You can play the "game" in a fairly safe manner - Get a no-annual fee credit card. Put it in your sock drawer. Take it out every 6-12 months and buy lunch with

You can play the "game" in a fairly safe manner - Get a no-annual fee credit card. Put it in your sock drawer. Take it out every 6-12 months and buy lunch with it. When you get home put card back in sock drawer and RIGHT AWAY pay off the amount you had for lunch on your bill. (You almost always can make payments on a zero balance. Citi was kinda weird about it but I make payments over my balance all the time and only Citi gave me a "can't pay over 20% of your balance"). Just having the card and not using it "counts" in your score. The lunch is just to keep the bank from marking your card as inactive and cancelling it. If you feel you will be tempted to use it to increase your overall spending - then by all means avoid it.