Why So Many?

[Anonymous]

*stupid phone*

[Anonymous]

I am not a rewards junkie, so to speak. LOL I have 5 cards that offer rewards, and my everyday spend is concentrated across 3 cards. You only get paid so much and only have so many bills that can go on CC, and therefore, can only charge so much every month so having 20 rewards cards dilutes the rewards you earn as you earn a tiny bit on each card every month. Rotating helps but the more cards you have to rotate, the longer it takes to get back to the first card, which dilutes the rewards as well. I would rather have $100 cash back on one card then $10 cash back across 10 different cards. My new go to card will be the Barclays Rewards card and I plan to focus my charges on Chase Freedom and Discover that align with the 5% cash back categories. So I will get the most frequent cash back through Barclays and occasional cash back through Chase and Cap1. I may end up rotating Cap1 Cash Rewards and Barclays Rewards once the emergency is paid off on the Cap1 card as I like the 50% cash back bonus every year. If I can get at least $50 through the 50% bonus, I'm happy. This year I will get $75-$80 as a bonus since I used Cap1 exclusively for most of the year.

[bs6054]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
I am not a rewards junkie, so to speak. LOL I have 5 cards that offer rewards, and my everyday spend is concentrated across 3 cards. You only get paid so much and only have so many bills that can go on CC, and therefore, can only charge so much every month so having 20 rewards cards dilutes the rewards you earn as you earn a tiny bit on each card every month. Rotating helps but the more cards you have to rotate, the longer it takes to get back to the first card, which dilutes the rewards as well. I would rather have $100 cash back on one card then $10 cash back across 10 different cards. My new go to card will be the Barclays Rewards card and I plan to focus my charges on Chase Freedom and Discover that align with the 5% cash back categories. So I will get the most frequent cash back through Barclays and occasional cash back through Chase and Cap1. I may end up rotating Cap1 Cash Rewards and Barclays Rewards once the emergency is paid off on the Cap1 card as I like the 50% cash back bonus every year. If I can get at least $50 through the 50% bonus, I'm happy. This year I will get $75-$80 as a bonus since I used Cap1 exclusively for most of the year.

---

Well, a rewards junkie would have got the Priceline rather than the Rewards, so we know you aren't one!  

But the choice usually isn't $100 on 1 card vs $10 on 10.

It's $100 on one, vs $15 on card A, $9 on card B, $22 on card C etc, adding up to say $120.   So for each purchase you choose the card the maximizes the reward for that type of purchase.   Of course, it's not quite so simple, maybe I can't redeem anything on card A until I have $25, so the $15 there, though better than I would have got on the one card, is a little wasted till I can get $10 more, whereas I could redeem it straight away if I used just one card. 

And each person has to decide if micromanaging is worth it or not (or if they just enjoy it anyway!)

Sometimes it clearly is worth it.  When the BCP came out, uncapped, we put $20K on it for groceries, getting about $1,200 back, and didn't use if for anything else.  We probably got another $1000 across all the other cards on other purchases.  Using one card for all would have decreased the payback a lot!

[Anonymous]

I don't redeem until I get $120 so I don't mind waiting to reach some amount of minimum rewards. I try my best to charge the right stuff on the right card but with so many variables, it doesn't happen all the time. If you have rewards cards that are all base 1%, it is better to put as much on one card as you can. When you have a great card, such as AMEX BCE that offers a greater return, it is definitely better to rack up spending on that card. This quarter's categories for Freedom and Discover suck. I can only buy so much home improvement and we don't eat out or go to the movies so not much additional can be gained so I'm focused on the Barclays card for most purchases. That's great you earned so much cash back!

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
I see a lot of people here with a lot of cards. Is there a reason to have that many? (I'm not judging, just genuinely curious.)

We are in the 'fixed the credit screwup, learned our lesson, starting to utilize credit again after swearing it off' phase right now. I'm trying to take some cues from people who seem to be doing great, credit-wise.
Our finances are good, getting retirement and savings on track.

Just opened 2 TL of revolving, have 2 SL and 1 auto loan. Plan on gardening what we have, but am trying to get a good long term plan established.

Is having so many TL for utilization purposes only, or does having more lines in good standing boost your scores that much?

---

I kind of agree. I don't understand the point of having a lot of cards except for just being a collector. It would be nice to have a ton of nice, cool cards but I only have use for 2-3 cards.

Sure its nice to try to take advantage of whatever rewards that x,y,z card offers but I'd rather have my rewards consolidated on a select few cards than spread out amongst many and not be able to take advantage of the cash back immediately.

But with Freedom (5% restaraunts/fast food right now) and Sallie Mae Rewards MC (5% gas, 5% groceries/Walmart, 5% Amazon/books), I have pretty much all I need just in those two cards. Freedom actually turned out to be one of my favorites in the way it operates. Sallie Mae is  nice because of its generous rewards gives me practically all I need.

[djrez4]

Guilty party here.  (see signature)

It's all about the signup bonuses for me.  They paid for our airfare to Europe, which would have been between $2,400 and $4,000+.  With a few more apps, they're paying for hotels and airfare (hopefully in business class) to Hong Kong in October.  The hotel room is $2,970 and airfare would be something north of $14,000.  That's around $20,000 of free travel this year alone.

[bs6054]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:
I see a lot of people here with a lot of cards. Is there a reason to have that many? (I'm not judging, just genuinely curious.)

We are in the 'fixed the credit screwup, learned our lesson, starting to utilize credit again after swearing it off' phase right now. I'm trying to take some cues from people who seem to be doing great, credit-wise.
Our finances are good, getting retirement and savings on track.

Just opened 2 TL of revolving, have 2 SL and 1 auto loan. Plan on gardening what we have, but am trying to get a good long term plan established.

Is having so many TL for utilization purposes only, or does having more lines in good standing boost your scores that much?

---

I kind of agree. I don't understand the point of having a lot of cards except for just being a collector. It would be nice to have a ton of nice, cool cards but I only have use for 2-3 cards.

Sure its nice to try to take advantage of whatever rewards that x,y,z card offers but I'd rather have my rewards consolidated on a select few cards than spread out amongst many and not be able to take advantage of the cash back immediately.

But with Freedom (5% restaraunts/fast food right now) and Sallie Mae Rewards MC (5% gas, 5% groceries/Walmart, 5% Amazon/books), I have pretty much all I need just in those two cards. Freedom actually turned out to be one of my favorites in the way it operates. Sallie Mae is  nice because of its generous rewards gives me practically all I need.

---

Yes, because those cards have a good match with your current needs (but what happens when Freedom rotates?).   Actually, with two of my current cards, I have uncapped 5% off "entertainment" which includes movies, music, books, amazon, restaurants and fast food (Citi Forward) and  uncapped 5% off gas, groceries and drug stores (TYP).  But when I need hotels, flights, cell phone bills etc, I need other cards.

[Anonymous]

I've got three boys, I need some GROCERY rewards, lol.

[Anonymous]

For me, it's always been about rewards.

I use the PenFed card exclusively for gas, and since getting the card in November, I've saved over $72 on gas. The Upromise card has earned me over $300 in 2 years thanks to various online purchases. And my old BoA card is going to net me a $120 statement credit once BoA sends me my upgraded Cash Rewards card. The Amex BCE is going to be used for my supermarket shopping unless I get a better card.

And now that I have the Freedom and Discover It, I'm able to use these cards whenever the revolving categories match something I need (or I can earn enough rewards from their in-house online malls to warrant a purchase).

All of my other bills and non-reward charges will go through the Fidelity Amex since it gives 2% CB on everything else.

After looking over this thread I'm seriously fighting the urge to apply for some more CB cards like the Citi Dividend and the Sallie Mae World MasterCard!

[bs6054]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
I've got three boys, I need some GROCERY rewards, lol.

---

Well, a number of cards do that, with different score requirements and caps

Amex: BCP, BCE: $6K a year with either 6% off for an AF or 3%

Sallie Mae: $250 per month, 5% no AF

Penfed: uncapped 3%, no AF

TYP: 12 months of uncapped 5% off (my current favorite) no AF

and many others offering 2 and 3%

Most offer some benefits on gas as well: BCP 3%, BCE 2%, Sallie Mae 5% (capped), Penfed 5%, TYP 5%