Tons of cards

[babymixer]

Sometimes I'm amazed at the amount of cards some posters have.  I have 3 that I manage.  BofA Cash rewards, Citi Diamond Preferred and Capital One Cash Rewards.  These 3 seem plenty for me. 

Hats off to you guys with 5 or more.

How do you do it?  Is it a utilization thing?  If so, then why not just get CLI's?  hmmm...

[Brian_Trying_700]

Call me crazy. Keep your balances low under the 10% utilization. I like to mix my cards for the rewards and promo;s.= savings. 

[daybreakgonesXe]

Sometimes it's nice to just apply for a card and not have to "work" for a CLI especially since more often than not CLI will often give you so and so amount. Sometimes applying for a new card gives you a huge line you could never have dreamed of through CLI!

Also, applying for new cards often means new rewards and offers! That's a top reason!

Plus, having a comfortable number of credit cards shows a creditor down the road that "hey, they have a few cards and can manage them well; why not one more?!"

Personally, I'd like to stay between 4 and 6 open cards at a time. I'm one of those obsessed credit score geeks that one day I would like to see a perfect credit score. From reading articles, having 4-6 revolving accounts and at least 1 installment account seems to be the co-requirements. It is not set in stone, but an average consensus.

So do what feels comfortable for you! You never know, some day down the line you may find a really good offer and take the jump!

[distantarray]

if used correctly you can get 5-6.25% worth of points or in cash back for almost any purchase.... plus the sign on bonuses so why not? =)

US Bank Cash+

US Bank FlexPerks

Amex Blue Cash Preferred

Chase Freedom

Chase Sapphire

Discover More

Citi Forward

Citi Dividend

Covers almost everything you could possibly want or need. Then things like Amex Platinum for frequent fliers are pretty much a must imo, or a starwood card by Amex for hotels. In the end if you can handle it, it's quite easy with apps like Mint. Also keeping a diverse profile can help with a lot of things, like Chase likes to see 2-3 cards with high limits before they issue you one, but ymmv.

[HiLine]

I only have four cards right now, but I'm working towards an ideal portfolio of about 5-7 cards. Anything beyond this is too hard to manage IMO. Some creditors close your accounts after a certain period of inactivity, and of course you never want to miss payment. I also only want to carry 2-3 CC's at most in my wallet.

[GoldenloveNY]

I have three so far, but looking into getting three more next year. Amex Zync has become my "it" card with Discover for rotating categories. I have a notebook that at the end of the day, I write the charges I put in my cards. That way, I can keep track of my spending. At the end of the day, there is no right number of cards to have. If you can handle 10 cards, then good for you. Everyone is different. You have to analyze your spending and get the cards that give you savings based upon your spending route. Make a "combo" and stick with it.

[bs6054]

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@HiLine wrote:

I only have four cards right now, but I'm working towards an ideal portfolio of about 5-7 cards. Anything beyond this is too hard to manage IMO. Some creditors close your accounts after a certain period of inactivity, and of course you never want to miss payment. I also only want to carry 2-3 CC's at most in my wallet.

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I use autopay to avoid missing payments.  I know some don't like it because if there is an error the money is gone and you need to fight to get it back, but I haven't had issues.  (Setting up autopay can be very easy or rather challenging, trying to do it today for my new US Bank Cash Plus card, and it wants to know which day of the month I want to pay, before I know the statement date.  Guess I have to wait for the first statement...)

I think most people with LOTS of cards aren't actively using them all, probably somewhere between 5 and 10.  

I'm sure some are more compulsive though, which then raises questions of bang for the buck.  And I am as guilty of this as anyone.   For example, as my "not covered by anything else" card, I have the Fidelity Amex which gives back 2%.   But not everyone takes Amex.  So the other day, when the store didn't take the Amex, my wife used a Visa card that gave 1% back, when she SHOULD have used one that gives 1.25%!!  The horror.  Then, calmer thought prevailed, the purchase was $30, so we "lost" just under 23 cents.   Yes, it all adds up, but VERY slowly!

Edit: 23 cents is what we lost because the store didn't take Amex.  The difference between the 1 and 1.25 card is 8 cents

[youngandcreditwrthy]

Yeah... I use mine for rewards and 0% offers. Most of mine are from building and managing effectively. I use maybe three or four regularly. I pif Amex& Wmt Discvr. I love getting rewards: free hotel stays, free meals, free cash, 0% credit. Lol util is also a huge factor. I know how much debt I can afford reasonably. 80% of my debt is at 0%. I use those high limit GE cards sparingly just to keep em active and reporting! The fact is that the more positive reporting accts you have, the better your score is!

[youngandcreditwrthy]

Ugh! I hate when people don't accept Amex! Grrr

[Walt_K]

Also, a lot of cards will let you set up alerts.  So couple autopayment with an e-mail alert if more than $1 is ever charged to your account for those accounts that you are not actively using.