Can you have TOO many CCs?

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Yes, of course, you can, if you don't manage them well and overspend.

But, if you manage them well, how many is TOO many for your credit rating?

The only issue I've seen is that Chase will decline an application even for good risks if you have opened 5 in the last 2 years. I'm not sure how many other banks use the same or a similar guideline.

As I've mentioned in other threads, I'm chasing bonuses. I currently have two older Visa cards and two older store cards (Lowes and Home Depot). I have two new MasterCards opened since January '22.

I'm planning on closing the Lowes card the first of the year. I got is specially for one large purchase that I needed the 24 month 0% interest for. That will be paid off by December and since they don't pay rewards or issue $ off coupons and it can't be used anywhere else, I don't really need it.

I also have an amount on the Home Depot card that will soon be paid off (same thing, one large purchase using an 18 month 0% interest promo). I'll probably keep that one since they DO offer $ off coupons from time to time.


I'm currently at 13% credit balance usage which is good, but I'll be under 5% by the end of the year and maybe down to 2%

So, the thing is, I have my eye on two other cards that pay a $200 bonus if you make so much in purchase in X days. I have two more items I need that will meet those requirements if I do one on each card. $400 is a lot of money to me if I can get it for doing something I need to do anyways.

This would bring me to four major cards and one store card, only two of which were opened in the last two years.

But, I don't want to crash my 800 rating either. That gets me these cards almost instantly and got me a $20,000 loan secured by the machine I was buying without having to show any income or other data. That loan will be paid off next month, three years early.

What's bothering me is that the total combined available credit would be quite high, even though I would maintain a sub 15% usage rate.

I guess I could close the 2 new MCs, which would bring the total available credit down, but I'm not sure I want to do that. Closing the older Visas would have a larger ding on credit age, so that's out.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Crap I thought we were talking about girlfriend or wife boob implants…..

 

[skyking]

I was thinking "there's no replacement for displacement" and engine size
Reminds me of the time I had to take the company dump truck for emissions testing, and the young lady read from her script " is that the original 14.6 liter engine?" OMG that sounded so funny.

 

[dlerious]

I always use BCC so I can avoid CCs. Blind CC being like those one-time use cards (virtual card/ privacy card) , or possibly paypal - in other words, a middle man between my card and the seller.

 

[yottabit]

I must have 30-40 at least on my report and 820+ rating. I personally wouldn’t close a card for fear of having “too many” but if you are going for churn maybe other factors like annual fee etc

 

[Red Squirrel]

I only have one, I don't really see the point of having that many, either way you have to pay them off at some point, ideally before the interest kicks in. Two might be a good place to be so you have a backup in case something happens to one.

 

[Captante]

I used to have a bunch but now I use/carry one Mastercard and only for emergencies. (I do have multiple debit-cards)

I prefer paying cash for stuff whenever possible.

 

[dullard]

For your credit score, no you cannot have too many cards.

For your own life balance, yes you can have too many cards. Keeping track of all the terms, conditions, which card to use where, taking the time to pay dozens of bills each month, etc can make it not worth it.

I personally have three CCs. One I don't use and keep it at home (rotating every 3 months which card is not used). This one is for emergencies only like losing my wallet with my other two cards. The other two I have set up with different 5% cash back rewards. Between the three cards, I can usually select two of them to give me 5% back on almost everything I buy.

 

[Captante]

For your credit score, no you cannot have too many cards.

For your own life balance, yes you can have too many cards. Keeping track of all the terms, conditions, which card to use where, taking the time to pay dozens of bills each month, etc can make it not worth it.

I personally have three CCs. One I don't use and keep it at home (rotating every 3 months which card is not used). This one is for emergencies only like losing my wallet with my other two cards. The other two I have set up with different 5% cash back rewards. Between the three cards, I can usually select two of them to give me 5% back on almost everything I buy.

My bank allowed me to get a second card with a different number for both my primary debit and credit cards.

One of each stays in my fireproof mini-safe @ home.

 

[IronWing]

I have two, one for everything and the second for when the first one gets hacked (about every two years). Which reminds me, it is time to buy something with the back up card again to keep it from being cancelled.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I don't spend enough for the % rewards to make that much difference. I use them when I can, but they're not a priority. The initial bonus rewards is the big draw.

With Chase, I have a checking account with a Debit card and a regular Visa and MasterCard all with different numbers. With proper timing, I got $200 bonuses on each of the three.

Same with Citi .... savings with a Debit card and a MasterCard with different numbers.

I hit Fifth Third for a $250 bonus a few years ago, then closed the account after some problems. I am now enrolled again for a $375 new account bonus since I closed that other one over two years ago.

No planning on a CC there at the moment, but I'm trying to time one from Capital One which prompted this thread and wondering how long to wait and if I should close any before applying.

 

[dullard]

I don't spend enough for the % rewards to make that much difference. I use them when I can, but they're not a priority. The initial bonus rewards is the big draw.

I have an Excel document with a running tally of all bills. I've paid over $800k to credit cards in my life. Not all of it was at 5% since I started with just 1% cash back. But even it if was all at 1%, I'd have gotten over $8000 back. It is probably much higher than that, I bet closer to $20,000 cash back. Since I get it back in the form of gift cards on sale, make that closer to $25,000 cash back. I'd have to look at the Excel sheet to get the exact total and I don't have it with me. The initial bonus is nothing compared to that.

 

[purbeast0]

I typically open like 2-3 in my name each year and 2-3 in my wife's name each year.

I also cancel them before paying the next annual fee.

My credit is always lingering around like 810 - 840 so i don't think it hurts having so many.

 

[purbeast0]

I only have one, I don't really see the point of having that many

Because flying all over the world for free is better than having to pay for flights.

 

[AdamK47]

Credit cards become fairly simple to game if played right. Every person is different in terms of what they want to get out of it. To keep it simple, I keep cards for years so I don't have annual fees to deal with. Helps maintain overall credit availability and limits hard inquiries to keep the credit score up. I have four cards with different cash back percentages for Amazon purchases, gas stations, different stores, and different restaurants. Pay it off at least once a month. Weekly if I can. Cash out the points at the end of the year.

Funny thing happened in April this year when I bought my R8. Moved $154K from my brokerage account to my Chase checking account in order to buy the car. A couple weeks later I receive a notice stating my Amazon Chase card limit was increased from $16K (has been at that for 7 years) to $30K. Go figure.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Because flying all over the world for free is better than having to pay for flights.

You still have to pay those back you know. Unless you're talking about points, but you need to spend a LOT of money to accumulate enough points for a flight. I tend to just do cash back instead though.

 

[esquared]

I typically open like 2-3 in my name each year and 2-3 in my wife's name each year.

I also cancel them before paying the next annual fee.

My credit is always lingering around like 810 - 840 so i don't think it hurts having so many.

To concur with purebeast ( I was hoping he would post as I know he does the CC churn to get those miles points)
having many (greater than 10 CCs) does nothing to hurt your FICO. You just have to remember to use them all several times
through out the year or the CC companies can lower your available credit or cancel the card completely for non-use

If people are concerned with keeping a high FICO (i.e. 800+) its tough to do with a single CC.
1) Having just one CC screws with your credit utilization. No card should ever be utilized more than 30%.
2) A friend of mine that does contractors work asked me about why his FICO was so low for having a CC
with 60K credit. He said his FICO would sometimes dip into the low 700's even a high 600 IIRC.
He uses that card for everything and I think some months he charges 20K or more. I told him even though he
pays it off every month, the records show a high utilization rate which may vary from 15 to +30% That will put a big ding
on your FICO. Especially if you're contemplating a house or car purchase, you want a high 700's to make sure you get the best interest rates.

 

[purbeast0]

You still have to pay those back you know. Unless you're talking about points, but you need to spend a LOT of money to accumulate enough points for a flight. I tend to just do cash back instead though.

Yeah I'm talking about with points.

This year my wife and I have flown to Belize and Roatan for free.

We have also flown to Florida to go to the keys with both of our kids for free.

And that is just this year but is pretty typical, usually we travel 3-5 times a year flying.

Our friends paid $650/ticket on the same Roatan flight we were on. So that is $1300. The Belize tickets were like $600 a piece so that is $1200. Then flying to Florida would have just been 3 tickets since our youngest is still a lap baby but I think it would have been around $1100 if we paid for em.

So that's a savings of $3600 this year alone. I remember one year I did the math and it was around $7500 saved in flights alone.

It's such an easy game to play too but people are afraid to do it for some reason. I've told like 7-8 people I know to do it and only 2 have done it, but they only did it once and then were done, which I still don't get. My one buddy does it just as much as me though if not more. He's a single dude too so he racks up flights and he uses a lot to fly business class around the world.

 

[Exterous]

The closest thing to a downside to too many cards from the financial institution side is that banks will only hand out so much credit to you. This is, to a large extent, a bank by bank thing. So at some point you might get a card with $1k limit or even declined for a new card due to too little available credit if you have several cards with the same bank. Easy to fix with a call to the bank to move some credit limits around but you have to know to do that

You still have to pay those back you know. Unless you're talking about points, but you need to spend a LOT of money to accumulate enough points for a flight. I tend to just do cash back instead though.

Card sign up bonuses are the way to go there. Huge return on value. Much more than 5% back IF you travel and are realistic about your travel options

 

[Exterous]

Our friends paid $650/ticket on the same Roatan flight we were on. So that is $1300. The Belize tickets were like $600 a piece so that is $1200. Then flying to Florida would have just been 3 tickets since our youngest is still a lap baby but I think it would have been around $1100 if we paid for em.

So that's a savings of $3600 this year alone. I remember one year I did the math and it was around $7500 saved in flights alone.

It's such an easy game to play too but people are afraid to do it for some reason. I've told like 7-8 people I know to do it and only 2 have done it, but they only did it once and then were done, which I still don't get. My one buddy does it just as much as me though if not more. He's a single dude too so he racks up flights and he uses a lot to fly business class around the world.

We went to Alaska with friends recently and we paid $44 total for our domestic first class seats. They paid $900 for their economy seats on the same flights. We had planned this out far in advance and told them I was going to get a credit card for flights for this trip. We've talked about how play this game but zero interest from them.

/shrug