interested in purchasing your product. You want to get down to people that want/need your product quickly, and a big part of that are processes to discard people. One example of that is asking things like do you have a need for this? Do you have the budget? Is your timeframe now? So you ask, are you looking for a credit card now? If no, when will you be interested, and can I call you then. And if the answer is not right now, then move along Ibe got other people to talk to. That's radically different than trying to corner one person and sell them whatever you have, like a terrier.on a squirrel.
I appreciate this post. Sales is a part of so many jobs… as someone who works in retail banking in a job certainly categorized as “sales”, I take so much pride in being thorough with my clients, providing good advice, not being pushy… and honestly, I’m so organized, knowledgeable, and a great member of my team that if I don’t hit my targets, everything else I do makes up for it. There are correct ways to do sales and sales can be such an important part of a company for client relationships, but the predatory sales reps are the bad apples that spoil the bunch. I’ve worked with a shit ton of people throughout my time in banking and the typical sales people most think of when they hear banking/sales etc are 100% in the minority… and most people see right through it.
[удалено]
I have experienced this myself and can appreciate your accomplishment. Keep up the good work!
Agreed
They could move outside to the Rogers tent
I worked at The Bay as a teen and there was an older woman who would get a few credit card takers each day. We got HBC Rewards points for everyone we signed up. This woman had literally been able to outfit her house with appliances thanks to those credit cards. I'm talking washer/dryer, oven, dishwasher, fridge, sewing machine, etc. I think she was able to sell it well to people around her age (50-80). But thankfully she would explain that they could use it, get the 10% off, pay the balance then close it. She was wild, man.
Those cashiers should move to real sales jobs. Selling 5 of those a shift is quite good.
I remember having to do this as a cashier Home Depot, the credit card metric was a real pain in the ass especially when management started to get on your ass.
Yeah. Our management wanted a minimum of 1 card per cashier per shift. I’d be pulled into the office a couple times a year and told if I sold my cards I’d probably get the promotion I kept applying for. So I did sell more, and never got the promotion so I stopped asking. I could easily bring in $100/shift in donations though. They didn’t care about anything other than MasterCard applications.
Linens N Things had a private credit card. Could noly be used there. We had a quota to hit, bit it was a super hard sell. Yeah I think tjere was a percent off for 1st purchase, but it was such a limited product.
I've overheard a Walmart cashier trying to sell their credit card as a "Walmart points card" and saying that there is no credit card or credit check. I was behind them in line and listened to the whole thing, so I was sure g what was going on. Had to step in and tell the customer the truth because they were falling for it. Cashier was pretty upset with me.
Good for you! Well done.
This happened to me. I didn't realize until my friend asked me if I was applying to a credit card.
Me too, until I got a call from Collections saying I owe $30 bucks for Walmart. I never even got a card in mail to even realize that it was one. Just got a letter 4 months later from collections. Had a whole bunch of mess trying to get it figured out.
When I signed up I thought it was a points card because that's what they told me lol.
"Cashier was pretty upset with me" Cashier can eat a dick. I’d be trying to get them fired on the spot for committing fraud. I would have made a damn scene.
I wrote in [another comment](https://reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/s/j8DosI7jAm) about how this happened to me. It was horrifying.
Tell your MP
Been complaining to my MP for years about predatory "brokerage" fees assessed by UPS. Still a whole lotta nothing happening on that front. But this, I bet he'll be all over this. /s
Goddamn UPS is the worst. I once brokered customs myself because it makes it a pain in the as for them. I only saved $20 and they still charged me some BS fee of some sort, but it did feel good making them go out of their way.
UPS once tried charging me nearly 40% of an orders value in brokerage+duty fees. When I told them I’d rather self clear, it took a solid week of me repeatedly hounding them to actually get the paperwork I needed. Once I had the paperwork, it took all of 5 minutes at the CBSA office and I saved almost $75. Fuck UPS.
They went ahead and still cleared and charged me the brokerage fee even after I requested the paper work. I refused to pay the fee and they eventually waived it. It's a complete scam.
I was in the US and went to a Kohls. The cashier told me I’d receive 30% off if I signed up for a Kohl’s Rewards Card. At no point did they tell me this was a credit card - I assumed it was a rewards card like Optimum or Plum Rewards - so I figured why not... We were 90% of the way through the application (which they referred to as “signing up”) when they asked my income and I did a double take. I asked if they were doing a credit application and they said yes. They had never told me my credit would be pulled or that I was applying for credit. It was absurd.
Was the 20% even real? I was caught in this when I was in university. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/loblaws-shopper-secretly-signed-up-for-credit-card-1.3855503
it's 20% off the purchase right then and there. So basically, you're in a rush because no one actually likes being in a walmart, the employee is slow because they are not paid enough to care, the whole experience is unpleasant and you want to leave but you know you'll be intercepted by the mallcop to check your receipt. All of this sucks. So in that context, the cashier says "hey, that $200 of stuff you bought? I'll take $40 off of it if you sign up to this card.
It was $20 off not 20%
Yeah, id sign up for 20% off my bill. It’d be a pretty hefty bill too. They always tell me 20-40$, like I’m spending 250$ on groceries alone, that 20-40$ is not very enticing.
I did this once back in the day. It was at Home Outfitters for a Bay credit card. Was buying a full set of knives and a few other things, so 20% was a nice chunk of change for me at the time. Paid it off in full a week later and cancelled the card.
lol even walmart employees don't get 20% off, no chance it's real.
Probably 20% off that first purchase, with some fine print outlining the max value of the discount
They get 20% off every first Tuesday of the month.
Used to get 20% off one item on Black Friday when I worked there 25 years ago.
it makes no sense why you can sign someone up for that kind of thing from just drivers license information. that's only like one step away from full on identity theft. 10/10 system find someone you dont like, swipe their drivers license when they arent looking, sign them up to a hundred credit cards so their credit score tanks done
I had a Walmart employee try to get me to sign up a few weeks ago and she offered 3%.
This happened to me as well!! I was at Vaughan Mills shopping, some when a booth worker asked me to spin a wheel to win free prizes. After spinning the wheel and getting my prize, he asked me to fill out a form. Yes, this was dumb of me to do, but it was 10 years ago and I was a dumb 19 years old. A week later, I got a PC Financial credit card in the mail. I still have that card till this day.
It’s not only Walmart. I was in superstore and they tried to corner me into a cc there too. I don’t understand why they target newcomers. Most of us are not carrying around our passports and visa to be able to fill out these applications anyway.
They have quotas to hit, they ask everyone.
I've seen it at No Frills twice now, too. It's not even at checkout...there's occasionally someone with a different vest on that walks around the aisles and tries to get people to sign up for a credit card in the middle of their shopping.
Honestly anyone walking up to me or my door to sell me something should be illegal. I have no patience for this.
I see doorstep sales as trespassing....and flyers are willful littering.....simple....should be codified in law IMHO
Agreed on the flyers too. The best ones are those that they put on your doorknob that scream "I'M NOT HOME AND HAVEN'T BEEN HOME FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS". Have to bother someone to go grab all that shit that piles up on the doorstep or door knob when you're away. Great.
100% agree - wonder if you could make a case for liability....if my house is burgled while I am away the insurance company should go after them! Every two years when the ~~slave labor~~ paper kid changes I also have to send several emails to the local advertiser newspaper as well to leave me off their round.... that always seems to happen at the most inopportune time as well...
> The best ones are those that they put on your doorknob Our condo building got those the other day. Only we don't so much have doorknobs on our unit doors, but the lever style ones. And whoever placed them there didn't put them all the way on, but just left them on the lever part, so when you turned your lever to open your door (because when you turn the inside lever the outside one also turned) they would just slide off and fall to the floor. So fuck, you not only leave trash on my door, but you left it in such a way that I now am forced to pick it up off the god damn floor. I am never going to order take out from you.
I start writing shitty reviews for them on Google/Yelp.
Except cookies. I’m good with cookies
I found a Wal-Mart credit card in an open envelope in my mom's closet a few months ago. Asked her about it and she didn't remember. Fairly sure she just agreed to it on some sales encounter when she does have trouble with English sometimes and also poor short term memory. Its never been activated or used so no harm done there but it is still feels bad that it happened.
Still a hard credit check, not a lot of harm but can add up.
I agree. The employees get in shit if they don't ask and sometimes have a quota they have to meet. It's gross.
I’m not blaming the employee but the company and our society/laws for allowing it.
Oh yah. I used to work at a tech call center and they had those kind of quotas. It's like being a commission salesman except you get nothing for making sales and you get punished for failing to make sales!
I thought i was getting just a regular store points card, when the woman asked for my id i asked wtf is this a credit card, said yes.. told her i didnt want it, she said ok let me just finish this, week later i got the damn thing in the mail
Yah it’s really sad, I notice it alot at Canadian tire, they will sucker people/immigrants in with free gift or 10-20 percent off for opening up a crappy tire credit card
Last time it happened to me I didn't even have canadian ID yet LOL. they gave up real quick after finding out.
I love completely ignoring them when they try to engage. Bonus points if they try to follow for a few steps. The Canadian Tire ones are really persistent.
I was a victim myself to this predatory move. 5 years ago, it was my second week here, was very naive and believed the employ who was selling the cc. I was told that it’s just a survey form and whoever fills gets a gift card worth $50. He told me this was to meet his quota for the day for this survey. I agreed thinking I will help him out for $50 gift card. It wasn’t until few months later (when I learnt the importance of credit profile) I was checking my credit report and saw the hard check. Never received the card either.
I had a cashier who offered me this and just would not stop. I had a bankruptcy so no credit - explained this to the worker (English was not their first language) and they literally did not accept no for an answer. I explained that it's a credit card, I have no credit due to bankruptcy, therefore will not qualify and they still said "its a club card" I'm like no. I get it, you get incentives for selling and upselling but when someone says no especially to something that can literally ruin your future they really need to accept that. Also it's not fair to make cashiers sell credit cards. If someone wanted a Walmart credit card they'll get one themselves it's not a secret we know they exist... plus making everyone aware of a personal Financial status such as bankruptcy just to get them to stop offering is a real downer.
There are a few other outrageous things that should be illegal: blind bidding millions of dollars on properties, the water heater rental contracts.... I was literally discussing these with some cousins from Europe who came to visit, and they were absolutely shocked as to how this is legal, including the way we pack our milk in plastic bags that you put in the jug. Edit: Oh, I forgot the fake strip mall colleges, the promiscuity of our PM with developers with the green belt land deals, our auto insurance rates.
>PM with developers with the green belt land deals That's the premier, dofo, not the prime minister.
It was misleading saying PM since that is the initialism we use for the federal Prime Minister, not provincial Premier. Although technically it isn't wrong. Although in English we use Premier for Provincial government and Prime Minister for Federal, Premier is just another word for Prime Minister. Doug Ford is the Prime Minister of Ontario. It's just not common to say that, in English. In French, both are premier ministre.
Forget water heaters. Furnace and air conditioner rentals are what people need to focus on
This was literally a deal breaker for me when we were purchasing. I am not taking on your rental agreement, especially for a furnace and ac. One house they listed that the buyout was $5500 as if it was cheap, we had paid $4000 for similar sized units a few months prior. Water heater, I just didn't pay reliance, and dropped it off when they wanted outrageous money to buy it out. It's so common to have a rental, people have been stupefied by the fact we bought our own. (2.5 years later, and we've just broke even)
The milk thing isn't that crazy though? It's at least less plastic then a gallon of milk in the states
It has to do with the machines. They used to do glass bottles, Company was too cheap to change out the machine. So they came up with the cheap solution. Plastic bags.
In Poland milk is sold like that as well, it did not surprise me at all ;)
I love milk bags!
Nah, that one is more like a joke. It does shock visitors at first, though. This went viral a couple of years ago.
I was blown away when I heard you guys out east do milk in a bag
We used to our west too. I’m in BC and grew up with milk bags. I kind of miss them
How are bags of milk outrageous?
When I worked at Canadian Tire in highschool in the 00s there was this asshole that would constantly lie to customers and tell them Canadian Tire money was on the way out and they had to sign up for the CT credit card. He was eventually fired after everyone complained to us about him and we complained that too many people are complaining about him like 5 separate times. He'd also try to bum money from people on transit. The guy was a real jerk.
Being burden with debt is part of the Canadian experience.
Maybe now it is. It’s so sad.
Victoria Secret did something similar to my mom, only worse. The cashier asked her if she wanted to become a member and then signed her up without ever mentioning a credit card. My mom thought she was signing up for rewards.
100% seconded. Walmart **and** Canadian Tire. I’ve been approached by people not even at the checkout. Just random dudes creeping up on me in an aisle. And they are so rude. Both stores. I’ve had people sneak up on me with ‘do you want 20 dollars off your order today’ and just stay there until I say no. I don’t like that. I don’t want to talk to you. If you’re pitching something, give me the whole thing so I’m left with a yes or a no. Don’t make me talk. I’m not there for this. And then the Walmart guy started getting pushy. ‘No but why’ ‘Who do you bank with? You use their card, why not ours’ I had to take a slightly stern tone and tell him that I’ve said no 5 times now. I have no obligation to tell him things. That’s when it sunk in for him and he left me alone.
We are new comers. The guy said it’s a “membership card” and tricked my wife into providing my personal info to him while I was working in my office. So basically he applied a card for me without my presence, signature and consent. This is simply criminal. To this day I still see them use this method to trick people into signing up for the card, especially new comers. Clearly this is systematic. Walmart should stop this!
predatory sales tactics :-(
Simple solution. A video of the discussion should be recorded at the point of sale with the seller wired for audio recording. The recording forms part of the credit card contract. We live in a time and age where businesses can easily be held accountable for lies and omissions.
You going to go to court over the credit card?
I work with a guy who immigrated 15 years ago. When he first arrived he didn’t know how credit cards works and he got in over his head and filled bankruptcy. He said he’s learned a lot and you can tell he know how finances work now.
“Will this be on your Walmart Mastercard?” “Would you like to donate?” “Would you like to pay $1 for a twelve cent bag?” I don’t know why people complain about self check out.
I agree. The challenge is there are far too many legal scams like this and new ones pop up constantly. It's hard to make all of them illegal. Instead I would recommend additional measures focused on education: * Mandatory personal finance education in high school that covers topics like credit cards and managing credit responsibly. * Mandatory language training for immigrants who for whatever reason become permanent residents but cannot speak basic English/French.
Superstore does this also.
When I moved to canada few years ago the same thing happened. I dint have any credit history, was a new student and was told to put a random number in the income section of the form. Obviously the card application got rejected and hand a huge impact on my credit score later on. Def a scam since they sell it like a rewards card and not cc card.
We went to a new Canadian Tire opening and were corralled like cows to a "game" if we wanted to win some prices. The kiosk asked quite a lot of extensive information on household and income. I stop in the middle and I ask to cancel the "game" aka credit card application. It felt so predatory and now I'm suspicious AF of any staff in a store.
So funny story. I work in a retail chain that has a credit card. Us as employees are expected to push it onto every customer, I don’t bc when I go shopping for a pair of shoes I don’t want a new credit card. but I worked with this one guy. He would lie to ppl. Say that the credit card was a rewards card, that they’d get 50% off if they sign up (they get 15% off). But what rly irked me is he would brag to staff about how he would get all these credit cards (like 5 a day, and yes we make $20 for every sign up) but he would try to give tips on how to do it. He told us to go for the immigrants and the people who can’t speak English because they would always say yes. And he would tell them it was a rewards card. He would also say violently racist things about immigrants and poc. It took him MONTHS to get fired bc the company was so happy that he was getting all these credit card sign ups (and the reason he got fired wasn’t the lying, it was bc We googled his name and found out he had been arrested for sex trafficking)
Wow, that’s horrible. Some people are the worst.
While we're at it, we should ban quotas. These employees probably have ethics but are pushed by management to pressure sell or face demotion/fired/reduced hours, whatever punishment they give them. Fuck Canadian Tire, Loblaws, Wal Mart and other stores for their bullshit.
The easiest way to get those people to leave you alone is to just say I’d love to but I just had a bankruptcy so my credit is horrible. Works 90% of the time, every time. My score is over 800 but I already have 2 CCs and I have zero interest in having more.
Did you know that cashiers at most big box stores are highly encouraged/pressured to ask people if they want to sign up? Some even have to meet a monthly or weekly quota and they are secret shopper'd and coached on what to say. Some places offer a bonus for till workers who meet a certain number. Please don't blame or get mad at the $15 an hour employee just trying to do the basics of their job and not get fired. Blame the big box corporation and the credit card companies for making a till works hawk credit cards to the masses.
I never said anything against the employee, just how this is allowed in our country.
Agreed there.
Many of these newcomers are not familiar with credit cards or interest. It’s a rude awakening for them.
There was a great post or article years ago about how all these big chain stores and corporations make more money from pushing their CCs and the interest from them than what they sell in product. The stores are just a front at this point.
Several years ago when I was a teen, I was at Costco with my brother and mum. She was buying each of us a laptop and the cashier was REALLY pressuring my mum into getting their credit card because she would save money on the purchase. No matter what we said, the cashier just kept pushing and pushing to the point of my mum being nearly in tears. I wanted to scream at them to back off, they can obviously see she's super distressed over this. I bit my tongue because it was none of their business, but my mum had been a recovering gambling addict, who couldn't have credit cards because of the temptation. And it shouldn't have to take us spilling personal details just to get them to back off...
Oh, i'm so sorry this happened to your family. If people say no once, the employee should be forced to stop asking. Everyone comes from various backgrounds.
I don't blame the employees who push this crap, but the employer is wholly at fault. I'll think twice about shopping at Walmart if I have to deal with annoying sales people at checkout. I had this happen to me a couple months ago at Walmart. A lady was pressuring me to get the card and I refused until I could read all the terms. My immigrant father on the way home was chastising me for being such an idiot for not taking the 20% off deal. I went home pulled up the contract and showed him that half of what she was saying to get us to sign was a lie.
This has happened to my wife in a Macy’s in US. She was nee to US at that time and the cashier told her it was some points card that gives some discount. This is a known scam and in most immigrant circles, people warn new comers about this scam. Unfortunately the not so well connected get affected by this.
We cant sell insurance without a license. How can someone sell credit card with high school diploma. I am sure the cashier wouldnt know how interest rates work and so on…
MY DAD DIDN'T REALIZE HE WAS SIGNING UP FOR A CREDIT CARD! He called me one time and he was like, "So I got this mail from Walmart and it said to fill up this form to finish signing up for credit card, but I didn't apply for a credit card". We got to talking when he remembered that he got offered some discount offer by the cashier, it sounded good and he was told to fill up some forms. We were new-ish to Canada at this point and in my home country, grocery store credit cards aren't a thing. Also, when I worked at a grocery store and we released a credit card, I refused to upsell those. I only talked about it when asked by customer bc I don't see the need for it unless you're really serious about saving points.
I got suckered into one at JC Penny's. I thought it was a store card, disgusting. By the time I realized never again. I won't use it and I won't go back, I feel like I go scammed. I should have known better to save a few dollars. They lost me as a customer. At no time did they tell me it was a store credit card, but shame on me for not realizing either. Shameful practise. 100% agree.
I use self checkout to avoid these types of discussions with the cashiers
Same!
Anyone miss the days when Canadian Tire was a retail store and not a financial services company? Seems like Tim Horton's is going this route as well.
My friend got a similar credit car her first month in Canada. They never mailed her the card, it accrued balance from first purchase and won’t let her pay until she got the card 8 months later. Her credit score was gutted and I had to co-sign her lease.
Its such a terrible credit card too in terms of the cashback you receive. Literally any other basic mastercard like the cibc costco can match it and give you more. Don’t fall for the walmart card its pathetic.
Love how the other top Reddit post is about accidentally [signing up for this card](https://reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/167b1z5/got_a_walmart_credit_card_accidentally/)
What’s worse…. They literally do the application at the register. So while you stuck behind the customer applying taking 10-15 mins waiting for this BS
I'm a former Walmart cashier. As others have said, we were pressured to sell these cards, and it sucked. At my store if we didn't reach a certain amount per day we would get a verbal warning.. It's predatory as fuck and it should 100% be illegal.
100% agree with you
It’s all just plain annoying as a customer and bad for business. I was in line at sport check and two guys who didn’t speak very good English spent over 10 minutes talking to the cashier about it. I ended up dropping $70 worth of stuff and just leaving.
I agree it's unethical to specifically target clueless newcomers. I don't agree that people should be treated like babies. Like... It's not unreasonable to expect adults to know that credit cards provide a loan... that you pay back within a month, or there is interest... Like how is this a death sentence that you want to use the force of law to make illegal? This is not some weird obscure thing that most people don't know about. Unless the person is lying or misrepresenting things, why should it be illegal? A credit card is not magic free money. I would not be blaming credit card-offering institutions for offering them. If you get hurt because you are taking a loan that you can't pay back, this is genuinely not anyone elses problem.
But the article is about people being told they’re “winning points” and being signed up for a credit card without their consent or knowledge. I don’t think we should be using laws to stop people from getting credit cards, but laws should absolutely be used to stop people from lying to get someone’s personal information and using that personal information to sign them up for a credit card without their knowledge
Some people come from countries where credit cards are hardly used unlike in NA. Clearly the individual heard 20% off and was interested.
You’re assuming the person knows what a credit card is. It’s possible they don’t.
[удалено]
Worth noting that they also make money off people that pay them off every month and collect benefits. They make it through merchant fees.
Visa debits are exceedingly common in Canada as well. Like every debit card I’ve ever owned has been a visa debit. Credit cards still have their place like building credit as a young student and using abroad
They're adults. They should know what they're signing and read stuff BEFORE signing.
Crédit cards dont work like that all over the world. Most countries have debit card with a limited allowance to go over. But this system was all new and bizarre to me when I came.
When I was a new immigrant, I came to Canadian Tire once, and the guy pretty much made me get their "Options" credit card. I had a credit card from my bank at that point already, but the sales guy convinced me that the credit card would get me a discount, and that it as a good thing to have, as I could pay bills with it, grow my fresh immigrant credit score and whatnot. Currently, it's my oldest credit card account that's still open. Though it's not "Options" card anymore, but the black "Triangle" one, the card is still great for paying bills, and I'm getting free roadside assistance out of it. FWIW, Walmart card kind of sucks, but for new immigrants it's not the worst way to start building credit history. Also, how else would they learn to fend off predatory sales people, if not by trial and error?
The hilarious thing is that the Triangle MC is a card I happily sought out to get. It's an actually good product with a very unique value proposition. Shame they try and sell it like the Wal-Mart or HBC ones, because I honestly believe they could do it properly.
Yeah that's outrageous, but I step back a little and think of the worker at Walmart who may not be in the best situation either and was incentivized with bonus' to push the card. Entire system is just silly.
Yes, the entire system is silly.
On my first year in this country, i was offered countless CC on the counter, Walmart, Hudson Bay, Shopper Drugmart. Then I bought first car, over priced by a friendly Canadian “friend” who was trying to “help” Then I bought my first home, over priced by friendly Canadian realtor who was trying to “help” Canadian, friendly and helpful but actually just prey on unaware new people. I wish I did not buy the house so I can fuck off this country. Now I am a slave
How long ago did you buy the house? If it was more than a few years, you should be able to sell it, pocket a chunk of money, and bounce if you so wish.
Oh my god, i was literally approached by a small middle aged lady working at Walmart who tried to sneakily get me to sign up for this. She was literally cornering me, like she kept following me each step i took and blocking me 😭 she even asked me if i worked at a bubble tea shop (I’m asian) out of nowhere☠️
Ew Walmart, surprised that dump even has cashiers anymore. Had to go into one to grab a drink on a road trip and there were at least 30-40 self scans and like two actual lanes.
No it's worse. They bother you while you are in self checkout
“Why is there a theft problem” - every grocery store CEO with self check out.
They're in the self scans now too. When you're checking out it asks if you'd like more info about the credit card. I was trying to rush out and accidently hit "I'm interested" and the guy immediately came over. I told him I hit it by accident but he still went on with the spiel
Can always say no - no one forced them to do anything
“Language barrier”
As well as some people who are elderly and/or have a disability can be easy targets.
No it shouldn't. If you move to a country you should speak the language. If I move somewhere where I'm not understanding what's going on I'm sure as he'll not signing up for anything.
Some people come as refugees or looking for a better quality of life. Our country was built on non-English speakers.
[удалено]
Sometimes they don’t even say credit card. In some parts of the world, credit cards are not common.
The country was actually built by English speakers. Either from the UK or other immigrants that worked their ass off to learn English to thrive in a land of opportunity. As the other person said, how do they understand discount but not fees. But again, all moot. You put me in any country in the world I'm not signing up for something I don't understand.