Argos launches first store card

Argos has launched its first store card, the Argos Card, offering customers a credit facility provided by parent company Great Universal Stores (GUS), the retail and information services group.

Customers will be able to use the card to buy any item from the Argos and Argos Additions catalogues through Argos stores, Argos Direct, the Internet or digital TV.

The card will also offer an interest-free credit option on certain products and transactions, as well as a normal credit option, which provides up to 56 days’ interest-free credit on all purchases, while offering an APR of 27 per cent.

It will also incorporate a loyalty reward programme using the Argos Premier Points scheme, which will apply to all purchases made on the card. Initially it will be available to customers in 84 stores in Scotland, East Anglia and the South-west, and will be rolled out to the remaining 450 UK stores in January next year.

A new division, ARG Card Services, has been set up within the Argos Retail Group to handle the development of card services. It will be headed by Frank Pocock, formerly director of affinity cards at HFC Bank.

Argos Retail Group chief executive Terry Duddy says: “This is a new initiative for Argos and will enhance the services we already offer.”