topic Re: How many credit cards does an average person have? in General Credit Topics

How many credit cards does an average person have?

Anonymous — Sat, 01 May 2021 03:10:50 GMT

I actually set down today and went thru all of my credit cards and put them on a spreadsheet. I arranged them by ones without AF and ones with AF to just see how much I was paying on AF. That ended up not being to big of a surprise, but what was the biggest surprise was after I got my spreadsheet made. I realized I had 29 active cc's and had no idea I had that many. Some of them I havn't used in forever but the issuer never has shut them down. I would close them down but alot of the cards I dont use are the ones that are my oldest cards. I was just wondering if there were alot more people on this forum that have similar or more cards than me and do you use all of them?

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

PutThatMoneyOnTheTable — Sat, 01 May 2021 03:12:08 GMT

On this forum, yes, you will find individuals with similar credit card amount or more. However, on average I would say ppl have between 2-5 cards.

Personally I have 4, if you include the card I am an AU on then 5.

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Anonymous — Sat, 01 May 2021 04:49:17 GMT

I think the average is 2.3 LOL if I remember correctly, but that’s obviously not the average from this forum LOL! @Anonymous may recall.

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Horseshoez — Sat, 01 May 2021 05:26:35 GMT

I have three or four depending upon your perspective. I have three personal cards and one card issued by my company for all of my travel related expenses. Over the next few years I *may* apply for one or two more, say a Delta SkyMiles card for instance; beyond that I cannot imagine why I'd bother getting more cards; what on earth would I do with them all?

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Anonymous — Sat, 01 May 2021 09:07:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I think the average is 2.3 LOL if I remember correctly, but that’s obviously not the average from this forum LOL! @Anonymous may recall.

I look at Experian's annual state of credit report for that, which usually shows an average of 3 point something, like this:

"A review of national credit report data shows Americans held an average of 3.84 credit card accounts in the third quarter (Q3) of 2020, according to Experian data. That figure is down 4% from 2019, and follows a pattern of U.S. consumers shedding credit card debt as the coronavirus pandemic spread financial uncertainty. " (Experian link, April 8, 2021 )

They also break it down by state and generation there. Gen Z (18-23) is 1.91 and Baby Boomers (56-74) have the highest at 4.61.

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

M_Smart007 — Sat, 01 May 2021 18:06:18 GMT

How many is to many?

I think @Anonymous is the Canary in the coal mine. (no pun intended)

I am might be ...just one step above the "Average Person"?

(click image to enlarge)

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Horseshoez — Sat, 01 May 2021 18:11:08 GMT

@M_Smart007 wrote:
How many is to many?

I think @Anonymous is the Canary in the coal mine. (no pun intended)

I am might be ...just one step above the "Average Person"?

(click image to enlarge)

I'm totally scared of you.

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Mr_Mojo_Risin — Sat, 01 May 2021 18:33:55 GMT

@M_Smart007 wrote:
How many is to many?

I think @Anonymous is the Canary in the coal mine. (no pun intended)

I am might be ...just one step above the "Average Person"?

(click image to enlarge)

Dayum! There's probably a cool half mil stacked there. Lol

I'm standing here with 4, hopefully 5 by next weekend. 😎 lol

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sat, 01 May 2021 18:42:07 GMT

If you don't have close to 15 cards or more, you're either rebuilding, or not myficoing right.

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

dragontears — Sat, 01 May 2021 19:35:29 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
If you don't have close to 15 cards or more, you're either rebuilding, or not myficoing right.

Sigh... I fail at myficoing....

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Horseshoez — Sat, 01 May 2021 19:38:12 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
If you don't have close to 15 cards or more, you're either rebuilding, or not myficoing right.

LOLz, I guess even when I stop rebuilding I'll never be myFICOing correctly; quite honestly, I don't think you could pay me to have that many cards.

Side comment; back in the 1980s, when having lots of cards was kind of a new thing, I think my card portfolio never even got close to 15; it looked something like this:

AMEX Green (then Gold, then Platinum)
Diner's Club
Carte Blanche
AAdvantage Citi VISA
Chase VISA (it was from a smaller bank which got purchased by Chase) so it had kind of a funny name
Saks Fifth Avenue
Capper & Capper (a men's haberdasher in Chicago)
Baskin (another men's haberdasher in Chicago)
Brooks Brothers

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sat, 01 May 2021 20:06:37 GMT

@Horseshoez wrote:
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
If you don't have close to 15 cards or more, you're either rebuilding, or not myficoing right.
LOLz, I guess even when I stop rebuilding I'll never be myFICOing correctly; quite honestly, I don't think you could pay me to have that many cards.

Side comment; back in the 1980s, when having lots of cards was kind of a new thing, I think my card portfolio never even got close to 15; it looked something like this:
AMEX Green (then Gold, then Platinum)
Diner's Club
Carte Blanche
AAdvantage Citi VISA
Chase VISA (it was from a smaller bank which got purchased by Chase) so it had kind of a funny name
Saks Fifth Avenue
Capper & Capper (a men's haberdasher in Chicago)
Baskin (another men's haberdasher in Chicago)
Brooks Brothers

It's kind of a hassle. Almost missed paying a card this month because I have so many to keep track of. Will probably killing 6 or 7 soon or let them die on their own.

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Anonymous — Sat, 01 May 2021 22:22:25 GMT

@dragontears wrote:
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
If you don't have close to 15 cards or more, you're either rebuilding, or not myficoing right.
Sigh... I fail at myficoing....

I'm with you, @dragontears . Failing upwards since the day I joined myFICO in December 2018!

I actually started my credit file with a single $500 credit-builder/SSL loan in Dec 2017 and gardened it for 1 year!

I'm proud to be one of 6 people on the planet that did it, too. LOL (EQ8 was 750 without ever having a single card!)

Sticking with 4 cards now. Highest limit is my AMEX BCE at $16,000, followed by Citi Costco Visa at $14,500. Then I have MC and Discover, so I'm covered on all payment networks.

Revolvers, Transactors, and then there's COLLECTORS. Definitely not a collector.

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Anonymous — Sun, 02 May 2021 00:08:16 GMT

I have a total of 26 open credit cards/accounts (accounts that are not loans),

15 of them are non store cards, and 11 are store cards, my total credit limit on the cards is about 39,000, with about 54% being on the store and 46% being non store accounts. I am slowly easing into the garden (not applying for any more cards)

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Kforce — Sun, 02 May 2021 01:42:50 GMT

Before finding "MyFico Forum", I had three cards.

Grew too twelve.

Been closing a couple each year for a few.

Eight today with Citi DC closing next month and US-Bank Cash+ a couple later.

Should be at six cards by July

(Changed Sig early, my July 6)

Might keep going and cut two more.

Would like the simplicity of 4

PS: Have found it easier to get cards than cut them.

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Horseshoez — Sun, 02 May 2021 01:29:43 GMT

@Kforce wrote:

Would like the simplicity of 4

My sentiment exactly!

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Anonymous — Sun, 02 May 2021 01:36:59 GMT

Yeah I think I am gonna start doing the same. I have a few store cards I never even shop at them anymore and some crappy credit cards from way back in the day. Still can't believe there open, I guess they collect there annual fee once a yr and are happy. I would like to get down to about 5 cards. Only cards I really use anymore is my CSP, Apple Card, my BB&T cards, and my AMEX Hilton Honor & Delta Sky Miles cards, and I use my verizon card for my verizon account and thats about it. So i guess I use about 5 cards regularly, and the others pretty much never get used.

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

FinStar — Sun, 02 May 2021 02:13:57 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
If you don't have close to 15 cards or more, you're either rebuilding, or not myficoing right.

Ha!

I remember when I had 4 or 5 Seems like forever ago!

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sun, 02 May 2021 02:20:17 GMT

@FinStar wrote:
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
If you don't have close to 15 cards or more, you're either rebuilding, or not myficoing right.
Ha!

I remember when I had 4 or 5 Seems like forever ago!

When I came here in 2018 I had 2 cards with a TCL of $800 and 1 inquiry total across all the bureaus. Now I'm at 25 with about $45k.

And I still have some sub-prime scores

Re: How many credit cards does an average person have?

FinStar — Sun, 02 May 2021 02:59:40 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
@FinStar wrote:
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
If you don't have close to 15 cards or more, you're either rebuilding, or not myficoing right.
Ha!

I remember when I had 4 or 5 Seems like forever ago!
When I came here in 2018 I had 2 cards with a TCL of $800 and 1 inquiry total across all the bureaus. Now I'm at 25 with about $45k.

And I still have some sub-prime scores

Some of them are missing from your signature