Store sales staff are to be stopped from offering shoppers instant discounts for taking out a potentially expensive credit card, it was announced yesterday.
Retailers have come to a voluntary agreement to help prevent people who might be prone to impulse-buying gaining access to a potentially unsuitable form of credit.
Money news website Citywire.co.uk reported that action to clamp down on the sale of such cards is long overdue – the Government's Competition Commission found as long ago as 2006 that most people who sign up for a store card do so not to take advantage of the credit facility, but to snag the offer which the salesperson makes them.
But the government revealed yesterday that it has secured an agreement from the Finance and Leasing Association, an umbrella body for the providers of store cards and other financial products, to end the offering of instant discounts in an effort to persuade people to sign up for the credit facility there and then.
As Victoria Bischoff of Citywire said: "This is great news for customers. Those who want to will still be able to enjoy the discounts offered, while those who are prone to impulse-buying won't be stuck with a card they don't want."