Take your plastic duck shopping ;-) (Argos Card)

Member Name: charliebrown

Product:	Argos Card
Date:	22/04/01 (784 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interest free credit

Disadvantages: High interest if you don't pay up in time

Argos is simplicity in a store, and now you can make the experience so much easier by taking your plastic duck with you. Let me explain!

Argos has hundreds of stores throughout the country, so there is bound to be one very close to you. Shopping in the store is based on a catalogue, containing all the products they sell. You select the product you want to buy, fill in a form instore, go to the till, pay for the goods, collect the goods from the collection area and away you go. Simple!

This has a number of advantages:
1. You can browse the catalogue in the privacy and cofort of your own home.
2. You can ring from home to find out if the product is in stock, thus saving wasted journeys.
3. For shopophobics like me, you don't have to spend hours window shopping for a gift.
4. Prices are competitive compared with other offline shops, though they cannot compete with online prices.
5. Stores can be small.

However there are a number of disadvantages:
1. You cannot look at the goods before buying. Details in the catalogue are brief, and you may not have a good idea about the product before you buy it. If you buy a product which you then don't want for whatever reason, you can return the product within 16 days for a refund, assuming it hasn't ben used. There are certain exclusions.
2. Two sets of queues! First you have to queue to pay, then you have to queue at the collection points. This mans at peak times there is quite a wait. Of course, this is often less time than it takes to walk around a traditional store looking for something, but it doesn't feel that way!

Now, Argos have introduced a new payment card for all those Argos shopaholics, and the great thing about it is: the card features a RUBBER DUCK!

Might not appeal to those more conservative shoppers, I'll grant you, but I personally love the idea of whipping out my rubber duck, and letting the cashier give it a g
ood swipe! (Erm, well, I do!)

The payment card is a store card (i.e. you can only use it in Argos stores) but there aer some great features including:
1. Interest free credit on any purchases over £195 for the first 6 months.
2. Reward scheme, whereby every £1 spent in Argos using the card gets you 5 premier points, which when collected can be used as cash discounts on future purchases.

As usual, if you pay off the full balance each month you will not be stung by any interest charges. However, beware that if you are not planning on paying off the full balance, you will be charged at 27% APR which is much higher than most credit cards.

If you don't fancy rubber ducks, then you can opt for more restrained images on your card, including a pair of leaping dolphins - so fear not!

Other featuers in Argos stores are:
~~Ring and reserve - place your order over the phone to make sure it is instock.
~~Wedding gift service.
~~Delivery service for bulky items or orders over £100 are free. For a small fee you can have smaller orders delivered as well.
~~Travel insurance, travel money and so on available.

I've always found shopping at Argos simple, quick and a friendly experience, if like me you loathe being hauled from shop to shop window shopping.

Though I haven't had much need to use their customer service department, I have returned several items that I decided I didn't want and had them refunded with no fuss at all.

For me, Argos is the ultimate in Shop and Go, and now my plastic duck can come too!

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