My husband and I have lived in a small one-bedroom apartment together for the past five years. When we moved in, we furnished the place with hand-me-down furniture from his parents’ house.
But in the next few months, we’re preparing to move to a two-bedroom apartment. We want to invest in new, quality furniture. As we’ve been shopping around, we’re quickly realizing that buying just the essentials (a couch, mattress, and dresser) will cost a few thousand dollars.
I’m exploring how we could save money on these purchases by opening up a new credit card, so I asked certified financial planner Bobbi Rebell whether it’s a better idea for us to open a store credit card or a rewards credit card.
Consider a store credit card if you’re going to make large purchases
As we’ve been browsing for furniture, we realized that if we make most of our purchases from the same place, opening up a store credit card there could be beneficial.
“Check to see if the store you are considering has any enticing introductory offers that will make your purchase more affordable,” Rebell says. “Sometimes store credit cards come with 0% interest for a given period of time.”
We’ve been considering buying most of our furniture from either Ikea or Pottery Barn. Both cards come with no annual fee and rewards on purchases at the store. The Pottery Barn credit card also works at all seven brands under the store’s umbrella, including West Elm and Williams Sonoma. It offers 10% back during the first 30 days after getting the card.
Store credit cards often notify you when items you are interested in go on sale
I’ve never taken out a store credit card before and felt wary about opening up a new card just for furniture. But Rebell says that if it’s a store I will shop at in the future, there could be other saving benefits down the road.
“Another advantage to a store credit card is that once you are in their system, you will often get notifications about sales on items you might like, based on your purchase history,” she says. “Think of it as one of the positives of all the data retailers keep on us.”
That was helpful to know, especially if we can only afford a handful of items from our furniture list now and want to wait to pick up the others down the road.
Rewards credit cards come with more flexibility and ongoing perks
Despite the perks that store credit cards offer, Rebell says that other credit cards come with more flexibility, especially with how you can use your rewards. With a store credit card, we would have to buy all of our furniture at just that one place to get the perks.
A cash-back credit card can sometimes offer rewards that are just as good. “They also often have higher credit limits and lower interest rates,” she says.
That’s useful, especially if we need more than 12 months to pay off our credit card bills once a store credit card’s 0% APR wears off.
In the end, I decided to skip opening a store credit card. When it comes time to buy furniture, I’ll open a cash-back credit card from a bank instead.
Jen Glantz is the founder of Bridesmaid for Hire, a 3x author, the host of You’re Not Getting Any Younger podcast, and the creator of the Pick-Me-Up and Odd Jobs newsletter. Follow her adventures on instagram: @jenglantz.