Ann Taylor has great clothes, but is the Ann Taylor credit card a good thing too? Here’s what you need to know before you apply.

credit card payment
Ann Taylor is one of my favorite places to buy clothes! From trendy shoes to chic shoes… it’s a great place for women’s clothing. They’re a cost-effective way for me to have high-fashion work clothes for a budget that won’t bust the bank. So it only makes sense to get the Ann Taylor credit card, right? Well, you’re about to find out the answer.

Ann Taylor Store Background
The first store was opened in New Haven, CT in 1954. The ironic part is there is no one by the name Ann Taylor involved with this store. The company was actually founded by a man named Richard Liebeskind.

According to what I've read, he basically made up the name of the store because the name “Ann” was popular in the area at the time. The “Taylor” part was chosen because it sounded like the word “tailor” which of course is associated with high-end custom clothing. I was actually pretty disappointed to discover the name of the store is nothing more than a marketing gimmick. But I guess that’s pretty common in the industry; Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren did the same thing.

Ann Taylor Credit Card
Like most retailers of done in recent history, the company came out with a credit card for their store. Their clothes may be good but their store is not. Here’s why…
  • Cannot Be Used Elsewhere: At the time of this review the credit card I was offered an application for was not associated with Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express. Because it’s not affiliated with any major payment network, it can’t be used outside of their stores.
  • High Interest Rate: If you ever carry a balance, you never want to use this card. My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw the interest rate on this thing… it is an astronomical 22.8% at the time of this credit card review! Yes, you read correctly. At that rate, carrying a balance for just a few weeks in theory could end up costing you more than any points you earned on those purchases.
  • Low Spending Limit: Because this is a store-issued card, it's possible you might end up with a relatively low limit (compared to a regular credit card) even if you have a great credit score. This is usually how it goes with store cards.
  • Lack of Benefits: Because this is not associated with Visa, Discover, etc., you don't get all those great benefits you see on major credit cards. Unfortunately, the Ann Taylor card falls short when it comes to offering worthwhile benefits.
  • Fine Print: I carefully reviewed all the fine print and there were some pretty disturbing things, starting with this statement “We may add, change or delete the terms of your Account and the corresponding Credit Card Agreement.” That’s crazy!
  • Rewards: Of course this is the main reason most of us are interested in this credit card. We want the ability to save money on the clothes we buy. This is a smart shopping strategy to use, but unfortunately this one is probably not the best way to do it. Let’s take a closer look…

    Signup Promo: Sometimes they offer a small discount of 10% or so on your first purchase if you signup and are approved. This is not a reason to get a card. It seems like every clothing store offers credit card deals like that. Some people believe the reason they have to do this is because they know their cards are not good enough on their own, so in order to get people to signup for them they need to use a gimmick like this.

    Style Rewards:     This is what they call the points you earn on your spending with the card. They give 5 Style Rewards per dollar spent at Ann Taylor. Once you rake up 2,000 points you can redeem it for a $20 certificate to use on a purchase. This equals out to be 5%. This is good but the question is do you really want a card that only gives you 5% at their store and no earnings anywhere else?
A Better Card
Ann Taylor is a great store, but there's just too many negative things about their card. Instead I recommend you check out these cards that give a full 5% cash back at every clothing store.




This review was written in '09