topic Re: Credit Cards - How many to have? in Credit Cards

Credit Cards - How many to have?

tufa4311 — Sun, 31 May 2015 22:44:22 GMT

Basically that's my question - how many credit cards is the right number to have? I know that this depends on a number of factors and I'd like to know what those factors are so I can make that decision.

My current:

AMEX Corp (which doesn't matter as it doesn't report on my CR)

AMEX Blue

GAP Visa

Wells Fargo Visa

CapOne Mastercard

Barclaycard Mastecard

Discover IT

Patelco Visa Paltinum (credit union)

I think I have 3 premium cards here (AMEX Blue, BarclayCard MC, Discover IT) - correct?

If I were to apply for another I'd only do it with anohter premium card.

And lastly, if I should have anohter which whold it be?

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

Anonymous — Sun, 31 May 2015 17:06:30 GMT

Seven is the correct number.

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

Anonymous — Sun, 31 May 2015 17:07:06 GMT

How many cards you have depends on your needs and what you consider prime may not be prime to others. And to answer this question...

And lastly, if I should have anohter which whold it be?

That is like asking someone do I need oxygen... What your other card should be is entirely up to you and your need. What are your spending habits? Is it is need or a want etc...

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

Anonymous — Sun, 31 May 2015 17:09:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Seven is the correct number.

DANG!!! I have 6 cards to close up!

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

CarbonCard — Sun, 31 May 2015 17:13:06 GMT

@tufa4311 wrote:
Basically that's my question - how many credit cards is the right number to have? I know that this depends on a number of factors and I'd like to know what those factors are so I can make that decision.

My current:

AMEX Corp (which doesn't matter as it doesn't report on my CR)
AMEX Blue
GAP Visa
Wells Fargo Visa
CapOne Mastercard
Barclaycard Mastecard
Discover IT
Patelco Visa Paltinum (credit union)

I think I have 3 premium cards here (AMEX Blue, BarclayCard MC, Discover IT) - correct?
If I were to apply for another I'd only do it with anohter premium card.

And lastly, if I should have anohter which whold it be?

Some people may disagree with this--As much as you can handle really. If you want to go big like CreditAddict, go ahead and knock yourself out.

If you hate micromanaging then 7 like what CAPTOOL said works great.

As far as what card you should have for your next one, I second Yes.. There's just too many factors..But if I have to pick for you, I think Sallie Mae WMC is a start (for low spenders).

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

tufa4311 — Sun, 31 May 2015 19:31:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
And lastly, if I should have anohter which whold it be?

That is like asking someone do I need oxygen... What your other card should be is entirely up to you and your need. What are your spending habits? Is it is need or a want etc...

Actually, do I need oxygen is a yes/no question thus has no similarity to my question. I understand what other card is entirely up to me - just as which car I want to buy, when to buy a house, or where to invest my money - however, people have different strenghts in different areas and thus can offer insight based on their experiences that I may not have.

To respond to your specific questions: my spending habits are to use my cards for everyday purchases such as eating out, retail purchases, gas, and other standard services. This is a not a want or a need. I have enough credit for my current lifestyle. That said, that is not the only factor. For example, I would have enough credit in one credit card with a limit of 50K however limiting myself to only one credit card would not lend itself to maximizing my credit score thus one card would not be enough. Since we know one card is not enough we then need to determine how many cards would be enough, be enough for what you ask? Be enough to maximize my credit score - thus the basis for my question.

With regard to what is and is not a premium card - yes, there will be differing opinions on what may or may not be a premium card which is why I asked the question.Community Boards such as this exist, in part, to access the opinions and suggestions of others. I am looking for individual opinions here - perhaps clarifying the question would assist you - what is a premium card to You, list a few out.

If you require any further information to provide a response please let me know.

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

toi34 — Sun, 31 May 2015 19:18:37 GMT

@CarbonCard wrote:
@tufa4311 wrote:
Basically that's my question - how many credit cards is the right number to have? I know that this depends on a number of factors and I'd like to know what those factors are so I can make that decision.

My current:

AMEX Corp (which doesn't matter as it doesn't report on my CR)
AMEX Blue
GAP Visa
Wells Fargo Visa
CapOne Mastercard
Barclaycard Mastecard
Discover IT
Patelco Visa Paltinum (credit union)

I think I have 3 premium cards here (AMEX Blue, BarclayCard MC, Discover IT) - correct?
If I were to apply for another I'd only do it with anohter premium card.

And lastly, if I should have anohter which whold it be?

Some people may disagree with this--As much as you can handle really. If you want to go big like CreditAddict, go ahead and knock yourself out.
If you hate micromanaging then 7 like what CAPTOOL said works great.

As far as what card you should have for your next one, I second Yes.. There's just too many factors..But if I have to pick for you, I think Sallie Mae WMC is a start (for low spenders).

...that guy is a crack-up...I can't wait for him to chime in on this post! I think he gives Ron1 a run for his money -- I believe they both have upwards of 100+ cards!

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

Anonymous — Sun, 31 May 2015 19:27:07 GMT

It is believed that 3 cards is enough to maximize score (to avoid too few/too many cards with balance(

You probably want at least two issuers and at least two networks, which can be accomadated in three cards.

Anything else depends on goals (cashback, travel etc) and spending patterns

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

tufa4311 — Sun, 31 May 2015 19:29:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It is believed that 3 cards is enough to maximize score (to avoid too few/too many cards with balance(

You probably want at least two issuers and at least two networks, which can be accomadated in three cards.

Anything else depends on goals (cashback, travel etc) and spending patterns

Please expand - issuers/networks? What specifically are these and what are the differences between the two?

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

SirAlphonse — Sun, 31 May 2015 19:45:02 GMT

@tufa4311 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
It is believed that 3 cards is enough to maximize score (to avoid too few/too many cards with balance(

You probably want at least two issuers and at least two networks, which can be accomadated in three cards.

Anything else depends on goals (cashback, travel etc) and spending patterns
Please expand - issuers/networks? What specifically are these and what are the differences between the two?

The issuer is the bank/creditunion who issues the card for example Chase, Bank of America.

The network is who handle the processing of the credit card transactions, they act as gateway between merchants and credit company. For Example Visa, MasterCard, American Express

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

Anonymous — Sun, 31 May 2015 19:48:10 GMT

@SirAlphonse wrote:
@tufa4311 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
It is believed that 3 cards is enough to maximize score (to avoid too few/too many cards with balance(

You probably want at least two issuers and at least two networks, which can be accomadated in three cards.

Anything else depends on goals (cashback, travel etc) and spending patterns
Please expand - issuers/networks? What specifically are these and what are the differences between the two?
The issuer is the bank/creditunion who issues the card for example Chase, Bank of America.

The network is who handle the processing of the credit card transactions, they act as gateway between merchants and credit company. For Example Visa, MasterCard, American Express

Right. Ideally, you need both types of diversity. If all your cards are from one bank, you could find all your cards frozen or closed because of some issue (either correctly or otherwise). On networks, a handful of places will accept only one (e.g. Costco moving to VIsa) and also protects against network communication issues, when your merchant cannot connect to Visa for example.

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

Anonymous — Sun, 31 May 2015 20:15:53 GMT

Correction, 8 cards is the ideal number.

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

Bman70 — Sun, 31 May 2015 20:23:47 GMT

"A Gallup survey conducted in April 2014 found that the average number of credit cards Americans say they carry is at an all-time low. According to the Gallup survey, the average number of cards owned by all Americans -- including those with no credit cards -- is 2.6. Among Americans with credit cards, the average number of cards owned is 3.7. The percentage of Americans who have no credit cards rose to 29 percent in 2014, up from 22 percent in 2008.

Among the other 2014 findings:

33 percent had one to two cards.
18 percent had three to four cards.
9 percent had five to six cards.
7 percent had seven or more cards."

hmm so I guess Myfico members fall somewhere below 7%.

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

Anonymous — Sun, 31 May 2015 20:26:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Correction, 8 cards is the ideal number.

Congrats on the Freedom!

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

Themanwhocan — Sun, 31 May 2015 21:13:50 GMT

When you want to build credit, you should consider both obtaining only quality cards (those that provide the best cash back for you, or the lowest APR if you carry balances, or the best travel points, whatever is best for you). But, you also need to consider if you want to obtain a lot of cards, in order to add stability to your credit.

You can certainly build a good credit score with just one card. But, years from now when you want or need another card or loan, your Average Age of Accounts will be halved by just adding one more card (or mortgage, or car loan, etc). I currently have 11 open and 3 closed credit cards on my credit reports. If I apply for a new card, it barely dents my AAoA. And there are always good reasons to open another card (better cash back, great sign up bonus, very low APR, etc). So, once you have a few cards with some age to them, are you actually planning to USE your future good credit to benefit you? Will you apply for a morgage, car loans, and additional cards? Do you mind that this will lower your AAoA and thus affect your credit? If so, you need a bunch of cards.

The next thing is, you don't want a bunch of low quality cards. Ideally you want Premium Bankcard Accounts (cards issued by Banks, with $10,000 credit limits or higher). You're not going to start off with those limits, but start building a group of quality cards that benefit you and are mostly issued by banks, and work on geting the credit limits increased with usage over time.

If you're interested in cash back cards, click on a card in my signature, that will take you to a thread that contains a bunch of spreadsheets I created. You should be able to find some good cash back cards in there for the categories you spend in, and the amounts you typically spend.

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

kdm31091 — Sun, 31 May 2015 22:30:26 GMT

It's a personal preference. You can have less than 7 and have a great credit score. Really you don't "need" more than 3 for that purpose. That being said, you have to find your comfort zone for your spend and how many cards are justified reward wise -- it can be annoying to spread yourself too thin with spend across many cards because you end up with tiny amounts of rewards that are not really useable (or you have to wait a loooong time to redeem).

As with anything else in life what works for one won't necessarily work for the other. Some members here have 20+ cards and love it. To me, I am not interested in managing that many cards because it's too much time and hassle for too little benefit in my perspective. That's why I have 4. I like it this way. But it depends on your wants and needs.

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

tufa4311 — Sun, 31 May 2015 22:53:44 GMT

@Themanwhocan wrote:
When you want to build credit, you should consider both obtaining only quality cards (those that provide the best cash back for you, or the lowest APR if you carry balances, or the best travel points, whatever is best for you). But, you also need to consider if you want to obtain a lot of cards, in order to add stability to your credit.

You can certainly build a good credit score with just one card. But, years from now when you want or need another card or loan, your Average Age of Accounts will be halved by just adding one more card (or mortgage, or car loan, etc). I currently have 11 open and 3 closed credit cards on my credit reports. If I apply for a new card, it barely dents my AAoA. And there are always good reasons to open another card (better cash back, great sign up bonus, very low APR, etc). So, once you have a few cards with some age to them, are you actually planning to USE your future good credit to benefit you? Will you apply for a morgage, car loans, and additional cards? Do you mind that this will lower your AAoA and thus affect your credit? If so, you need a bunch of cards.

The next thing is, you don't want a bunch of low quality cards. Ideally you want Premium Bankcard Accounts (cards issued by Banks, with $10,000 credit limits or higher). You're not going to start off with those limits, but start building a group of quality cards that benefit you and are mostly issued by banks, and work on geting the credit limits increased with usage over time.

If you're interested in cash back cards, click on a card in my signature, that will take you to a thread that contains a bunch of spreadsheets I created. You should be able to find some good cash back cards in there for the categories you spend in, and the amounts you typically spend.

Great response as it offered a number of question I had not considered.

First, if I want more cards I should do it now as, yes, it will hurt my AAoA more down the line.

Next, yes, I use all my cards on a revolving basis - this month it's card X, next month card Y just to give all use but not to have more than one card reporting.

A mortgage and auto loan are for sure in the relatively near future.

My average DL is 6K with only one at 10K and another at 9K. I have noticed that a couple of the new cards go straight to 9 or 10K while my older cards are much less I assume becuase when I just started out with U.S. credit they started me very low and it takes longer to climb up but now that my credit is pretty good the new ones start me off at 9 or 10K.

Lastly, you hit on what I was asking regarding the premium - at least I got an opinion on what those cards are - not necassarly any one name, but rather ones from banks and I assume credit unions as well. I always here about Barclay and Discover and I have those two as well.

Thanks, this reply helped most (but thank you to most of the other guys/gales as well, you also helped!).

I think I'd like one or two more premium cards and will stick at that.

Re: Credit Cards - How many too have?

Anonymous — Sun, 31 May 2015 23:08:21 GMT

Dude...everyone knows it's 30!

Re: Credit Cards - How many to have?

alkaline — Sun, 31 May 2015 23:20:09 GMT

My master plan is to have one card from each major network (VISA, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover). I just converted my Citi ThankYou Preferred to the Double Cash which is MasterCard so I've met this goal.

My next step is to have the limits on each of my cards raised up to $25,000. In the middle of June I'll be able to request my next CLI on my AMEX which I hope will give me the $25,000 I want. Once a card hits $25,000 my next step will be to lower the APR on it as much as I can (just for fun... I pay in full). Then I'll be done!

Re: Credit Cards - How many to have?

Anonymous — Sun, 31 May 2015 23:23:27 GMT

Currently have 7 personal cards. Working my way up to 9, once Chase meets someone more stubborn than them and Discover offers me a credit line.