Moving and wallet simplicity

[wasCB14]

I'm the middle of moving to another house and find I have a limited appetite for wallet complexity.

While my cards aren't exactly facing a "mass extinction", have others here found moving to be a motivator for closing cards?

I know that sprees are fairly common once the mortgage funds can't be recalled, but there's no mortgage involved here (renting cheaply, eventually inheriting).

[AverageJoesCredit]

Unless all your cards are metal or titanium, i think its ok to move with what you have. I mean, its only a wallet, not an 80 inch Tv😄

[pinkandgrey]

I find life to be a motivator to close cards. 

[pinkandgrey]

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@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Unless all your cards are metal or titanium, i think its ok to move with what you have. I mean, its only a wallet, not an 80 inch Tv😄

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Dang I laughed at this lol

[wasCB14]

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@pinkandgrey wrote:

I find life to be a motivator to close cards. 

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True.

I suppose moving is a combination of exhaustion and being forced to commit to keeping possessions (and committing time and/or money to move them) or getting rid of them. So prioritization stays on the mind.

[kdm31091]

I'm not sure if you're referring to physical wallet simplicity (i.e. you just want to SD some cards) or mental simplicity (you want to eliminate them from your mind and not have to worry about them).

In any case, I've never subscribed much to the SD thing. If a card no longer benefits me I just close it and move on. I'm not going to monitor an account that is giving me no benefit and just adding clutter to my life. I've never noticed any score issues from my approach honestly. If you went from 10 cards down to 1 you may have a problem. But 10 down to say, 7, for example, and still low utilization, is not going to even change much if anything in your profile.

Sometimes the CC game just gets exhausting and it's ok to want to simplify things. Cards should benefit you and make life better, not be a burden. So if simplicity is what you want you should go for it.

[Aim_High]

Not so much in terms of moving, but yes I have been through periods of simplification.  It's good to reevaluate sometimes.

Actually, for most of my 35 years of credit history, I've normally not had an overabundance of cards.  I think most of my life I had no more than five or six.  I was never a credit collector.  About 20 years ago, I entered a period where I was carrying balances and added some cards to roll over balance transfers, then had some accounts AA'd and reduced or closed.  Eventually my career recovered, I got divorced, the debts got paid off, and my credit score became better than ever.  So I simplified my cards greatly.  Then ... I became interested in newer cards for higher cash back and rewards instead of balance transfer options and got on My Fico.  Lol ... and started adding again.  It all ebbs and flows.  

I definitely see the benefit in keeping things simple.  I don't want a walletful of cards I rarely use or don't have a good purpose for.  On the other hand, I appreciate my older accounts (I have 4 that are 19+ years) and having diversity between banks, so I'll never be a one or two card consumer.  There has to be a balance between those needs for me.   

[wasCB14]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

I'm not sure if you're referring to physical wallet simplicity (i.e. you just want to SD some cards) or mental simplicity (you want to eliminate them from your mind and not have to worry about them).

In any case, I've never subscribed much to the SD thing. If a card no longer benefits me I just close it and move on. I'm not going to monitor an account that is giving me no benefit and just adding clutter to my life. I've never noticed any score issues from my approach honestly. If you went from 10 cards down to 1 you may have a problem. But 10 down to say, 7, for example, and still low utilization, is not going to even change much if anything in your profile.

Sometimes the CC game just gets exhausting and it's ok to want to simplify things. Cards should benefit you and make life better, not be a burden. So if simplicity is what you want you should go for it.

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I know it doesn't take long per issuer, but it feels a bit strange to update my address on cards that may get less than $1000 spend over the next few years without providing any useful perks.

I'm dropping cable TV and a landline phone (which I wasn't paying for separately before), only using streaming services for entertainment and my mobile for phone and news. While I get rid of some furniture I'm not using, I feel a vague inclination to also get rid of cards I'm not using, either. I'm just a bit curious if others have felt the same way.

[kdm31091]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:

I'm not sure if you're referring to physical wallet simplicity (i.e. you just want to SD some cards) or mental simplicity (you want to eliminate them from your mind and not have to worry about them).

In any case, I've never subscribed much to the SD thing. If a card no longer benefits me I just close it and move on. I'm not going to monitor an account that is giving me no benefit and just adding clutter to my life. I've never noticed any score issues from my approach honestly. If you went from 10 cards down to 1 you may have a problem. But 10 down to say, 7, for example, and still low utilization, is not going to even change much if anything in your profile.

Sometimes the CC game just gets exhausting and it's ok to want to simplify things. Cards should benefit you and make life better, not be a burden. So if simplicity is what you want you should go for it.

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I know it doesn't take long per issuer, but it feels a bit strange to update my address on cards that may get less than $1000 spend over the next few years without providing any useful perks.

I'm dropping cable TV and a landline phone (which I wasn't paying for separately before), only using streaming services for entertainment and my mobile for phone and news. While I get rid of some furniture I'm not using, I feel a vague inclination to also get rid of cards I'm not using, either. I'm just a bit curious if others have felt the same way.

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It can feel good to consolidate things in life, whether it's posessions or financial accounts. I don't like having accounts floating around that I'm not using or getting benefit out. It's just unnecessary mental energy spent tracking them and monitoring them for no benefit.

[Anonymous]

Moving means updating each account with the new info.  It's a bit of a PITA to update 20+ creditors each time but, it depends on your strategy and what you're holding onto.  If I had to send in a printed doc for a card to change the address that would put them on a kill list.  I can handle logging into the site and using form fill to prefill the info though and hitting submit.