Spring Cleaning

[Anonymous]

It's that time of the year! 

Whose doing some Spring Cleaning? What cards are on the chopping block? Let's trim the fat and move on.

For me, it will be the BoFA 321 and the Chase United Mileage Explorer card. I might even AXE my Amex PRG. These days, I'm all about making my life simple and the less cards I have the better!

[wasCB14]

The good:

Amex: I use Platinum perks and can contact their customer service with issues on any card. I like SPG earning power. BCE and ED occasionally have good offers. Lots of activity alerts.

Chase: Love my IHG and Freedom is occasionally useful. Hyatt and CSP I don't really use that much anymore since I've been mostly booking award travel lately. Oddly, my calls get redirected to the Executive group (I have no assets at Chase anymore) so I'm not sure I need to pay for CSP customer service when they just send me to a higher tier. Maybe they've corrected their records in the months since I last had to call, though. I've been having a little trouble working a convenient mid-category Hyatt for my renewal night into my travel. So I'll possibly drop one of Hyatt or CSP, but keep the other for travel when Amex isn't accepted. Maybe I'd PC CSP to FU.

Citi: I'll probably keep Costco and PC Prestige to DC. I use Price Rewind heavily and having a second card to avoid hitting the annual maximum might be good. A 2% card would also be useful if/when Starpoints are nerfed. The general customer service is lousy, but mostly I'd just expect to contact their benefits team.

Discover: 5% cash and Discover Deals are occasionally good. They have great customer service with no AF, and lots of activity alerts. Not in any rush to close.

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The more questionable:

Citi Retail Brooks Brothers: I doubt Price Rewind would help when AFAIK they don't sell through other channels and are sometimes flexible about the dates of sales. Still, some sort of purchase protection from a premium card would be good, and cardholder-exclusive sales really aren't that frequent. Like Discover, it offers excellent spending alerts. It's the store-only card (not the MC) and I'm not sure how easy it would be for a fraudster to buy and liquidate shirts and pants. I expect major network cards are a bigger target for fraud.

Barclaycard no-AF Arrival: I only ever got it because I didn't understand the complexities of CVM. Limited alert options, too. I'll close it once I have a proper PIN card in place. Customer service is very hit-or-miss.

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So the candidates for the chopping block are:

CSP or Hyatt - possibly close or PC one

Prestige - definitely PC

Citi Retail Brooks Bothers - SD for now, likely to close eventually

Arrival - will close eventually

So I expect to keep maybe 10 of 13 cards, but most of my spending is with four issuers.

Sure, I could strip my lineup down to: Platinum, IHG, Costco, and Discover...but I'd still be logging into Amex, Chase, Citi and Discover websites to check my balance due. So why not keep other cards that are just a click or scroll away?

I very much welcome the thoughts of others on my lineup.

[nachoslibres]

If there were cards on the chopping block for me the Barclaycard Arrival would definitely be on the list and now Citi Double Cash would likely be as well.  But, I see no real reason at the moment to close these cards, especially since that means all my eggs would be in the Chase basket for my personal cards.

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It's that time of the year! 

Whose doing some Spring Cleaning? What cards are on the chopping block? Let's trim the fat and move on.

For me, it will be the BoFA 321 and the Chase United Mileage Explorer card. I might even AXE my Amex PRG. These days, I'm all about making my life simple and the less cards I have the better!

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Do not find it beneficial to close any card that does not have an AF, but if I did, I would close TD bank Cash, Wells Fargo Cash Wise, and Barclaycard Cash Forward...Discover It is on the bubble.

[Anonymous]

Having been the victim of skimmers on gas pumps we have 3 gas only cards. Since figuing out how to get Samsung Pay to work on gas pumps and Exxon's speedpass app working with Samsung pay at some stations I think they may finally be put out to pasture. It's nice to be able to get rewards for gas and not have to worry about security.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It's that time of the year! 

Whose doing some Spring Cleaning? What cards are on the chopping block? Let's trim the fat and move on.

For me, it will be the BoFA 321 and the Chase United Mileage Explorer card. I might even AXE my Amex PRG. These days, I'm all about making my life simple and the less cards I have the better!

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I did some mid-summer trimming last year and will keep what's in my siggy. I axed the following;

Barclay cashforward 6k

Barclay Ring 5k

Discover $3500

Marvel 10k

Slate $6200

Citi Diamond Preferred  $1500

Penfed PLOC 10K

[AverageJoesCredit]

Plan is to start whittling down to maybe 10 cards eventually. If i get decent limits on a few i, of a low income would have no problem using or having 5.

Probably 1st up on the cb is a card so far down the proverbial path of usefulness will be my Sunglass Hut from Synchrony bank. A stunningly beautiful 29.99 Apr with an outstanding $800 cl, this one of kind is so special you cant even use it on their own website. Lol, just waiting til Aug to get my 2 years special

[odd_dog]

I have been doing this for the last two weeks, so far GONE are GM power card, Discover Miles, US Bank amex 365, NEXT on the block are Capital 1 QS, Amex PRG, Barclay Apple visa....then I will look over everything left and see....IT FEELS SO GOOD TO DUMP cards in the portfolio that I no longer use!!!! Good for you OP clean house!!!!

[grillandwinemaster]

Fantastic! 

Less is More!

I've already cut:

Cap 1 QS &

Firestone

If I can get some of my other cards to grow, I'll probably cut:

Barclays

Care Credit &

Kay's, 

This action would leave me with 

Discover

Navy

Cap1

[grillandwinemaster]

Wow...

I just re read my post...

Not sure if I want to go all the way down to only 3 credit card accounts. Does this sound odd to anyone? I feel like I would be going to the opposite extreme. 

I definitely want to simplify. What do y'all think is good simplification strategy as far as having a healthy amount of credit cards? 3? 4? 5? max 6?