Credit Tips: Are More Credit Cards Better?

Posted On: July 1, 2006

Author: Angie
Posted: Fri May 09, 2003 7:28 pm
Post subject: Is More Better?

Is it better to carry a wide selection of cards (AMEX, Mastercard, Visa,Discover, gas cards,dept.cards, etc.) to be prepared for any situation, or only a couple?

I have about ten cards, including AMEX, Mastercard, and Visa, but only use two on a regular basis.

Should I only carry those two (Mastercard and American Express), or more?

Author: Ira
Posted: Sat May 10, 2003 7:37 am
Post subject:

There’s no one answer to the question. I use a number of targeted cards. For instance, I use a Shell MasterCard fro Citibank to get a 5% rebate on all my Shell purchases. I use a AAA MasterCard from First USA to get a 5% rebate on any other brand of gas where I can pay at the pump. I have various and sundry other cards which offer rebates of one sort or another. Careful usage of the right card in the right situation can maximize your benefits. How many cards should you carry? You’ll have to figure that one out based on your credit standing and life style.

Author: munster
Posted: Sat May 10, 2003 8:07 pm
Post subject: cards

I have 21 prime cards and 5or6 store cards and don’t have a problem plus my utilization looks good

Author: Eugene
Posted: Wed May 14, 2003 1:02 am
Post subject: Re: cards

Munster, your credit-to-balance ratios look good (if you’re not maxed out on all the cards), but you get a bunch of other problems.

You probably need to make sure you use each card at least once every six months or so, or you risk that the issuer will close the card as incative, and that’s not good for your report. On the other hand, spreading the use of cards means getting less or no rebates/rewards for your spending.

Kepping track of such number of cards is a nightmare. If you move, you have to call them all, change the address and then make sure that it is changed. If your card expires, you should expect a new one, and if it does not come, it’s easy to miss that, and that may mean missing fraud.

Paying all these bills instead of just a couple is more difficult, there is more potential for error, and it may be more expensive (more stamps or more expensive electronic bill pays).

I bet your average credit line is much lower than what it would have been if you had fewer cards. Issuers see you have a lot of credit already available to you and keep you at a relatively low credit line for each of their cards. It’s much nicer to have three cards with $10,000 credit line each than 10 cards with $3k limits each if you ask me.

I would close most of them if I were you. Why do you even NEED so many cards?