store credit cards aren't always bad ...

sometimes, i spend a lot of time in my head justifying the cards that i have. normally, my pattern is as such:

• i keep all of my gas/dining/grocery/entertainment expenses on my scotiabank gold american express card for the 4% cash back return. 
• i keep all of my non-amex purchases, or non-gas/dining/grocery/entertainment expenses on my MBNA card for the 2% cash back return. (no longer available)
• i keep all of my foreign transactions on my sears financial mastercard for the 1% back in sears purchases and 0% foreign exchange fees.

given the decline of sears and all of the store closures, and how hard it was to redeem points without physical stores, i was contemplating switching to the amazon.ca rewards visa also offered by chase. like the sears card, it also has no foreign exchange fees, offers 1% cash back, and 2% cash back on amazon.ca purchases.

but there's something to be said about store credit cards and how helpful they can be. i was walking through sears today (it's right beside my work). it's one of the numerous stores closing down. everything was outlet pricing in an attempt to clear out the store. and on top of that, there was an additional 10% off if you were a sears card holder.

sears certainly isn't the only one to give a discount when using their credit card in store.

• target's red card gives you back 5% on target purchases when it's linked to any debit card.
• hbc financial's mastercard gives you bonus points for purchases, but it's not uncommon to have 10% savings especially for hbc card holders
• note: typically $1 spent on the card = 2 point, and 40 points = 1 air mile if you choose to redeem for airmiles, 2,000 points = $10 hbc gift cards. this works out to about a 1% return
• macy's credit card in america offers star rewards. the more you spend per year at macy's, the more you spend, the more mailings and 25% off vouchers you get per year. however, it feels like every weekend i'm there, they have an additional 10% off for macy's credit card holders.
• in seattle, they readily allow canadians to apply, most likely because of all of the traffic from vancouver. this works best if you make a purchase, get the discount, and before even leaving the till, pay off the credit card with american cash.
• banana republic, the gap, nordstrom's and many more all have similar cards but are not open to canadians.

so this is all to say that sometimes, focusing on that 4% return from amex is not the best deal. sometimes, paying via debit or store credit is worth thinking about too. in the end, if you can save 10% off in store on top of other discounts, that surely outweighs the 2-4% return you get from your regular credit cards. and i have yet to find any mileage based reward card that would offer a 10% return on spendings.

sears financial gets to stay in my wallet just a little while longer. at least until the store that's right beside my workplace closes its doors for good.