My dream cards would be 3. They are:
1. Csp (I don't mind the af since this has so many benefits)
2. Bce (already have this one)
3. Sallie Mae or some other MC with no AF
The one thing I love above all else, and something someone else already pointed out, is that credit cards can make you more disciplined financially. Not everyone does this, but for me it works.
I think having 10 plus CC's is cool, especially if that person can manage them all. But me personally would be happy with 3.
1. Csp (I don't mind the af since this has so many benefits)
2. Bce (already have this one)
3. Sallie Mae or some other MC with no AF
The one thing I love above all else, and something someone else already pointed out, is that credit cards can make you more disciplined financially. Not everyone does this, but for me it works.
I think having 10 plus CC's is cool, especially if that person can manage them all. But me personally would be happy with 3.
@FrancoB wrote:The main reason would be the tremendous amount of value you can get from them. Credit cards come with different benefits.
I have 12 Credit cards and I use them all. Each card provides different bonus categories and benefits and diferent reward programs.
Another big thing is the sing up bonuses you get in some accounts and Waived anual fee. If this is done properly you can get a huge amount of value.
It's not about a need, there is a lot to take advantage of.
Just to name a few 5 points per dollar on Chase freedom that you can convert in to Ultimate rewards and transfer to airlines potentially making it 10% cash back equivalent or even more. 1.5 membership rewards on every day purchases with amex everyday preferred making it 3%+ cash back equivalent. Sign up bonuses of 50k miles/points worth $1000! Airline lounge acces and many many more. You can get a ton of value back if you know how to play the game
I get what you are saying, and congratulations on getting the Prestige 
The reason I have so many cards is, I've been getting cards for 17 years now. There was not a focus on rewards or travel cards until just the last couple of years, but now that I understand the possibilities, the marginal difference between what is available from multiple cards seems less valuable.
Take the BCE and Freedom/CSP combination. There are very few pathways where the points from these two combinations work together. Hotel usage comes to mind, but that is a terrible destination for the points. The airlines are all different. While you can indeed get more points with certain types of usage, you end up spending more time gathering points in each bucket to make them useful. Multiple AF cards also creates a build in headwind to seeing real benefits from the bonus categories.
So, As I plan where my card portfolio is going, I'm trying to figure where the best long term combination is to keep rewards reasonable and available reasonably quickly, without throwing it all away to AF.
But, at the same time, I have a legacy of decent cards with long history that I want to keep active, because they improve my credit file. It's not so hard now, with balances being paid down at low interest offers, but once those are paid down, will become necessary to focus spending where it makes the most sense, or allow a proportion of transactions to work on just 1.5% returns, such as Quicksilver, which has no AF, so it's a true 1.5%. CSP and Prestige? The AF creates a requirement to earn points, or justify the fee due to other benefits that one actually will use. And I'm not knocking AF, I pay several, likely will pick up the Prestige, it's just important to go into that part of the game knowing the "points" are just a portion of payback for the AF.
@NRB525 wrote:
I get what you are saying, and congratulations on getting the Prestige
The reason I have so many cards is, I've been getting cards for 17 years now. There was not a focus on rewards or travel cards until just the last couple of years, but now that I understand the possibilities, the marginal difference between what is available from multiple cards seems less valuable.
Take the BCE and Freedom/CSP combination. There are very few pathways where the points from these two combinations work together. Hotel usage comes to mind, but that is a terrible destination for the points. The airlines are all different. While you can indeed get more points with certain types of usage, you end up spending more time gathering points in each bucket to make them useful. Multiple AF cards also creates a build in headwind to seeing real benefits from the bonus categories.
So, As I plan where my card portfolio is going, I'm trying to figure where the best long term combination is to keep rewards reasonable and available reasonably quickly, without throwing it all away to AF.
But, at the same time, I have a legacy of decent cards with long history that I want to keep active, because they improve my credit file. It's not so hard now, with balances being paid down at low interest offers, but once those are paid down, will become necessary to focus spending where it makes the most sense, or allow a proportion of transactions to work on just 1.5% returns, such as Quicksilver, which has no AF, so it's a true 1.5%. CSP and Prestige? The AF creates a requirement to earn points, or justify the fee due to other benefits that one actually will use. And I'm not knocking AF, I pay several, likely will pick up the Prestige, it's just important to go into that part of the game knowing the "points" are just a portion of payback for the AF.
+1
To some extent the same is true of cashback category cards as well. While those (including me) with several cards will say that one of the reasons to have multiple cards is that they all give different rewards, while that is true up to a point, the increased value of the Nth credit card tends to get pretty small as (in general) it either covers a niche area of spending, where even 10% is going to be very much, or is a marginal improvement on the rate that is covered by an existing card.
Of course, the point that becomes true varies on your spend: if most of it is in "everyday categories" then you can quickly run into useless duplication, if you travel on different airlines/stay at different hotels, and have lots of "other" type spending, you can justify (if only to yourself, the "need"for lots of cards.
This ignores the important point of getting new cards strictly for bonuses. That makes sense, if you can close/downgrade them at some point
