topic Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ?? in Credit Cards

(Too many) Credit Cards ??

jawbrkr — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 00:04:00 GMT

So I have this question. I see that many people in these forums carry a lot of credit cards. I have seen people say they carry as many as 60 (Perhaps an exaggeration). My question is, do people really use them all? I mean, at what point does a credit card company say this guy is not using such and such card so we need to close the account if a card is not being used?

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

Pway — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 23:49:49 GMT

Yes they use them. They do not use them all at once, however, it depends on the lender to close of inactivity. We try to put something on them like a piece of gum at the gas station or something small to keep them active.

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

kdm31091 — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 23:52:30 GMT

It's preference. Some people like having a ton of cards for various rewards. To me, having too many vs your income/spend is counterproductive because you end up with tiny amounts of rewards scattered on several cards that take a long time to build up to anything meaningful. I myself am not comfortable with more than 4-6 cards. But it depends on the person.

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 23:54:25 GMT

oh i love this question ..

lot of people use different cc... some just collect them.

in my case i have just about what i need for my purchases and uti purposes.

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

jawbrkr — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 00:05:50 GMT

Honestly, I cant see myself ever carrying more than 5 or 6 cards. I just dont have the wallet space lol.

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 00:36:41 GMT

I only carry my double cash and Sallie Mae everywhere. Others come with me for specific errands or events where relevant and stay home otherwise.

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

CreditCuriosity — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 00:43:44 GMT

Keep 4 cards in my wallet.. Most cards I have serve or have served some purpose with the exception of two.. A dupicate QS that is going to be chopped this year and one other one I just got for a big limit by SP CLI's.

Ideally I would only have 3-5, but just not doable with what I need atm.. Unless they gave me 30k CL's each them I could suffer some rewards loss.. Got to get my scores near the 800's to make my 3-5 card 30k CL's a reality though.

To many cards it is hard to earn any meaningful rewards as another poster stated unless you are a churner

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

Booboo71 — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 00:49:01 GMT

@jawbrkr wrote:
Honestly, I cant see myself ever carrying more than 5 or 6 cards just dont have. the the wallet space lol.

Thats why there is tupperware containers!

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

toothgrind3r — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 00:55:43 GMT

I hope to one day narrow mine down to 4 (Visa, MC, Discover, Amex)

Off topic, OP, is your name in ref to the band Jawbreaker?

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

icyhot — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 01:48:27 GMT

I have more than I ever thought I'd have in my lifetime. And I use all of them. My mistake was opening so many just to open them and then having no use for them, so I closed them soon after. You really have to evaluate your needs and spending to see what cards make sense for you. Of course there are the rewards hunters and churners, but they're a small breed

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 01:54:06 GMT

@jawbrkr wrote:
Honestly, I cant see myself ever carrying more than 5 or 6 cards. I just dont have the wallet space lol.

Wallets are cheap. Buy a bigger one.

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 02:39:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@jawbrkr wrote:
Honestly, I cant see myself ever carrying more than 5 or 6 cards. I just dont have the wallet space lol.
Wallets are cheap. Buy a bigger one.

I was going to say it but you beat me to it!

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

Man-Of-Steel — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 02:45:50 GMT

@icyhot wrote:
I have more than I ever thought I'd have in my lifetime. And I use all of them. My mistake was opening so many just to open them and then having no use for them, so I closed them soon after. You really have to evaluate your needs and spending to see what cards make sense for you. Of course there are the rewards hunters and churners, but they're a small breed

I thought most of us are rewards hunters here on this forum.

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 02:51:40 GMT

@Man-Of-Steel wrote:
@icyhot wrote:
I have more than I ever thought I'd have in my lifetime. And I use all of them. My mistake was opening so many just to open them and then having no use for them, so I closed them soon after. You really have to evaluate your needs and spending to see what cards make sense for you. Of course there are the rewards hunters and churners, but they're a small breed
I thought most of us are rewards hunters here on this forum.

I guess there are reward hunters and reward hunters! If you get excited about the $25 per quarter from BBR for example, you are, um, the former.

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

Man-Of-Steel — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 02:54:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Man-Of-Steel wrote:
@icyhot wrote:
I have more than I ever thought I'd have in my lifetime. And I use all of them. My mistake was opening so many just to open them and then having no use for them, so I closed them soon after. You really have to evaluate your needs and spending to see what cards make sense for you. Of course there are the rewards hunters and churners, but they're a small breed
I thought most of us are rewards hunters here on this forum.
I guess there are reward hunters and reward hunters! If you get excited about the $25 per quarter from BBR for example, you are, um, the former.

LOL

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

peaceonearth — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 03:44:23 GMT

@jawbrkr wrote:
So I have this question. I see that many people in these forums carry a lot of credit cards. I have seen people say they carry as many as 60 (Perhaps an exaggeration). My question is, do people really use them all? I mean, at what point does a credit card company say this guy is not using such and such card so we need to close the account if a card is not being used?

This reminded me of a guy a few years ago, when I worked as a biomedical engineer for one of the biggest medical scanners manufacturer, we refurbished CT & MRI scanners; the guy used to paint the scanners for us.

On his spare time he would go to Napster and imish and leech all kind of Softwares that he never needed or had use for. Just downloading and collecting Software all day along...

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

CaSHMeRe — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 03:49:13 GMT

@jawbrkr wrote:
So I have this question. I see that many people in these forums carry a lot of credit cards. I have seen people say they carry as many as 60 (Perhaps an exaggeration). My question is, do people really use them all? I mean, at what point does a credit card company say this guy is not using such and such card so we need to close the account if a card is not being used?

I don't use them all, then again ~ I think I have a total of 6? Wife has a few others that don't get used. Outside of Wells Fargo shutting down one of my wife's smaller CL cards last year, none of the cards we don't use ever get cancelled. My wife has a CapOne card from 10 years ago that she hasn't used in 9 ... Its an awesome trade line, and we have no plans to shut it down

If you fear the card closing ... Use it on a single bill/charge once a month and auto pay. Set up each card on something different and go from there.

I prefer finding cards I can see myself keeping for atleast 3-4 years. I don't open, nor plan to open any sort of store cards ... I have no real reason and I don't shop at any particular store enough to take advantage of a 5% or so discount.

YMMV ... I plan to keep 10 or less at any given time. I even shut 2 down this year (BofA Plat & AMEX gold)

EDITED TO ADD: Just counted ~ I have 7 personal, not 6

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

Broke_Triathlete — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 12:42:21 GMT

I have 5 cards and cycle the QS WMC, QS, and Barclays every month so those 3 get used for a solid month every 3rd month. I don't really use the other two that much and thinking about closing them. In the end I may end up with 4-5 prime cards, max. I come no where near my limits currently so no need for another $50K in limits.

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

takeshi74 — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 12:59:39 GMT

@jawbrkr wrote:
I mean, at what point does a credit card company say this guy is not using such and such card so we need to close the account if a card is not being used?

NUmber of cards is a very common topic. It's not about the number of cards itself. Creditors may be concerned about the amount of credit extended to a given credit prilfe but creditors have varying underwriting critieria so they will not all extend the same amount to a given credit profile. Therefore their cutoffs will vary.

Re: (Too many) Credit Cards ??

jawbrkr — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 02:09:21 GMT

@toothgrind3r wrote:
I hope to one day narrow mine down to 4 (Visa, MC, Discover, Amex)

Off topic, OP, is your name in ref to the band Jawbreaker?

Sorry for the late response. But no, not thr band. I was looking for a handle and that one seemed appropriate. For some reason boxing and breaking jaws came to mind..