Retail workers confess using the hard sell to pitch credit cards

Retail credit cards are a cash cow for the stores they represent, as well as for the banks that back them. But retailers' desire to boost profits by getting more consumers to sign up for and use their cards has resulted in some less-than-friendly selling tactics. In fact, the fine art of coaxing people to sign up for retail credit cards has become downright cutthroat.

A former Macy's clerk tells WalletPop he was expected to sign up 10 new applicants for the store credit card each month and a former saleswoman at the Limited recalls that if she didn't get three new sign-ups for the store credit card per shift, she was punished by being assigned less-desirable hours. A third retail employee, this one from a chain store, confessed to us that her manager went so far as to tell her to sign up customers for store credit cards without their knowledge.