What Store Cards are worth getting?

[Anonymous]

It depends on you and your shopping preferences. Amazon card is great if you're a "Prime" member. If you shop at Macy's or Kohls then the one you shop a most. Home improvement cards are great for 0% financing. But it really depends on you. If you live in an apartment and have no plans to buy a home, then the Home improvement cards are worthless. Keep in mind that many store cards are really worthless because they have no or very poor rewards. If you shop at Sam's Club or Walmart their store only cards aren't bad. Look at where you shop, then I the card has real benefits for you. In many cases a AMEX, Discover, MasterCard, or Visa with rewards or cash back makes better sense. I love 0% financing to pay over time for large and/or unexpected purchases. The key is how does the card serve you and fit your shopping habits. 

[Anonymous]

About 99% of my retail dollars go to Amazon and Sam's, so I really don't have any need for any other store cards. I'm pretty boring. Almost every clothing item I wear is from Sam's. It's hard for me to justify buying stuff anywhere else when Amazon/Sam's already have great prices and I'm getting 5% back at Amazon and at least 4% back at Sam's (DC plus the 2% Sam's gives back automatically, though that is capped at $500/yr). More importantly, I hate going to brick and mortar stores if I can help it. I don't have the Sam's card, but I might look into it down the line for a gas and dining card.

I might look into the Lowe's card at some point, but more and more, I'm finding myself making home improvement store type purchases on Amazon too. 

[Anonymous]

Xraygirl... thx. That was really my point. I get that every person will have store cards that they like because they shop there a lot. Maybe I didn't word it right. Basically I was wondering if there are any store cards that are more beneficial than usually a Visa/MasterCard/Amex/Disco instead. I have cash back on every category from 2-5% and usually my UsBank card gives me 5 at retail stores. So I can't find a card that is better than that except you could argue my Amazon Prime Card since it is the same cash back... and you get other benefits like the deferred interest on larger purchases. Plus you add Ebates or places like that and even if you have 1.5 or 2% cash back you add the 1-15% from them and usually it is better than 5%. I found one article online that was anylizing store cards and the only one they liked besides Amazon was Gap/BR/Old Navy because it is 5% off plus so many card member only sale days, fee shipping, you can get upgraded to Visa.

Anyway... just was wondering if any store cards out there are pretty much universally agreed upon that they are good (besides Amazon cuz most think that card is)

Also still wondering if getting one will really help FICO or not. Some says store cards are coded differently and it will add another type of credit. Most things I read say it doesn't matter.

Again... thx for the reply. Merry Christmas!

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Are there any store cards that are worth getting these days with sites like Ebates and Discover Deals? If so which ones? I see a lot of people get Kohl's and Macys. I read about them and they don't look all that great so if you have them please tell me what I am missing. Just trying to figure out what the benefit would be besides for people who are starting out. The one exception I see is Amazon Store Card. The 5% back is about as good as they come. Also... does FICO care if you have any? FICO doesn't know the diff between a $500 Macy's card and a $500 Visa correct?

Thanks all-and Merry Christmas! 🎄🎁 ⛄️ ❄️ 🎄

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IMHO... no, there are none worth getting.

[Revelate]

Store/retail cards do nothing for mix of credit under FICO 8 and don't seem to under FICO 04 either.  FICO NextGen (2001/2003) has reason codes for store cards and they aren't positive but unless PenFed is your one true love ignore it.

Get a store card if it has better rewards for non-trivial spend than a bank card, otherwise there is no reason to.

Amazon / Lowes / Home Depot are reasonable if you spend lines up and there's rewards or a financing offer (0% on home improvement after you spent all your cash on a mortgage does not suck at all) but the majority of store cards aren't worth it in my opinion... especially with the old trick of CLI's now being available with lenders who have better cards than Synchony.

[Anonymous]

Are any store cards worth getting? In my humble opinion yes. I use my Amazon one constantly, I love the 5% and the financing options. Same with Target (I have the debit, but the credit is just as good). I love using the 5%, plus coupons, plus cartwheel. My other fav is Victoria's Secret. I get some decent coupons, and deals, but I also like that I can use it at Bath and Body Works, which is what brings the wonderful smell to my home where a 2 year old child resides and tries to make it smell like crap on a constant basis

[Aprile421]

As far as cash back or perks, I think using a regular credit card is better. BCP gives 3% at department stores, DC is 2% and Discover and Freedom rotate 5% at department stores. If you're looking for a bang for your buck Macy's and Kohl's are good because even though you don't earn cash back you do get a lot of 30% off coupons which in some ways save you more money than you would get cash back wise. I used to like Victoria's Secret because you got triple points 3xs a year plus other little gift cards through out the year. You also earned points with purchase and they would send out a $15 gift card if you earned Angel Forever status, which wasn't hard to do since they had decent clothes I liked. Now that they stopped selling clothes I will be getting rid of them because I have enough under garments and that is mostly what they are selling now. 

I am sure there are other stores that have coupons similar to Macy's and Kohl's and if you are a regular shopper to those stores then yes the store cards can be worth it especially if you order online and use ebates. But other than that I would just use regular cards.

I hope that made sense lol.

[Anonymous]

Hmm guess I am behind on credit times because I always heard to collect the store cards because they're the easiest to get.

Amazon is about the only "store" I use regularly but I can't see the card being wroth it if it's not going to improve my scores much compared to a regular card. The rewards aren't going to amount to much although I probably should shop there more.

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hmm guess I am behind on credit times because I always heard to collect the store cards because they're the easiest to get.

Amazon is about the only "store" I use regularly but I can't see the card being wroth it if it's not going to improve my scores much compared to a regular card. The rewards aren't going to amount to much although I probably should shop there more.

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Store cards are probably going to be easier to get, but the goal isn't (really!) to just collect cards, but to get those that are useful to you in some way.

As I said earlier in the thread, it shouldn't be very different than deciding which cc to get.     There can be a lot of factors going into the decision though.  If I go to a store which gives me 20% off first purchase if I sign up for the card, if I plan to spend a lot this trip, and my credit profile isn't going to be significantly degraded by a new card (with HP), I might take it, even if I don't think I will shop there again.   If on the other hand I need to be careful with my inqs, I might decide I could do better applying for a different card.

[Anonymous]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hmm guess I am behind on credit times because I always heard to collect the store cards because they're the easiest to get.

Amazon is about the only "store" I use regularly but I can't see the card being wroth it if it's not going to improve my scores much compared to a regular card. The rewards aren't going to amount to much although I probably should shop there more.

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Store cards are probably going to be easier to get, but the goal isn't (really!) to just collect cards, but to get those that are useful to you in some way.

As I said earlier in the thread, it shouldn't be very different than deciding which cc to get.     There can be a lot of factors going into the decision though.  If I go to a store which gives me 20% off first purchase if I sign up for the card, if I plan to spend a lot this trip, and my credit profile isn't going to be significantly degraded by a new card (with HP), I might take it, even if I don't think I will shop there again.   If on the other hand I need to be careful with my inqs, I might decide I could do better applying for a different card.

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+1 this - also there are a couple rather significant reasons from a credit perspective why stacking store cards might be counter-productive:

1. Toy Limit Hell - Often when applying for new credit, one of the things a lender will look at to determine a starting line is the amounts of your existing lines.  The easiest way to end up unable to get a limit over $1k is to have 8-10 cards under $1k - store cards usually start there

2. Finance company notation - certain store cards actually show up on your  reports as a "finance company account" - FICO scores those quite differently than standard trade lines, and simply having one on your report can put you in a completely different scoring bucket.