topic Re: How do you guys manage so many cards? in Credit Cards

How do you guys manage so many cards?

Beast26 — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 02:49:11 GMT

It would help if you guys with 10+ credit cards give us tips on how you stay on top of you payments and keep so many cards up to date. I plan on having about 7 and while that's not a lot Its quite a few for the average person. Do you guys use autopay for all your cards to ensure that you never forget a payment?

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 03:00:26 GMT

@Beast26 wrote:
It would help if you guys with 10+ credit cards give us tips on how you stay on top of you payments and keep so many cards up to date. I plan on having about 7 and while that's not a lot Its quite a few for the average person. Do you guys use autopay for all your cards to ensure that you never forget a payment?

I have 11 now, started collecting last summer. I use 4 religiously for different cashback and have recently decided for mortgage reasons to pay off 3 of them.

I set monthly alerts for 2 days prior to due date and would pay each balance down a certain percent between the 4 cards. The other 7 I have random things billed to each month and have autopay setup for each account. Each charge is netflix, hulu, my mothers phone, kids gizmo watch through Verizon, data on Google, and another subscription for a game I play. So biggest charge is $37 and smallest is $.99.

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

Dalmus — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 03:03:14 GMT

@Beast26 wrote:
It would help if you guys with 10+ credit cards give us tips on how you stay on top of you payments and keep so many cards up to date. I plan on having about 7 and while that's not a lot Its quite a few for the average person. Do you guys use autopay for all your cards to ensure that you never forget a payment?

Many of us have created Excel spreadsheets of varying complexity to help give us a quick visual of where we are with our cards.

I posted mine some time ago. It requires some manual entry, but I like that because it forces me to actually look at each account at least once a month to verify nothing strange is going on. You can see it in this thread:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Personal-Finance/Bill-Pay-Spreadsheet/m-p/5175829#M21932

Feel free to take it an customize it or use ideas from it to create your own.

Others use apps like Mint or Prism. You'll find as many different methods as there are people who respond to your question.

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

wasCB14 — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 03:18:25 GMT

Payments are pretty simple. Since closing Cap1 after some SUB chasing, Chase is the only issuer I have that doesn't offer ebills.

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

GApeachy — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 03:39:49 GMT

Autopay (yes)
List cards in order of Due Date

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 03:42:32 GMT

Spreadsheet

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

notmyrealname23 — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 04:09:08 GMT

@Beast26 wrote:
It would help if you guys with 10+ credit cards give us tips on how you stay on top of you payments and keep so many cards up to date. I plan on having about 7 and while that's not a lot Its quite a few for the average person. Do you guys use autopay for all your cards to ensure that you never forget a payment?

Mint, mobile apps, and a decent number of them are sock drawered for chunks of time except for "oh, the rotator is good" or "they're a special bonus", or "gotta buy a pack of gum or a beer so they won't cancel the card".

I'll be honest though, I'm getting to a point of "I want to refine what I carry and use, maybe just swap some, with maybe some but not a lot of occasional, light churning" mode rather than "I want more cards" mode. There's a concept called the Pareto principle where once you get to "pretty good" the last bit to "really good" is the hardest to hit in terms of effort (and doesn't yield easy wins the same way the jumps from "not good" to "pretty good" got you).

For instance, if I start going into the Chase UR or Citi TY ecosystem I'm probably dumping some AMEX cards just because the cards start becoming rapidly duplicative for benefits, and I am paying hundreds of dollars for cards I can't optimally use. I'm also reaching a conclusion that airline cobrand cards won't work for me for ongoing spend, and are only for churns or benefits (and since I don't like airline lounges enough to pay hundreds of dollars a year for them without a lot of other benefits, I don't often travel with a companion, and I don't check bags, the benefits often don't work)- and a lot of churning with airline cards pretty much precludes going into the Chase ecosystem very fast (or at all).

I see the travel bloggers talking about all their cards (like 20+)... then I see the posts about how they used their free night certificate at a $80 airport hotel because otherwise they'd lose it... and I'm mindful of things like that.

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

mkhan1093 — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 04:11:26 GMT

I have 19 active cards atm, some SD'd, some used every day as I see fit for categories, spend thresholds, etc.

Here is how I manage everything:

1) Autopay full balance on every card the day before the due date so I don't have to think and I can catch any errors in time

2) I have both email and push notification alerts for every card for any purchase over $0.00 (i.e. every purchase) that way I know my intended transactions go through and I can catch fraud

3) Simple spreadsheet that has the balance to be paid every month

4) Card Pointers app is a gift from heaven

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

NoHardLimits — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 04:15:58 GMT

Spreadsheet, yes. Autopay, no. I have also adjusted my due dates to fall into two monthly groupings. That way, I only need to do my online payment activity twice a month.

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 04:26:45 GMT

@NoHardLimits wrote:
Spreadsheet, yes. Autopay, no. I have also adjusted my due dates to fall into two monthly groupings. That way, I only need to do my online payment activity twice a month.

Autopay (statement balance on due date) yes, spreadsheet no, for me! It really depends. My spend is low enough that I know I can PIF on every card, so autopay is good enough. I don't care much about score, CLI, APR reductions etc, so nothing to track. If any of those things aren't true, a different solution is needed.

Basically I am in the position where I have better things to do with my time than track credit card usage, like posting to a credit card forum.

Let's check my sheet, 2 days 5 hours since I posted about Amex, OK, better start a new thread.....

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

dogmeat — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 06:37:13 GMT

@NoHardLimits wrote:
Spreadsheet, yes. Autopay, no. I have also adjusted my due dates to fall into two monthly groupings. That way, I only need to do my online payment activity twice a month.

Same with spreadsheet and no auto-pay, but all of my cards (except Apple) are due around day 5-15 of the month, and I pay them when I get paid - on the last day of the month.

The monthly routine:

1. Around the 20th, log into every bank's website (using a password manager app that auto-fills login/pw) and record the balance/min payment/actual (expected) payment for each card.

2. On or near the last day of the month, log in to my bill-pay hub bank account, where my paycheck is direct deposited, and where I have also added every card as a payee, and fill in the amounts, then press the pay now button.

I use Wells Fargo for bill pay for historical reasons, and because they don't go down for hours every night for system maintenance like some credit unions, and I usually do my bill paying later in the evening.

I manage over 40 cards (my own and DW's) this way.

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

staticvoidmain — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 07:50:33 GMT

I log everything in an online spreadsheet. I create one every year. It has all my accounts, including banking. This way, not only am I able to manage my accounts, but I am also able to predict my finances.

(I use a spreadsheet because I like total control)

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

Gmood1 — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 09:53:50 GMT

Autopay, currently no spread sheets or apps to track cards for me.

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

BmoreBull — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:18:34 GMT

@Gmood1 wrote:
Autopay, currently no spread sheets or apps to track cards for me.

@Gmood1 I would have thought you needed two spreadsheets and a small team working around the clock to manage your herd 😂😂

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

Shooting-For-800 — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:32:55 GMT

I have a folder on my desktop with web links to each one in order of due date.

I check them every Friday and pay.

1st Cap One Savor

3rd Lowes

5th Uber

etc etc etc

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

spiritcraft1 — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 12:13:43 GMT

@Dalmus wrote:
@Beast26 wrote:
It would help if you guys with 10+ credit cards give us tips on how you stay on top of you payments and keep so many cards up to date. I plan on having about 7 and while that's not a lot Its quite a few for the average person. Do you guys use autopay for all your cards to ensure that you never forget a payment?
Many of us have created Excel spreadsheets of varying complexity to help give us a quick visual of where we are with our cards.

I posted mine some time ago. It requires some manual entry, but I like that because it forces me to actually look at each account at least once a month to verify nothing strange is going on. You can see it in this thread:
https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Personal-Finance/Bill-Pay-Spreadsheet/m-p/5175829#M21932

Feel free to take it an customize it or use ideas from it to create your own.

Others use apps like Mint or Prism. You'll find as many different methods as there are people who respond to your question.

Excel is a wonderful thing. For me, having used it daily since 1995, it is a natural. You can keep track of due dates, CLI dates, approval dates and also create separate work sheets for bank balances, amortization schedules, fall-off dates for derogs etc...

Google sheets is free and you can do the same with that. With any spreadsheet program you can make it as simple or complex as you want. For due dates and CLI dates, it is essential especially when track the accounts of two people when you are the one responsible for paying bills, requesting CLI's and so on.

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

Gmood1 — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 12:38:33 GMT

@BmoreBull wrote:
@Gmood1 wrote:
Autopay, currently no spread sheets or apps to track cards for me.
@Gmood1 I would have thought you needed two spreadsheets and a small team working around the clock to manage your herd 😂😂

@BmoreBull 😂😂😂😂😂

Presently I only have 22 or so reporting balances.

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

Beast26 — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 14:17:06 GMT

Great feedback and tips here! Makes me feel like 7 cards will be a breeze lol. If a small chance that autopay doesn't go through (assuming you have the funds) because of some glitch will they still count it as a late payment even though it is on autopay?

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

coldfusion — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 14:34:32 GMT

@Gmood1 wrote:
@BmoreBull 😂😂😂😂😂
Presently I only have 22 or so reporting balances.

I laughed out loud when I read that. 😂 A quick look at EX shows that right now I have 8, I usually range between 7-15 reporting at any given time.

Re: How do you guys manage so many cards?

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 14:46:20 GMT

@Beast26 wrote:
Great feedback and tips here! Makes me feel like 7 cards will be a breeze lol. If a small chance that autopay doesn't go through (assuming you have the funds) because of some glitch will they still count it as a late payment even though it is on autopay?

Unless it's a verifiable glitch on their side, yes, it would still count as a late because it's your responsibility to make sure the payment went through.