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Hey all,
The announced death of my beloved SM card has really got me thinking about closing out some cards to reduce redundant cards, etc. I'm probably being too conservative on this go round, and I am sentimentally attached to certain cards (NFCU Flagship).
Once SM sunsets officially, I'll have groceries covered with BCP, our Neighborhood Walmarts code correctly to get the 6%. Gas purchases I'll drop to 3% (BCP) outside of the times Discover & Freedom aren't 5%. I am strongly considering a PenFed card for gas, but likely waiting until after this summer for home buying and getting some balances further paid down. No loss with Amazon as I have the Synchrony Amazon Prime Card plus Freedom/Discover occasionally bumping Amazon to 5%.
Here's what I have currently and my thoughts:
AMEX BCP - keeping for grocery spend, although have recently considered rolling this limit into ED and PCing ED into EDP...
AMEX ED - keeping for MR stash, snagged a 100k Plat bonus in 2015
AMEX SimplyCash - keeping, primary small business card
BOA Platinum Plus MC - very strongly leaning toward closing once the BT is paid off, signed up for a 21 month 0% BT. Haven't looked too much into PCing once BT is done, saw this as a single use BT card and close once paid off.
Barclay Sallie Mae - would like to keep open but can't really find anything in Barclay's portfolio I'd use or that's even remotely useful. The crazy part is this card recently got a decent auto-CLI when I was worried about it receiving AA, due to another card having a large balance that's now been paid off.
Cap1 Quicksilver WMC - keeping, even though it's only 1.5% it's nice having the large available credit and it's my oldest revolver
Chase AARP - very strongly leaning toward closing and rolling into Marriott. I have NFCU's GO REWARDS which is also 3% dining and NFCU is much easier to get CLIs. waiting for this card to report to 3 bureaus it's at a $0 balance then SMing Chase...
Chase Freedom - keeping for 5% rotating categories
Chase Marriott - keeping for the "free" room every year, it's worth the annual fee to us
Chase UnitedMileage Plus - keeping for now, we've flown United enough to at least break even on the AF. 1 round trip a year covers the AF in baggage fees, plus I don't have to take those pesky surveys to keep my miles from disappearing, club passes, priority boarding, etc.
Citi Double Cash - keeping, might eventually roll the Hilton line into this card, don't like the idea of HPs to combine...
Citi Hilton HHonors - using this card as a secondary business card, even though it's a personal card, good to have a non-AMEX for places that won't take AMEX
Discover NHL It - keeping for rotating categories
NFCU cashRewards - keeping, we mostly use this for BTs when NFCU rolls out their annual 0% BTs, thought about PCing to NFCU Platinum for a chance at a lower rate
NFCU Flagship - keeping, this card really seems redundant especially with it having an annual fee and now having a free 2.5% card (USAA Limitless) and another 2% Citi DC. The large CL on this card justifies its existence. If I could roll the 12.5k of my GO REWARDS into this card, I'd PC it to GO REWARDS and close the Go, but NFCU hasn't done that in a while...
NFCU GO REWARDS - keeping, originally got this card for another BT offer, but I've got the CL line high enough on this card to justify nuking my Chase AARP card. also see above
USAA Limitless - definitely keeping. newest card, but 2.5% cashback w/o an annual fee = no brainer. I wish USAA would let us combine cards (see below)
USAA Rewards - strong candidate to chop. this is a 1% card, got it for a nice BT offer a while back with a sign-up bonus. Will more than likely close this card soon especially since USAA hasn't for a long time allowed moving CLs between cards Not a huge loss as this card is only $8k
Sync Amazon Prime - keeping for sure now that SM is going bye-bye
Wife's Cards:
AMEX ED - also keeping for MR stash, huge CL, plus she snagged a 50k PRG sign up bonus a couple years ago
Chase Freedom - closing once BT is paid off, rolling into IHG. I thought we'd need 2 Freedom cards between us, but now we rarely max 1 quarterly spend/year
Chase IHG - keeping another huge CL, the AF is well justified by the yearly "free" room. Awesome CL for her, plus another 5k rolling into soon from her Freedom card
Citi Best Buy - keeping, old tradeline and decent SL. We use for the occasional 0% financing offer at Best Buy
TL;DR Chopping: BOA once BT is done, Barclay SM (unless I can find something in their line up), Chase AARP (as soon as it posts to the bureaus its paid off) and rolling into my Marriott card, Wife's Freedom and rolling into her IHG, USAA Rewards eventually.
Thoughts?
Oz
If the goal is really to simplify, I think you need to close more....you're keeping most of them. lol
It sounds like you know your stuff and the pros and cons of closing each card; my advice is not to overthink it. If the card isn't serving a real purpose just close it. These may seem like huge decisions, but with a long established portfolio, it's really not a big deal. Just do what feels right.
I definitely think closing down some cards and simplifying is a good idea. I don't think you have to close everything all at once. Just start a little bit at a time. That being said, have you looked to see if your BOA card can be PC'd into the BBR?