Help me Reduce My Credit Card Count (Amex Plat Vs CSP VS CS Reserved)

[OneMoreCouch]

Hi All,

First of all thank you all in the community for all wealth of information in the past few years. Through this forum, I was able to get all the cards I wanted to get about 2.5-3 years ago.

Lo and Behold today, with the new Chase Sapphire Reserved Card, I think I have way too many cards with Annual fees that I'd like to ask you guys on the best method to cut it down. I am going to list all the cards that I have below and my usage of them. Please let me know which premium ones would be worth downgrading, and which are the best to cancel. Thanks!!

Chase Sapphire Preferred (I used to use this, but with the new CSR, this card is now obsolete. How should I Product change this card?)

Chase Sapphire Reserved (I just got this last week. Going to be my main card moving forward)

American Express Platinum (I used to use it in tandem with CSP for the perks like lounges, fine hotel and resort. Heavily considering to downgrade this)

American Express Blue Cash Preferred (I buy Gas and Groceries with this exclusively if they take Amex. AF is a pain though)

Barclay Rewards MasterCard (I use it to pay my phone bill. But I'm slowly realizing this is a waste of time)

Citi Hilton HHonor Reserve (Was using for Hilton. Basically no longer using this anymore)

Chase Freedom (use for 5% cats if applicable. Nothing else)

[redpat]

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@OneMoreCouch wrote:

Hi All,

First of all thank you all in the community for all wealth of information in the past few years. Through this forum, I was able to get all the cards I wanted to get about 2.5-3 years ago.

Lo and Behold today, with the new Chase Sapphire Reserved Card, I think I have way too many cards with Annual fees that I'd like to ask you guys on the best method to cut it down. I am going to list all the cards that I have below and my usage of them. Please let me know which premium ones would be worth downgrading, and which are the best to cancel. Thanks!!

Chase Sapphire Preferred (I used to use this, but with the new CSR, this card is now obsolete. How should I Product change this card?)

Chase Sapphire Reserved (I just got this last week. Going to be my main card moving forward)

American Express Platinum (I used to use it in tandem with CSP for the perks like lounges, fine hotel and resort. Heavily considering to downgrade this)

American Express Blue Cash Preferred (I buy Gas and Groceries with this exclusively if they take Amex. AF is a pain though)

Barclay Rewards MasterCard (I use it to pay my phone bill. But I'm slowly realizing this is a waste of time)

Citi Hilton HHonor Reserve (Was using for Hilton. Basically no longer using this anymore)

Chase Freedom (use for 5% cats if applicable. Nothing else)

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CSP PC to Freedom Unlimited 1.50x UR points no AF

Close Barclay

Close Hilton or PC to DC

Amex Plat keep, hilton gold, FHR and lounges.

BCP PC to BCE no AF.

[austinguy907]

You should be able to combine some of these like the 3 Chase cards or upgrade the freedom to unlimited. CSR / Amex Plat are a bit of an overlap and same AF... depends on if you want to drop Plat upgrades you currently have that CSR may not cover.  BCP can be downgraded to BCE for $95/yr savings.  As to Barclay and Citi they add some diversity to your collection and can be swapped out to something w/o an AF.  You just have to go look and see what's appealing on their websites.  There are some ways to save but, you have to put some work into it if you want to keep some of the perks and available credit.

[longtimelurker]

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@austinguy907 wrote:

You should be able to combine some of these like the 3 Chase cards or upgrade the freedom to unlimited. CSR / Amex Plat are a bit of an overlap and same AF... depends on if you want to drop Plat upgrades you currently have that CSR may not cover.  BCP can be downgraded to BCE for $95/yr savings.  As to Barclay and Citi they add some diversity to your collection and can be swapped out to something w/o an AF.  You just have to go look and see what's appealing on their websites.  There are some ways to save but, you have to put some work into it if you want to keep some of the perks and available credit.

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Before downgrading the BCP, determine if it provides value to you (over the BCE).   If it gets you say $150 extra a year, then saving the AF isn't a real savings.

[OneMoreCouch]

Thanks for your reply!

Any reasoning to close those No-AF card as opposed to keeping them in the drawer forever?

Thanks

[vwhirlwind]

With Chase you can move limits from closed cards to your open accounts. You'll have the same open credit, but on fewer cards. I can see spreading out over a few banks, but after a while, for me, it's too much to have to think about.

[Blackbeauty212]

As far as Chase I would PC the CSP to a Freedom UL. CSR / Freedom / FUL are a powerful Trio that pretty much covers every scenario. Reallocate limits between the 3 as needed. 

[newhis]

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@OneMoreCouch wrote:

Thanks for your reply!

Any reasoning to close those No-AF card as opposed to keeping them in the drawer forever?

Thanks

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Some people keep the no-AFcards open, some close them. Credit is a changing game. If you close the cards they will stay for 10 years on your reports, a lot can happen on 10 years. 

My approach is to keep cards open for at least 2 years. Then I PC/close the AF cards that I no longer need (because I have new/better ones). I don't want to have more than 10 open accounts, but that's just me.