Home Depot Debuts First Reward Cards
The Home Depot has launched its first consumer and business rewards credit cards—The Home Depot Rewards MasterCard and The Home Depot Business Rewards MasterCard lets consumers and business owners earn rewards for everyday purchases.
The credit cards have no annual fee and let consumers earn 2,500 bonus points with their first purchase (enough for a $25 Home Depot gift card), two points on every dollar spent at The Home Depot and Expo Design Center, and one point for every dollar spent on purchases at locations worldwide. Customers can redeem their points for gift cards, air travel and merchandise and for reward of the month items.
“We initially piloted the Rewards MasterCard products in-store in January 2005 and began rolling the product out nationally in July 2006,” said Jennifer Lippincott, senior manager new product development credit services. “In order to create a program that made sense for our customers as well as our business, we wanted to take the time to carefully monitor the effectiveness of the product. The decision to offer the products to broader populations was made after we had time to ensure all needs were being met.”
Consumers apply for the card at HomeDepot.com/cards or at the Home Depot’s 2,082 retail store locations. The Atlanta-based home improvement specialty retailer will also give consumers MasterCard’s zero liability protection in the U.S., which protects cardholders if their card is subject to loss, theft or fraud.
Consumers’ points can be redeemed starting at 1,000 points for items such as LG appliances, Hampton Bay selections and a variety of Ryobi and Ridgid power tools.
“We believe both The Home Depot consumer credit card and The Home Depot Rewards MasterCard enhance The Home Depot brand and complement each other in the marketplace,” Lippincott said. “Our goal is provide a popular financing tool for customers making large purchases, and to strengthen our relationships with customers making every day purchases by offering a rewards-based MasterCard. For this reason, we see value in both cards and both will co-exist going forward.”
Marketing support includes in-store signage, print advertising (Meredith magazine publications), The Home Depot weekly newspaper circular inserts, online via HomeDepot.com as well as on Google.com and Yahoo.com. The Home Depot reported 2005 sales of $81.5 billion.
