Store cards

[Anonymous]

It depends on what kind of consumer and Shopper you are. If you give certain places repeat business, youre receiving literature on how to maximize savings already. If it's store card necessary bump it up another 10 bucks a visit then consider it.
Home Improvement I can see going both ways. My draw is the differred financing. If you have excellent credit you can run out and get a new credit card with 0% introduction rate.
However that bite you in the butt if something large in house breaks yearly. You can't just go out and get a new card every year or can you… haha

[Dalmus]

   My Amazon Prime store card is the only store card I don't "regreat" having.  Besides the 0% financing on larger purchases, every purchase is an automatic 5% credit to your statement.  This makes it better than most of the prime rewards, other than the Category Cards.

  The only other store card that I actually use is JCrew, which only gets used for the occasional purchase of unmentionables.  The ever-growing credit limit amuses me, and I just want to see how high it will go.

  Wayfair, Overstock, HSN etc... are useless, IMHO, if you have "prime" cards with rewards.

  When I buy my next house, or need to make a major appliance purchase, I may consider a Home Depot or similar card for special financing if I don't have any decent BT offers available on my regular cards.

[Anonymous]

There is nothing wrong with getting a Home improvement credit card early, you can let that thing grow just by buying yourself hand tools, or even gifts. Single ladies talking to you. I know it's more rebuilders' experience but it sucks to see stories where people close a house and get $1,000 limit when finally ready to get the ball rolling.

[EAJuggalo]

I have a Target Debit and Kwik Trip debit.  We were shopping there anyway, when I lived in MInneapolis either my wife or I were at Target about every other day.  Rather than just have that money come out of the debit card we got the Target debit for the 5% and free shipping on online orders.  Kwik Trip is 3 cents back per gallon of fuel and 10% on anything purchased in store, which can be quite a bit with their great prices on some things. 

I have two store cards, Amazon and Victoria's Secret.  I get coupons quite a bit for Victoria's Secret that make that worth having, and with our new house we've put almost $700 through Amazon in the last month.

[Anonymous]

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@dragontears wrote:
In my opinion, the only reason to have a store card is if it is a place you shop at and it offers good discount/coupons or special financing. Otherwise you will be wasting money by buying stuff you normally wouldn't just to keep it active

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Agreed!! This is why I have a VS and Williams Sonoma cc. I shop at these stores ALL of the time and definitely benefit from the coupons, rewards and special access to sales. I have the Walmart store card and it's basically useless... even with the 3-2-1 (cash back/statement credit) rewards. I shop at Walmart but not enough to get a real benefit. This was one of the cards I signed up for early in my rebuilding phase so I'm keeping it for now.  I use it once a month just to keep it active and to stay in Synchrony's good graces. This card started with an $800 CL and now sits at $6k. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
It depends on what kind of consumer and Shopper you are. If you give certain places repeat business, youre receiving literature on how to maximize savings already. If it's store card necessary bump it up another 10 bucks a visit then consider it.
Home Improvement I can see going both ways. My draw is the differred financing. If you have excellent credit you can run out and get a new credit card with 0% introduction rate.
However that bite you in the butt if something large in house breaks yearly. You can't just go out and get a new card every year or can you… haha

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I'm there are some folks here who do... lol...

[Anonymous]

My area floods a lot so having a Lowes card is like having a credit insurance policy if you will. As a home owner I do shop at Lowes, but nowhere near enough to have a Lowes card. As a home owner with a house that has flooded...twice, Having a Lowes card is something I hope I'll never need, but it will be nice to have 5% off of a future $50K worth of purchases if it does happen again.

[Anonymous]

I personally have no need for them. I don't have a family and thus don't make any big purchases where I'd need the 0 percent financing. Nor do I shop at any one store that much. I prefer to earn miles and cash back.

[CreditDunce]

Store cards are mostly popular around here for rebuilders.  In moderation, they can help someone rebuilding.  It isn't really bad or good to have store cards, but it can clutter your credit report. Store cards should not be used for credit anchor cards.  Stores go out of business all of the time.  If your oldest card is a store card and it goes out of business, you just lost your oldest card.  You really want no AF cards from banks for your anchor cards.   The other negative is it can hurt your auto/home insurance score. Although, I don't think having a couple of store cards will do much damage, it could cause you to pay slightly higher rates.

Once you have good credit, the only reason to have store cards is if the benefits/perks are better than your other options.  My two store cards are stores: 1) I shop at and 2) both have 5% off (Lowes and Target).   I know I could work the gift card option for a bigger discount, but gift cards are too much work for me.   If you have good credit and PIF, util padding isn't needed. 

Here is the thread I book marked when I was considering which(if), store cards I would apply for.  It gives you an idea of some of the perks available on different store cards. 

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Store-Card-Perk-List/td-p/2459079/highlight/true

Note: it is from 2013.

[Chris679]

I have been anti store card for years for all the reasons mentioned already. However, a couple people at work have been talking up the Kohls card and the massive discount coupons you get in addition to the Kohls cash you get for each purchase. Plus it's like a 30% discount when you open the card. I might have to jump on it. Whole point of good credit is to save you money I always say.