Combine Cards or No?

Anonymous · ‎01-15-2018

Wondering if there is a reason some folks combine their cards with 1 creditor. I have two BofA cards but find myself not really using the benefits of the Travel Rewards card. Thought had crossed my mind about combining the TR ( $6400 limit ) with my Cash Rewards ( $2300 limit ) or perhaps product change from TR to another CR card. I'm not sure if this is even a option with BofA but still a thought. Is there a point I might be missing in keeping it a TR card?

Cheers!

Anonymous · ‎01-15-2018

@Anonymous wrote:
Wondering if there is a reason some folks combine their cards with 1 creditor. I have two BofA cards but find myself not really using the benefits of the Travel Rewards card. Thought had crossed my mind about combining the TR ( $6400 limit ) with my Cash Rewards ( $2300 limit ) or perhaps product change from TR to another CR card. I'm not sure if this is even a option with BofA but still a thought. Is there a point I might be missing in keeping it a TR card?

Cheers!

I think it’s all personal. Some people combine to avoid a fee. Others have no use and combine to get one big limit. Others to have less cards. There is nothing wrong if you just want to keep all your cards. And in the future something may change and you find value in combining.

Anonymous · ‎01-15-2018

Good points. I was trying to think of a good reason to do this. the combing to get a higher limit seems to fit my reasoning seeing that I dont use the TR card enough to really see a value that beats out my SouthWest card. ie flights/hotels. But im also leary of doing this bc I do not want it to look terrible on my CR or with the lender bc I've been with BofA for almost 15 years and planned on going back to them for another card in the future.

FinStar · ‎01-15-2018

@Anonymous wrote:
Wondering if there is a reason some folks combine their cards with 1 creditor. I have two BofA cards but find myself not really using the benefits of the Travel Rewards card. Thought had crossed my mind about combining the TR ( $6400 limit ) with my Cash Rewards ( $2300 limit ) or perhaps product change from TR to another CR card. I'm not sure if this is even a option with BofA but still a thought. Is there a point I might be missing in keeping it a TR card?

Cheers!

Not sure if there's been any recent changes in policy with BoA, but AFAIK "combining" any CCs with them = HP, since they consider a CLI on the card you'd be keeping or reallocating the CL. Are you maxing out on the cash rewards categories? If so, then the option to PC to another Cash Rewards is possible unless you want to keep things simple with one CC.

Anonymous · ‎01-15-2018

@Anonymous wrote:
Good points. I was trying to think of a good reason to do this. the combing to get a higher limit seems to fit my reasoning seeing that I dont use the TR card enough to really see a value that beats out my SouthWest card. ie flights/hotels. But im also leary of doing this bc I do not want it to look terrible on my CR or with the lender bc I've been with BofA for almost 15 years and planned on going back to them for another card in the future.

I don’t think combing cards looks bad to any lenders. The ones that do it offer them for a reason. A computer doesn’t care what that does, most of the approvals are by an algorithm anyways . I wouldn’t worry about any of that affecting what you do. You can combine and if in the future you want to get a card again or another thru the bank they will evaluate you only on your credit, how much you make, and exposure risk they believe you can handle.