Cash-Back Rewards Are King of the Mountain.

Cash-back rewards are king among credit card holders, according to a survey by CardRatings.com. Some 72% of respondents report they have a cash-back rewards credit card. Store credit cards (owned by 38% of those surveyed) are a distant second in popularity.

Cash-back rewards cards are popular in all regions, but significantly more so in the Northeast than in the West, as 76% of Northeast survey respondents say they have a cash-back rewards card, compared to 68% in the western part of the country.

One counterintuitive survey finding: despite public and media attention on travel rewards cards, they are not very popular among survey participants. Overall, only 17% of respondents have one. It was not much higher regionally; the South ranks the highest with 19% of respondents owning a travel rewards card.

The survey finds little difference between the number of cards held by men and women, with both...