- When I was in college I got a couple store cards. Like another poster, I remember when they used to give you a gift to apply; I remember getting some drinking glasses, which I used forever. I didn't use those cards (largely 'cause I had no money), so I cancelled them after a while.
- A couple years after we were married, we got a major card together and still have that same account. We get pretty big rewards points from this card, so we use it for pretty much everything. Every. Single. Thing. Pretty much every loaf of bread and every gallon of gas goes on that card. I pay attention to when certain things give us extra rewards for buying this-or-that at certain times of year, so we really rack up some rewards. I just checked my card, and I see that we've made $51 already this year (I did buy new eye glasses /my lenses are not cheap, and we've just had a car repair, so we've had some big expenses already this year.)
- Because our major card is not accepted everywhere, I got another card that's more widely accepted -- but I don't reach for it because the rewards aren't as good.
Having said that, we have only once ever paid interest on a credit card: about 15 years ago we bought a car, and we realized that IF we didn't pay our credit card in full for two months, we could pay cash for the car. We decided that skipping the borrowing stuff for the car was worth paying interest on the credit card for two months -- but I found those two months SO STRESSFUL. I could never do that on a regular basis.
Kohl's tries to get me every time I shop there but I know better than to waste one of my slots to a store card now.
Seriously, Kohl's is a money lending company that happens to have clothes.
