Excessive credit cards

[Ladyk06]

Hey there, no judgment just curious. What is the point in having 15, 20 and 30 CC's? I see people in here with a lot of cards and I'm just wondering why? Is it to be more credit worthy or just because you can? I'm not judging I'm just trying to optimize my credit worthiness. I have 7 cards totaling up to 100K. My scores are close to 800. 

[captainsensation]

Mostly utilization for me. My credit is not where yours is yet. Once it is i will cull the cards that dont serve me anymore. Ideally id like to have 70K + between 4/5 cards but until then ill keep the 15 i have sadly.

[Priory_Man]

For me, it just kind of happened over the years. I suppose at some point I thought each card served a purpose, not sure what though anymore.

[Ladyk06]

@Priory_Man First of all thank you for your service. I was just wondering because, I think I have enough credit but, I was just trying to get a solid grip on the 800 club. Currently I'm 3 points away on 2 Fico reports and 7 on the other. My utilization is 1%. I noticed that the people with the high credit scores have a lot of cc's and high combined CL's. 

[Rogue46]

I will be the first to admit I have more cards then I need, I honestly only really use the Amex and Chase cards i have to build up points for travel. The others serve a specific purpose but I could probably do without some of them.

I'm 52 now and have pretty much always had bad credit until I started taking it seriously and ended up here reading everything I could on building my credit score, Now its more of a hobby and it's enjoyable adding new cards and getting CLI. I'm guessing the feeling of getting a high limit card or high CLI is akin to how a gambler feels when they win big but without the downside 

[Kforce]

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@Ladyk06 wrote:

Hey there, no judgment just curious. What is the point in having 15, 20 and 30 CC's? I see people in here with a lot of cards and I'm just wondering why? Is it to be more credit worthy or just because you can? I'm not judging I'm just trying to optimize my credit worthiness. I have 7 cards totaling up to 100K. My scores are close to 800. 

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My best scores, 850's were with 3 cards &  a mortgage.

A large number of cards, or combined CL's have very little to do with scores.

This forum is full of people with credit cards as a hobby.

Very few can really benefit from having 10+ cards. (Yes there are some)

Those with extremely large spend and or lots of travel where premium travel & hotel cards can be used

For those with only cash back cards, it becomes a different story.

For most diminished returns are had after 4-7 cards.

I am getting more than 80% of all possible rewards for my spend with 2 cards.

Yes I have an exceptional general spend card and high spend on a 6% with large cap

Lets assume one has a nice 2.5% general spend card (available as we speak) and 19: 5% rewards cards.

Half of ones monthly spend able to be put on 5% cards.

More than 80% of possible rewards should be feasible with 5-7 card's.

The numbers : (Edit , Fixed)

cards : rewards % : % of total rewards

    1   :  2.5%   : 67%

    4   : 3.0%    :  80%

 10   : 3.5%    :  93% 

 20   : 3.75%  : 100%

[Priory_Man]

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@Ladyk06 wrote:

@Priory_Man First of all thank you for your service. I was just wondering because, I think I have enough credit but, I was just trying to get a solid grip on the 800 club. Currently I'm 3 points away on 2 Fico reports and 7 on the other. My utilization is 1%. I noticed that the people with the high credit scores have a lot of cc's and high combined CL's. 

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Getting into the 800 club, did not happen overnight for me, it has took some work and many years. Adding cards like I have done has in fact slowed my progress down, due to the hits for applying, the lowering of my Age of oldest card etc. etc. 

Having a high amount of available credit does not seem to have played a very large role in me reaching the scores I have. It has mostly come from making sure my debt is low and paid off on time and having the right mix of different types of loans that seem to satisfy the scoring gods.

I pay in full on each card used every month, I do not follow the AZEO method that some guys do to boost their scores, I am too lazy to do so, a few cards report balances each month, some times low sometimes high, but the scores seem to stay about the same.

If I was to do it all over again, I probably would have stopped at about 5 cards.

[Kforce]

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@Priory_Man wrote:

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@Ladyk06 wrote:

@Priory_Man First of all thank you for your service. I was just wondering because, I think I have enough credit but, I was just trying to get a solid grip on the 800 club. Currently I'm 3 points away on 2 Fico reports and 7 on the other. My utilization is 1%. I noticed that the people with the high credit scores have a lot of cc's and high combined CL's. 

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If I was to do it all over again, I probably would have stopped at about 5 cards.

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I have been reducing my cards a few each year

Down to 6.

2 used all the time, 2 for age, 2 as backup's for my 2 best cards.

(Expecting the exceptional ones to be nerfed at any time)   

[redpat]

Been there, done that, high of I think 14 personal cards down to 5.

It only takes 2 - 3 cards to work rewards and perks.

Waiting for that Super Duper Chase Sapphire card 10x meals and 5x everything.....

[Guyatthebeach]

Ladyk06,

You bring up an extremely valid point. I have 52 cards and I have them either for rewards or other benefit.  Between my credit cards nd lines of credit, my utilization now never goes over 4%. I have only closed a couple of cards over the years.  Currently my Fico scores range from 807 to 815. When I hit my goal of 850, I plan on closing a couple every year.

In my personal opinion, everyone has a different profile, but I do believe it's possibly to hit the 800 club for everyone. 

Guyatthebeach