With my business, I now have about 3-4 credit cards (a personal Mastercard, a Discover business card and a Visa business card) that are due on different days and it’s driving me crazy trying to remember when to pay them off. I know I can just schedule them to pay on the last day and all but I need to watch the balances carefully because I never keep an excess balance in my checking account.
Why So Many Credit Cards?
I don’t get how my wife did it. She used to have about 20 credit cards a few years ago and I have no idea how she kept track of them all. (Actually, I didn’t find this out until she got a credit report booklet from Bank of America that was 128 pages long. I also used to tease her that she can buy a whole kingdom with all that credit limit but that’s another story.) She told me that she had a spreadsheet to keep track of the dates but wouldn’t she forget?
Reducing Your Credit Cards
I know the argument that canceling credit cards would eventually affect your credit score but I seriously think people go too far with this. I was speaking to a Wells Fargo banker and they told me that about 5 credit cards ought to be enough to keep your scores high, assuming those cards are in good standing. Having that many also makes sure that some of them will publicize the credit limit on the cards (only some do) so those credit agencies can see that your credit to spending ratio is in line.
I can see that irresponsible spenders will need millions of credit cards but for most of us, it’s time to just cancel some of them.
Go on. Cancel some of those credit cards. Your credit card empire may crumble, but that’s a good thing.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t mean to be rude but are you talking about me? I don’t think my husband writes these things but I have a few credits cards myself. He teases me about the same thing too (buying anything with it).
I guess that makes me a credit card naif, because I only have three and that third one I just got last month because it’s denominated in a different currency. I absolutely can’t fathom the idea of having 20 cards. I think that’s reckless even if she did have a spreadsheet. I have an excellent credit score and was able to do that with only two cards.
I love reading these articles because they’re short but ifnormiavte.
Personally, it may make sense for some to have multiple cards but lets ask ourselves what is it for?
And I don’t want to hear because the first one is maxed out.
I mean i can understand one for business, personal and say maybe for like groceries or something.
It is a good way to distinguish but either way, how is it benefiting you in terms of credit score, rewards, etc.