海角大神

A few weeks ago, I had to buy a new belt. My old one was simply on the verge of falling apart and belts are fairly rare items to come across in used clothing shops.

I sometimes will buy a belt from a local department store, but I usually find that something goes wrong with a cheap belt before very long. It will start wearing very quickly, the buckle will bend or break (and bending it back just causes it to repeat again). A belt is one of the few clothing items (along with shoes) that I鈥檓 willing to pay more for to get a good, reliable one that will last for years.

Anyway, my path leads me to a few different chain clothing stores that sell men鈥檚 belts. They were all fairly near each other, so I went to each store and examined the belts, looking for one that I liked. I eventually found one that suited me at J.C. Penney, so I take it up to the customer service desk to buy it.

The lady behind the counter was pleasant and chatty. She told me how much she liked Nancy Sinatra, whose music was playing over the loudspeaker, and made sure I had found just what I was looking for.

Then she dropped the question. 鈥淚f you sign up for a store credit card, you can get 10% off this purchase.鈥�

Now, at best, this option would have saved me a couple dollars on the belt (I don鈥檛 remember the exact purchase price, but it wasn鈥檛 an excessively overpriced belt or anything). Of course, I could have used it as an excuse to buy more items, but that would have meant spending money I didn鈥檛 really need to spend. Even worse, owning such a store credit card has its own drawbacks.

I quickly told her 鈥渘o鈥� and went on my merry way.

So, why didn鈥檛 I jump on this 鈥済reat鈥� opportunity?

Lots of stores will encourage you to sign up for their store credit card. Often, they鈥檒l give you some sort of bonus for doing so, usually in the form of a discount on your current purchase. As I hinted at above, there are several reasons why I don鈥檛 do this.

One, the discount usually isn鈥檛 that much. If you鈥檙e spending $100, a 10% discount only saves you $10. You鈥檒l save more by talking yourself out of just one or two of the items you鈥檙e buying.

Two, the discount can often encourage you to spend more. Let鈥檚 say I鈥檓 spending $200 and that 10% discount is netting me $20. If I look at that as free money, it might convince me to go back to the racks and pick out another item. If I pick out a $22 item, my total goes right back to $200. I鈥檓 not saving anything. All I鈥檓 doing is getting a free item I didn鈥檛 really want 鈥� if I truly wanted it, I would have bought it.

Three, signing up for such a card almost always puts you on a mailing list. You鈥檒l start receiving catalogs and other materials in the mail, as well as potential phone calls from that company.

Four, most such cards do not offer much of a reward after that initial bonus. Programs do vary from store to store, but many stores don鈥檛 offer a significant reward after the sign-up. There鈥檚 not much reason to ever use the card again other than to overspend.

Finally, every card you sign up for is an identity theft risk. It鈥檚 another balance you need to watch and another avenue for disturbing the peace of your credit report.

All of this for a small savings? I鈥檒l pass, and you should, too.

This post is part of a yearlong series called 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),鈥� in which I鈥檓 revisiting the entries from my book 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap,鈥� which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere. Images courtesy of Brittany Lynne Photography, the proprietor of which is my 鈥減hotography intern鈥� for this project.