Combined total # of credit cards and total $ limit - what's the highest you've seen?

[Anonymous]

This is not some sort of humble brag - I'm old, been playing the credit card game going on 25+ years.  Thought I'd share:

Just picked up two more cards today; according to my spreadsheet I now have $198,100 in available credit spread out the following cards:

AOD (Wife, I'm an AU - I was denied) - 5k

Chase Amazon (Wife, I'm an AU - I was denied) - 5k

USBank Altitude Go! (Wife, I'm an AU - I was denied) - $5k

Bank of America - $13k

Chase Slate - $6900 (nice)

Citi Custom Cash - $11,600

Elan Financial - $20k

Navy Federal 1.75 Visa - $25k

Navy Federal AMex - $30k

Penfed 1.5/2% Visa - $21.2k

Penfed Old school Platinum Reward (5% at the pump; still valid 13 years later) - $28,800

USAlliance - $20k

US Bank Cash+ - $17k

Cards I've had in the past 2 years that I had that were annoying so I closed them:

Amazon/Synchrony (This could turn into a book.  We will not discuss)

Microcenter 5% Visa through Wells Fargo (I hate WF)

Target Red Card (All this did was make my wife buy more Krap)

Of note, other than the Navy Federal AMEX, I really don't have nor have I ever had any AMEX cards where I log into the Amex system.  I had a Discover Card in 1991 when I started college, but haven't really looked into it again.  Also all cards are 100% no AF.

Also I've never owned a travel card because I rarely travel other than to kids sports.

All are sock drawered except:

Penfed 5% for gas (until the new Citi arrives), AOD (Until USAlliance arrives / 2023), USBank Altitude Go! (For restaurants/Fast Food).

I'm starting to think I've got a problem, like an addiction to cash back cards.

I will in a couple years try to get one more card to break the 200,000 credit limit barrier.  That is my resolve to you, myFICO forums.

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah, forgot to add.  All cards are at 0% usage - pay them off every two weeks in full.  With SUBs & AOD's awesome 3%, and our high electricity bills, I pocket about $3k per year in cashback.

I do use a spreadsheet and track the last time I used all of these cards to keep them from going dormant.  Also I forgot that Chase Flex raised my limit in the last couple of years to 10,500.  So 202,100 is the grand limit.  No more shines Billy.  No more cards.

[longtimelurker]

Not sure what myFico percentile $210K would put you in.  Many people here have more, some much more, whereas we have a number of rebuilders with much less.  The highest depends on whether you include business cards in which case I've seen $1.5M and I am sure there are those with more.   Plus Amex charge cards with no fixed limit make it harder to count.

[CreditCuriosity]

You are probably about average or a bit higher than average.  Just another MF member.  One person I know of has 2+ mill in credit if I recall correctly and tons 1m+ in credit, etc..  Also as echoed above many lower and higher than yourself.  As long as it works for you enjoy.  Honestly if you have decent scores / income 100k in credit likely can be obtained fairly quickly.

[wasCB14]

Credit utilization is one thing, but the actual utility of individual cards matters, too.

Like with my Amex Business Platinum I can spend $100k+ in one transaction, earn 1.5x MRs, and the balance doesn't even report to my personal credit. That is a card I can actually use, and it does more for me functionally than ten or fifteen $30k cards earning 1% cash back would.

[Anonymalous]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

Not sure what myFico percentile $210K would put you in.  Many people here have more, some much more, whereas we have a number of rebuilders with much less.  The highest depends on whether you include business cards in which case I've seen $1.5M and I am sure there are those with more.   Plus Amex charge cards with no fixed limit make it harder to count.

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The myFICO forums definitely seemed skewed to the extremes, don't they? We have posters struggling with $300 CLs, and several with combined totals over $2 million. Though overall, the forums tend to skew very high. @Anonymous may be only slightly over the median here, but that's an enormous amount of credit compared the average person on the street.

I know a bunch of people IRL who have 1 primary card, a couple store cards, and that's it. Since they've never asked for CLIs or went through the ladder of getting new cards with progressively higher limits, they not only have fewer cards, but they have much, much smaller limits as well. I think it's telling that 9 months after getting my first card, my second card had a limit more than twice as high as the highest limit card of a family member with a high income and a perfect credit history that goes back more than half a century. And if anything, I'm trailing behind my peers on this forum with a similar credit age.

[Anonymous]

"that's an enormous amount of credit compared the average person on the street."

Thank you.

I needed someone to just say that out loud.  The amount of time I spend searching for SUBs, new cards, which ones for what benefit - I spend way too much time on this.

Honestly I almost wonder if it's some sort of (in my mind) revenge for paying interest on CC's in the 1990's.  This will show 'em!  I tell myself.

[Anonymous]

"That is a card I can actually use, and it does more for me functionally than ten or fifteen $30k cards earning 1% cash back would."

Not trying to be argumentative, but you're marginalizing the cards I'm using here.  Unless of course you're not referring to my list of cards at all - if that's the case, ignore the rest of this.

All are 3-6%. 

USAlliance is 6% on groceries until 12/31/23.  3% on everything until 12/31/22.  AOD  - 3% everywhere.

USBank - 5% on utilities (Natual Gas, electric) 5% Streaming Services including YoutubeTV & premium, Netflix

Penfed/Citi - 5% on gasoline

USBank Altitude - 4% on all fast food & restaurants.

Now granted some of the cards I have I keep open for the credit history and are 1.75-2% cards, but the ones that get regular use are all 3-6%.

[wasCB14]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"That is a card I can actually use, and it does more for me functionally than ten or fifteen $30k cards earning 1% cash back would."

Not trying to be argumentative, but you're marginalizing the cards I'm using here.  Unless of course you're not referring to my list of cards at all - if that's the case, ignore the rest of this.

All are 3-6%. 

USAlliance is 6% on groceries until 12/31/23.  3% on everything until 12/31/22.  AOD  - 3% everywhere.

USBank - 5% on utilities (Natual Gas, electric) 5% Streaming Services including YoutubeTV & premium, Netflix

Penfed/Citi - 5% on gasoline

USBank Altitude - 4% on all fast food & restaurants.

Now granted some of the cards I have I keep open for the credit history and are 1.75-2% cards, but the ones that get regular use are all 3-6%.

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Your cards have very good rewards. I was more pointing out a weakness I've seen in some other people's credit-building strategies, where maximizing total credit limits across many cards (to the point that total revolving credit is many times a person's income) often becomes more important than earning rewards or obtaining individual cards with large limits actually useful for major transactions.

Sorry for not being clearer.

[Remedios]

I have a lot in terms of fake money spread over 17 cards. 

Sadly, it's not mine, it belongs to the bank so who cares (other than scoring algorithm)🤷‍♀️  

Whenever someone express admiration over another person's aggregate limits, my soul dies a little - or used to, I don't there is anything left to die