topic Re: Why So Many? in Credit Cards

Why So Many?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:21:18 GMT

I have been getting ALOT of great information here the past couple days. However one thing bugs me, maybe someone can enlighten me if i am looking at it wrong.

I see lotsa folks with 15 - 20+ creit cards in thier signatures.

Isnt this just overkill? It seems more like it is a game of "how many cards can i get?",

Maybe i am completely missing the point.

Re: Why So Many?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:29:56 GMT

Thanks, just thought I had been doing rebuilding WAYYYYYY wrong.

Re: Why So Many?

AverageJoesCredit — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:37:31 GMT

No, just because someone has 15- 20 credit cards in no way should imply heading for financial trouble. Everyone is different everyone has different needs. Some of us ended up with alot of cards as we were rebuilding and find we CAN manage our cards without having to cancel them and end up building a thick profile. Not all of us chase rewards, not all of us play the game to churn and burn. One must look at what works for your lifestyle and spend and not necessarily worry about what others have or want. If you can make 3 cards work for you, why cant someone make 20 work for them ? Just my average view from someone who does have 15+ cards

Re: Why So Many?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:41:42 GMT

1 to 5 lines of credit hurts your credit score.

The more lines of credit you have the more it helps. I believe it tops out at 21 though.

Just be sure to pace yourself as to not nuke your average age of accounts to the stone age as that will hurt your Credit Score along with all those hard pulls.

I would wager that most people here only use 2-6 cards monthly after the sign up bonuses are depleted anyways. The rest are sock drawered.

Re: Why So Many?

jbsilva21 — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:46:29 GMT

I also do it to build relationships with different lenders/banks. All the credit cards that I have with the exception of Credit Unions I also maintain some kind of deposit account if they have the option for one. I am looking for a lender that I can grow with and eventually just use 5-6 of them for diversity. I transfer money to some of those bank accounts and then make the payments to said credit cards from their own bank except for Amex since it is only a savings account. I mainly use Chase since IMO they have the best bill pay service in the industry. It also allows me to see which banking service is best. As usual everyone is different and YMMV.

Re: Why So Many?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:54:55 GMT

I can understand some of it, but I figure more that say 6 and arent you just essentially doubling up with the same lender? I mean more than one from Chase, Citi, Synchrony, Amex. Why is this preferred over increasing your existing card limit with the same issuer?

Re: Why So Many?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:57:32 GMT

AverageJoe, I didnt mean that it couldnt work, I was trying to determine the benefit of it vs just upping limits on an existing card.
Trying to see the diff in 20 $2500 cards vs 10 $5000 vs 5 $10000 ... Wouldnt you get better aging by just upping limits?

Re: Why So Many?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:21:50 GMT

I'm sure it's different for everyone but these seem to be the primary reasons:

1. More accounts in good standing = higher scores, up to a point. Some people chase high scores, and have multiple cards/trade lines for that purpose.

2. Utilization: more cards = more total credit available, meaning everyday spending doesn't run the utilization up so high to lower one's scores. This is also related to #1 (high score chasing).

3. Rewards chasing: different cards have different rewards for different types of purchases. People will carry multiple cards and pull out the one that gives the best rewards for the money they're spending and where they're spending it.

4. Sign-up bonuses: Much like rewards chasing, but requires opening new cards. There are some deals to be had out there.

5. Ego boosting. Yes, we all have them, and some are "fed" with more cards/higher credit lines.

6. It's a hobby or obsession for some... much like collecting stamps, or cars, etc. Some people collect credit cards. Also related to #5.

7. Building or rebuilding. Related to #1 above, but some of us have come out of a bankruptcy or other credit related issue, or are just starting out with no credit and are working to build their credit. The older cards may be starter/secured cards with low limits, and as scores improve, they apply for better cards, but keep the older ones so that AAoA doesn't take too much of a hit.

The average American (not on MyFICO) generally has 1-3 cards, so the 20+ card jockeys are the exception rather than the rule, overall (though not on this forum). I'm just average myself, on # of cards, and below average on total credit lines, but that was my choice. I'm the opposite of most here, I'm happier with fewer cards since it means fewer bills to pay, fewer due dates to keep track of, etc., and lower limits so I don't overspend.

Re: Why So Many?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:12:57 GMT

Everybody has their reasons but sometimes one may get caught up in this "game" of getting more and more credit cards.

I happened to me. I jumped from 2 cards to 11 in less than a year. Didn't see much advantages in it(if any) and just started to cut back all the way to 6 now. By December it needs to be only 4.

But I am sure most people here with 10+ credit cards know what they are doing. I just didn't.

Re: Why So Many?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:27:33 GMT

For me, it's basically the reasons #1, 2 and 7 that @LowLimits identified, along with a bit of looking for the best rewards (one reason I got the Capital One QS Visa Signature is that it offers $150 rewards back after $500 spending, which is a LOT lower than many other such offers). That being said, I'm actually looking at trimming my card portfolio back a bit over the course of this year into next; I got my new Discover IT at least in part because the one I currently have, I got when my scores were significantly lower and my rebuild was still only just really beginning, At this point, I'm pretty sure it's a "starter"-bucket card, so I went to get a new one with a much better SL ($5000, the old one had a SL half that) that I plan to combine the old card into next year.

The same plan obtains for my Capital One QS MC, which is pretty definitely in my opinion a starter card, as I've not been able to get a CLI since the automatic one last summer which took me to $3500 from $3000. I'm planning to zero it out (and use the rewards) over the next three months or so and then combine it with the QS Visa ($10k) in July. I also plan to close out my old Cap 1 starter secured Platinum MC and get the deposit back to apply to other things. I'm also considering the possibility of closing out my Overstock store card; even though it's currently my third biggest CL, I've only used it a couple of times in the last six months since the category (books/music/movies) that I did most of my shopping there got taken down and shows no signs of being restored (and truthfully, the prices there weren't much lower than Amazon anyway).

I only have one credit card at this point that I'm really interested in getting this year, either the Marvel Mastercard or Paypal Mastercard (both Synchrony), and also considering reinstating my (closed) ex-Bill Me Later account at PayPal Credit, which would be a "hidden" tradeline. So assuming everything happens as described above, I'd probably have only 8-9 cards/tradelines by next spring, which I think would suffice pretty well for me, and most of the inquiries I've taken since summer 2016 will have dropped off or stopped affecting my scores. For late 2019, depending on how things shake out, I might try for an Amex once the 5-year-1-month waiting period post-BK completes, but assuming I get that, that would pretty well, I think, round out my portfolio.

Re: Why So Many?

Adkins — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:32:59 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
@For me, it's basically the reasons #1, 2 and 7 that @Anonymous identified, along with a bit of looking for the best rewards (one reason I got the Capital One QS Visa Signature is that it offers $150 rewards back after $500 spending, which is a LOT lower than many other such offers). That being said, I'm actually looking at trimming my card portfolio back a bit over the course of this year into next; I got my new Discover IT at least in part because the one I currently have, I got when my scores were significantly lower and my rebuild was still only just really beginning, At this point, I'm pretty sure it's a "starter"-bucket card, so I went to get a new one with a much better SL ($5000, the old one had a SL half that) that I plan to combine the old card into next year.

The same plan obtains for my Capital One QS MC, which is pretty definitely in my opinion a starter card, as I've not been able to get a CLI since the automatic one last summer which took me to $3500 from $3000. I'm planning to zero it out (and use the rewards) over the next three months or so and then combine it with the QS Visa ($10k) in July. I also plan to close out my old Cap 1 starter secured Platinum MC and get the deposit back to apply to other things. I'm also considering the possibility of closing out my Overstock store card; even though it's currently my third biggest CL, I've only used it a couple of times in the last six months since the category (books/music/movies) that I did most of my shopping there got taken down and shows no signs of being restored (and truthfully, the prices there weren't much lower than Amazon anyway).

I only have one credit card at this point that I'm really interested in getting this year, either the Marvel Mastercard or Paypal Mastercard (both Synchrony), and also considering reinstating my (closed) ex-Bill Me Later account at PayPal Credit, which would be a "hidden" tradeline. So assuming everything happens as described above, I'd probably have only 8-9 cards/tradelines by next spring, which I think would suffice pretty well for me, and most of the inquiries I've taken since summer 2016 will have dropped off or stopped affecting my scores. For late 2019, depending on how things shake out, I might try for an Amex once the 5-year-1-month waiting period post-BK completes, but assuming I get that, that would pretty well, I think, round out my portfolio.

FYI, synchrony is taking over the PayPal credit accounts late summer/early fall. Our "hidden" tradeline might not stay hidden at that point. At least I'm not counting on it to stay that way because synchrony.

Re: Why So Many?

kdm31091 — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:34:26 GMT

I personally like to focus on having fewer cards and actually using them, vs having 20 accounts and using them each for one purchase a month etc. The more cards you have, it just dilutes your benefits IMO. It can be nice to have a buffer for emergencies but I don’t like having too many to keep track of. 3-5 accounts in good standing are plenty for me.

Re: Why So Many?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:38:16 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
Trying to see the diff in 20 $2500 cards vs 10 $5000 vs 5 $10000 ... Wouldnt you get better aging by just upping limits?

There's benefits to both... and many of the "20-card jockeys" do both. For issuers that offer SP CLIs, there's no harm in trying... the worst is you get denied. But most issuers do hard pulls (inquiries) for customer requested CLIs which affect scores. If you want to increase your available credit and take a HP for it, often a new card will offer a higher starting limit than a CLI on an existing card will... and if you have 2 or more cards with the same issuer, you can often call or message them and have limits moved from one card to another... Chase is a good example of this, most people with sky-high limits on Chase cards got them by getting another Chase card, then having the limit transferred.

Re: Why So Many?

simplynoir — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:39:32 GMT

I feel like this question was already asked just in a different way.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/What-does-everyone-do-with-all-this-credit/td-p/5188589

Re: Why So Many?

Gmood1 — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 16:47:42 GMT

@simplynoirwrote:
I feel like this question was already asked just in a different way.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/What-does-everyone-do-with-all-this-credit/td-p/5188589

Lmbo 😂 Simplynoir! This question comes up twice or three times a week.

And normally you have at least one poster that jumps in with both feet, who worries more

about someone else's credit instead of his or her own.

Simple answer OP, we do it because we want to. 😉

I probably won't be cancelling any more cards. Now if the lender closes those I don't use as much. That's fine to.

If I hadn't cancelled some two years ago. I'd be a 40 plus card jockey.🤣

Re: Why So Many?

simplynoir — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 17:01:17 GMT

@Gmood1wrote:
@simplynoirwrote:
I feel like this question was already asked just in a different way.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/What-does-everyone-do-with-all-this-credit/td-p/5188589
Lmbo 😂 Simplynoir! This question comes up twice or three times a week.
And normally you have at least one poster that jumps in with both feet, who worries more
about someone else's credit instead of his or her own.

Simple answer OP, we do it because we want to. 😉
I probably won't be cancelling any more cards. Now if the lender closes those I don't use as much. That's fine to.
If I hadn't cancelled some two years ago. I'd be a 40 plus card jockey.🤣

Indeed. I feel like some posters on here I understand why they would "caution" people on not doing what some are doing collecting cards/credit like it's a hobby but there's a line where helping people becomes patronizing to those same people and that's why I normally stay away from threads like these now. You have your opinions on this, I have mine; what works for us doesn't work for all. We can all be happy in the end for what you do as long as you're responsible with it.

At least that's the way I see it.

Re: Why So Many?

MrDisco99 — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 17:27:40 GMT

Yeah you’re not exactly encouraging informative conversation if you open up saying people like me are headed for financial trouble.

I have my reasons for having the number of cards I do. Part of it is I’ve been going for signup bonuses though I’d say most of those cards are also potential long term keepers. I’ve been playing around with earning different types of rewards (points vs miles vs cash) depending on my upcoming plans. So while I may be working on cash now I may switch back to points soon to save up for my next trip. And yes I do plan to consolidate some as I figure out which ones work best for me and which ones I don’t think are worth a second year annual fee. Optimizing my score and getting utilization to a point where I don’t worry about the impact of my spending to my scores also plays into it. You can typically get more credit with more benefit options by doing new apps rather than CLIs. Very rarely will I even consider a HP CLI.

And not that you actually care but I’m in better financial shape now than I’ve ever been. So there’s that.

“It’s not the size of your credit that matters, but how you use it.” -recent American proverb

Re: Why So Many?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 17:54:00 GMT

@MrDisco99wrote:
Yeah you’re not exactly encouraging informative conversation if you open up saying people like me are headed for financial trouble.

I have my reasons for having the number of cards I do. Part of it is I’ve been going for signup bonuses though I’d say most of those cards are also potential long term keepers. I’ve been playing around with earning different types of rewards (points vs miles vs cash) depending on my upcoming plans. So while I may be working on cash now I may switch back to points soon to save up for my next trip. And yes I do plan to consolidate some as I figure out which ones work best for me and which ones I don’t think are worth a second year annual fee. Optimizing my score and getting utilization to a point where I don’t worry about the impact of my spending to my scores also plays into it. You can typically get more credit with more benefit options by doing new apps rather than CLIs. Very rarely will I even consider a HP CLI.

And not that you actually care but I’m in better financial shape now than I’ve ever been. So there’s that.

“It’s not the size of your credit that matters, but how you use it.” -recent American proverb

I agree. I'd also like to add that those of us who do get active in building up sizable card portfolios (I suppose mine is kind of medium-sized by myFICO board standards! ) put a lot of thought and planning into adding each new account so that we know how we can fit them into our overall strategy and know how we're going to be able to fit them into our budget. I've taken out three new accounts so far this year - Capital One QS Visa, Discover IT (#2), and Lending Club (to consolidate and pay off existing balances and other debts and expenses), and I took at least a couple of days every time to think each possible acquisition over carefully and get advice here. I also make sure, wherever possible, to go only for pre-approved/pre-qualified offers that have at least a good chance of final approval (I've learned to watch for single-figure APR offers, which are generally a solid green light). I think I've only done three completely "cold" apps since November 2016 - Amazon, Apple FCU and Care Credit - and had the good luck to score each time.

I think, all things considered, and not to get too far into bragging, that I'm in a better financial position than I've been in quite a few years. I have a stable job with the prospect of regular pay raises, first of all, and even with the new Lending Club loan I'm actually set to pay considerably less per month in CC payments than previously provided I watch my spending carefully (my total revolving credit is now high enough to make it easier to stay well under the magic 8.9% mark) and make strategic use of BT's where necessary to consolidate things. My credit scores are impressively high (at least to me!), considering that I'm still less than 4 years out from BK discharge, and I'm beginning to get actually very good SL's and CLI's. And as I mentioned in my previous post, I'm planning/considering to combine several cards and close at least one, possibly two, others as 2018 turns into 2019 to consolidate my credit portfolio and make management easier.

Re: Why So Many?

AverageJoesCredit — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 18:09:47 GMT

Op ill just add, there is nothing wrong in having just a few cards and building those limits up. Its a very good idea actually that in retrospect i would have preferred to do but indeed credit is a learning game. I hesitate to call it a game but until we figure out what works for us sometimes trial and error will occur. As Kdm alluded to sometimes having alot of cards can dilute your rewards depending on your spend.

Ive finished my " trial and error" and now know whats good for me and what works. I will eventualy reduce my cards when the appropriate time comes, i have an idea on that , so just app for what is comfortable to you. Some can be burdened by so many cards to manage, others no, but in the end credit cards are a means to an end. Good luck on your journey Op

Re: Why So Many?

fltireguy — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 18:12:24 GMT

Why so many?
Because I can

(37 cards)