@Amwar73mf wrote:I messed up my credit during the great recession, lost everything I owned (job, car, house, savings). Now that I've rebuilt my credit score up to the 730s, I'm getting CC offers all over the place. I have three cards now, and two of them have interest free periods I'm going to try to take advantage of. I'm just afraid I'm going to overdo it and get in trouble again.
Right now, I leave my cards at home unless I'm going looking for specific things. I try not to buy necessities with them, although I did charge my car insurance last time, but it was a new card that gave me a $200 cashback if I charge $500 in three months, so getting that made me go ahead and put the insurance on it to get that $200 off. I can definitely pay that balance off before the free interest is done.
I know I should be better about juggling my cards to get the points, but I know myself and it's so tempting to buy more than I can afford just because I have that card. I'm so scared of having to end up paying minimum payments and all that interest again because I got carried away.
So I guess I'm asking if some of you with dozens of cards feel like you have too many, and should I stop here? How do you decide when you have enough cards? I've never had more than two, and I always had that mentality to spend it up to the limit. I'm over that, and trying to stay below 30% of the limit now and pay that off before I charge more. I just don't ever want to get into trouble again.
I dont know if there is such a thing as too many cards. Some will say yes, some will say no. I personally have about 20 cards +/- and I thought I had alot but there are some members pushing 40-50+ cards.
You just have to manage it right, obviously that many cards come with time and not all at once.
You want to keep lower credit limits on cards for the low utilization, especially when you only have a few small limit cards. YOu can quickly get over 50% before you know it. The more cards you have, the easier to keep a lower over all utilization, but that also comes with the will power not to use all the credit available either.
Really depends on what your end game is.
@Amwar73mf wrote:I messed up my credit during the great recession, lost everything I owned (job, car, house, savings). Now that I've rebuilt my credit score up to the 730s, I'm getting CC offers all over the place. I have three cards now, and two of them have interest free periods I'm going to try to take advantage of. I'm just afraid I'm going to overdo it and get in trouble again.
Right now, I leave my cards at home unless I'm going looking for specific things. I try not to buy necessities with them, although I did charge my car insurance last time, but it was a new card that gave me a $200 cashback if I charge $500 in three months, so getting that made me go ahead and put the insurance on it to get that $200 off. I can definitely pay that balance off before the free interest is done.
I know I should be better about juggling my cards to get the points, but I know myself and it's so tempting to buy more than I can afford just because I have that card. I'm so scared of having to end up paying minimum payments and all that interest again because I got carried away.
So I guess I'm asking if some of you with dozens of cards feel like you have too many, and should I stop here? How do you decide when you have enough cards? I've never had more than two, and I always had that mentality to spend it up to the limit. I'm over that, and trying to stay below 30% of the limit now and pay that off before I charge more. I just don't ever want to get into trouble again.
In your case I would say use only one card and set to pay full statement balance! Use your card as debit, not credit! You should not carry any balance just because you have promotional APR! You should go 0 balance for few months or years till you feel confidant carrying balance is not going to accumulate!
You should get small personal loans if you prefer to carry balance to insure payoffs!
Also if you want to use a CC, try AMEX charge cards that you have to pay full balance every month and get decent rewards back.
Ultimately is all on you how to manege your credit. Just don't put yourself in a bad situation again!
Resist the temptation!
For those of us with multiple CCs is not about buying power, it is about reward game! If you pay ANY interest on your balance then you just negated any rewards that you worked for!
Good luck!
@Amwar73mf wrote:I messed up my credit during the great recession, lost everything I owned (job, car, house, savings). Now that I've rebuilt my credit score up to the 730s, I'm getting CC offers all over the place. I have three cards now, and two of them have interest free periods I'm going to try to take advantage of. I'm just afraid I'm going to overdo it and get in trouble again.
Right now, I leave my cards at home unless I'm going looking for specific things. I try not to buy necessities with them, although I did charge my car insurance last time, but it was a new card that gave me a $200 cashback if I charge $500 in three months, so getting that made me go ahead and put the insurance on it to get that $200 off. I can definitely pay that balance off before the free interest is done.
I know I should be better about juggling my cards to get the points, but I know myself and it's so tempting to buy more than I can afford just because I have that card. I'm so scared of having to end up paying minimum payments and all that interest again because I got carried away.
So I guess I'm asking if some of you with dozens of cards feel like you have too many, and should I stop here? How do you decide when you have enough cards? I've never had more than two, and I always had that mentality to spend it up to the limit. I'm over that, and trying to stay below 30% of the limit now and pay that off before I charge more. I just don't ever want to get into trouble again.
I'd say you are making progress
. If the temptation is too strong then I'd say don't apply for more until you reign that feeling in. You've already started to change your mindset from max to 30% which is positive, try now only buying what you know can pay off at end of month or get in the habit of paying in full once a charge posts.
Asalluded to by @CYBERSAM some do multi cards for rewards but I'll also add buying power is just as important for those of us who don't chase rewards, no pun intended lol. I wish I could go back and never rack up debt but thankfully how I managed my credit in my rebuild allowed me to mass high enough limits to help out my family in some dire situations and only having 2 or 3 low limit credit cards wouldn't have allowed that
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Asalluded to by @CYBERSAM some do multi cards for rewards but I'll also add buying power is just as important for those of us who don't chase rewards, no pun intended lol. I wish I could go back and never rack up debt but thankfully how I managed my credit in my rebuild allowed me to mass high enough limits to help out my family in some dire situations and only having 2 or 3 low limit credit cards wouldn't have allowed that
@AverageJoesCredit raises a good point, but to my mind you must evaluate your risk. I would guess that getting into trouble maxing out large numbers of cards is possibly more likely than needing lots of credit to deal with disaster (and a "right sized" disaster at that, where the credit limit is useful!)
If you feel you are still at risk of running up cards then I would certainly:
a) limit the number of cards to a low number
b) ignore detailed credit card reward games for now, a simple flat rate card is ideal
c) don't worry that much about the details of score, yes utilization can make you score go down, but consistent ontime payments is the main driver, and util can be fixed by paying off before reporting (for now)
d) Stay out of the credit card (and approval and app) sections until you know that you are firmly in control of the cards rather than vice versa. Hearing that hgh-scoring-long-history user X has just got her 79th card with a great SUB and huge rewards can be annoying, hearing that recent rebuilder has done something similar may be too tempting
But if you are more confident, follow the other advice given!
@Amwar73mf wrote:I messed up my credit during the great recession, lost everything I owned (job, car, house, savings). Now that I've rebuilt my credit score up to the 730s, I'm getting CC offers all over the place. I have three cards now, and two of them have interest free periods I'm going to try to take advantage of. I'm just afraid I'm going to overdo it and get in trouble again.
Right now, I leave my cards at home unless I'm going looking for specific things. I try not to buy necessities with them, although I did charge my car insurance last time, but it was a new card that gave me a $200 cashback if I charge $500 in three months, so getting that made me go ahead and put the insurance on it to get that $200 off. I can definitely pay that balance off before the free interest is done.
I know I should be better about juggling my cards to get the points, but I know myself and it's so tempting to buy more than I can afford just because I have that card. I'm so scared of having to end up paying minimum payments and all that interest again because I got carried away.
So I guess I'm asking if some of you with dozens of cards feel like you have too many, and should I stop here? How do you decide when you have enough cards? I've never had more than two, and I always had that mentality to spend it up to the limit. I'm over that, and trying to stay below 30% of the limit now and pay that off before I charge more. I just don't ever want to get into trouble again.
As you've already seen, there is no one answer for everyone. I might consider X number of cards a huge burden to keep up with, while someone else relishes the challenge--and wants more.
You're on the right track now, and the important thing is to keep your trajectory moving in the right direction. Falling into the temptation trap is a big, big problem for a lot of people. It sounds like you're well aware that you might be one of those people, so you must be super-vigilant when it comes to using credit cards.
But don't overdo it! You said you're not putting necessities on your cards, and I understand that way of thinking. But if you do it wisely, you can come out ahead by putting certain bills on CCs. I've been *strongly* in the "do not charge necessities" camp for years, but not long ago I started charging my monthly cellphone service on one of my Cap1 cards. Why? Because they offer phone protection! Just for paying my wireless bill with their card, my phone is covered for loss/damage. I pay the bill in full every month. There's no discernible difference in my bill paying--it's just that, before, I paid Consumer Cellular using BofA's bill pay, now I pay Cap1 using BofA's bill pay and they pay Consumer Cellular--and my phone is protected!
If I were you, I'd add at least 2-3 cards. Good ones. From good banks, with good perks, and good rewards. By adding more cards you're adding to your total credit limit which, in turn, reduces your overall utilization--as long as you're not running up all your cards! And I'd suggest scouring each card's fine print to see what 'hidden' benefits you may have and aren't even using. Like my cell phone coverage You may have some nice perks you're not even aware of, so definitely check that out.
When you're starting to feel overwhelmed by juggling cards, using them so they don't get closed for inactivity, making sure they're all paid on time, and so on, I'd say that's a strong sign that you have too many. Ideally, you should stop getting new cards *before* you reach that point of being overwhelmed. I highly recommend picking and choosing your cards wisely, looking at them for the long run, and don't end up with a bunch of cards that aren't great but you don't want to part with, either. Choose wisely, grow your collection slowly, check in with yourself frequently to see if you're still good with your current collection, use credit with purpose, pay on time and you should be good to go!
