Is there such a thing as too many cards?

[12njoy]

@SRT4kid93 

Sometimes they do.  X1 just reduced my line from 30k to 10k at which time I closed the card.  Again, this is a hobby for me.  I have great credit, excellent income and great cards so (for me) no downside.  It's works very well for me.  I can pick and choose to close any card I want if a CLD happens.  Also if I'm shut down like with Synchrony a few years back to the tune of $106,000 no effect on my credit profile whatsoever.  Diversification and flexibility to be able to do that. 

[coldfusion]

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@12njoy wrote:

@SRT4kid93 

I'll answer for myself with the caveat that this works for me and may not be for others.  I don't apply as much as I used to do but when I do sometimes I am denied for too much available credit.  This happened recently with Jovia.  While others may not worry about my available credit.  I recently in the last 3 months opened 3 cards with First Financial Bank and a line of credit totaling $70,000.  No concern about the credit i already had.  So to answer your question it depends on the lender.  I use all my cards over a 3-4 month period.  I'm not going crazy trying to figure out how or when to use cards.  I rarely use cash for anything so if one thinks about the things we buy only a daly basis (i.e. food, gas, merchandise, etc.) using cards isn't an issue over time.   Shucks even if that's going to the carwash and using 3 cards at $2 each for a rinse/soap/wax.  That's 3 cards at minimal spend.  Again this may not work for some but works for me which is really all that matters to me.

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Sounds about right.   I could count on 1 hand the number of times I had to use cash in 2024. The cards that give me the most value see the most spend but I have no shortage of spend opportunities. Worst case is that I have to put a $5 refill on an Amazon gift card.  I haven't been applying for anything recently either, basically because there hasn't been anything new that offers anything substantially better than what I already have.     Comenity did close a sockdrawered store card on me about a year ago, nothing I shed any tears over.    In some cases I do get promotional spend offers on quiet cards, I'll leverage those if I can do so with organic spend.

[Anonymous]

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@SRT4kid93 wrote:

@12njoy @coldfusion 

you both mentioned you have between 70-100 cards. How is that possible? Wouldn't issuers start denying you simply because you have so many cards? After all,  you will never be able to use that many cards on a regular basis I'm sure some of them go unused for months. So how can issuers be sure you will even use their card when you have that many? Assuming you get a sign up bonus for each new card, Sure you may use it for 1-2 months, but then it could be sock drawered for 12 months. 

I have seen people with 15 cards denied for anymore accounts and  the issuer stated the denial reason as "number of open bank cards" and they only had 15

and how do you avoid having cards cancelled for non usage?  

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These are all good questions in a sensible world, and I sometimes wonder why we don't see these negative impacts more often.   Certainly, as a credit card issuer, I would look at someone with say 50 active cards and wonder "Yes, my card is great but how do I know it will get any use among that pack?  Why do they really want another card?"   If I am particularly proud, I may think my card is special enough so of course they want it and will use it everyday for almost everything.   Even so, I might make a note to check in 3 months for usage.

As a counter, someone will a long history and lots of credit cards might appear to be very low risk, and the cost of giving them a card, even if they don't use it much, is small.   Now it's quite likely it will be used for a SUB so income might be negative, but....

It's possible that myfico types are such a small proportion of the business the systems aren't programmed to look for such things anyway (score and recent openings maybe).

As for closure, closing or CLDs for non-use (over varying periods of time) is fairly common, hence the keep-alive purchases.   Closing/CLD for insufficient use seems much less common, a few of us had Cap One do this a while back.

So again, while your questions make sense, the issuer world seems to run on a different logic.

[dfwxjer]

I used to churn a bit more, but I've tried to close a lot of the cards I picked up for sign up bonuses and were no longer getting use. Most of my core cards I've had for a while so when I close the SUB only cards my score doesn't really take a hit. I figure as long as the cards are useful to the person then they're worth keeping open so there's no good answer to the OP. 

That said, I'd have a hard time justifying (and not being smart enough to keep track of) 70+ credit cards but to each their own  

[IsFiveCardsEnough]

For me personally 5 is plenty.  Each of my cards has a purpose in the rewards ecosystem and 5 is about all I can manage to keep track of in my head to remember to check balances and schedule payments.

Before I started becoming credit aware here in 2018, I always had 2 cards, one with no rewards at all and one that had rewards that I randomly stumbled upon after having the card for years (hmm... I wonder what these points they say I have can do!). I slowly morphed my portfolio to what it is now (canceled one card, PCed the other to a rewards card, and got some new cards over a 5 year period).  I also increased my TCL to well more than I will ever need, though still modest compared to many on here!  I have no need or desire for any more cards or CLIs at this point.

Now I'm at a point of stability, as in I can simply garden what I have and not change anything pretty much indefinitely.  I'll be at 0/24 by August.

[Gregory1776]

5 is all i could need if I didnt care about loosing rewards and chasing 5% on my cash+'s, and closed the accounts that arent going to grow (PenFed.) WF AC, BILT, BCP, (Amazon I am not using reguarly and am not a prime member of atm; Citi has a balance; Disco wont care if) Smartly, if approved, (Or when PC'd actually) and not nerfed, could replace WF AC and the 5% revolving.

Disco and the Amazon card are great to have however for reasons like 0% for a year randomly or BT offers of 2% apr on amazon. 

so sometimes a few extra cards are awesome, so long as it doesnt encourage inorganic spending.