That's great that you gave pause when offered to keep the credit card. Knowing your own limitations and patterns is extremely important. What you may want to do is become an authorized user of the card but not have physical access to the card or know the details of the card. Then, when an emergency does come up a payment can be made using the card and you could help yourself build a little credit along the way. That's what my wife and I are doing with her credit card. I hope I have that worded right - I just know that I won't have physical access to a card at all, let alone long enough to memorize the numbers on the front and back. I'm really bad about that.