No kidding! I think I have enough Delta miles to fly around the world several times, first-class. I get by with 3 cards. The one that gets used the most is the one with the lowest limit, but gives back the most points.
I know people who have done that successfully, but I also know people who did that in complete earnest, but life threw them some expensive curve ball and they were unable to pay off the credit card within the free period, and things sort of spiralled from there.
I currently have a debit card tied to my checking account which I hardly ever use (I did have to start using it to pay at my dentist to a avoid a credit card fee) and a medical debit card issued by my healthcare provider.I have a bunch of credit cards which Ive gotten for various reasons. A Discover card which I had gotten when they first became available through Sears, a Chase card I had gotten because it gave me cashback on my purchases at Borders, and an American Airlines card because in addition to miles for flight charges it lets me fly without having to pay to check bags. Last year I got a Chase Travel card which waived all foreign exchange fees because I was traveling to Iceland and Glasgow. I also have a Harris Teeter card which gives me points for purchases when I’m grocery shopping.
At one time I had a Wells Fargo card which gave me credits which I could apply to my mortgage; once the mortgage was paid off I closed the account. I also have a Synchrony account which I had to open to pay for the HVAC system replacement last summer. By paying it off within 12 months I won’t have to pay any interest, which is a big money savor.
I haven’t checked my credit score recently, but I believe it is upwards of 820.
Yup. I never use the backup card unless the other gets compromised, which has happened. Any more than two is overkill.
Ah, so you’re that guy I’m always stuck behind while he laboriously writes a check for his candy bar? 
I have a debit card
I don’t see how a debit card is better. Everything about debit seems way worse to me. If the info for your debit card gets stolen, that money is gone and your bank account can be cleaned out. If a credit card gets stolen, they’ll just cancel the card and the fraudulent charges.
This, but not only because you are less likely to default, but also because you are more likely to seek more credit, which also profits them. Credit equals debt in my shorthand (not actually a valid statement, credit equals easier opportunities for debt, but it keeps me from being tempted).
while true, keep in mind that federal consumer protections (particularly fraud protection) for credit cards are significantly greater than they are for debit cards. If your debit card is hacked, that money is coming directly out of your account. You will probably get it back eventually, but in the meantime you may be severely inconvenienced. If your credit card is hacked, you report it to the bank issuing your card, get a new one sent to you, and that is (generally) it. I always recommend using a credit card instead of a debit card for this reason and, if you pay it off monthly, you can usually get cash back or other reward based on the card you own.
As I see it the main disadvantage to a debit card is that someone can clean out your bank account and while you’re trying to get that straightened out, all those automatic withdrawals start bouncing. What was one phone call to straighten out a lost credit card is now multiple contracts for each payment.
I’ve discovered that we sometimes need three credit cards for my family of three. That’s because we sometimes use contactless transit payments, and they generally require each passenger to use a different credit card number (so it can keep track of where each passenger started and ended their journey).
If each person gets a card attached to the same account, is the number the same?
Depends. For our two main credit cards, in one case my wife’s has the same number as mine. For the other, the Costco Visa, we have different numbers.
I never tried using transit with each of us using the Costco card. It might work, since they have different numbers.
I’m just wondering if you can request different card numbers for each authorized user? It might be useful to track who spent what.
In fact, you can pay it off more frequently than monthly. That’s pretty easy to do these days with online banking. If you’re really concerned about overspending, log in and pay your credit card at the end of each day. That way it functions kind of like a debit card (in that the money comes out of your checking account almost immediately), and you get the additional protections and any rewards that a credit card offers.
Note that you may not want to do that if yours is a rewards card. In my experience, the reward points are only issued at the end of the statement period.
I carry two credit cards. One is for things like parking meters, gas pumps, and buses. The other has more associated benefits. I also carry a no-fee debit card associated with an account that has only a small amount of money in it, and $20. When we travel, my lovely wife carries a different credit card and debit card, and I add ~$100 in local currency unless we’re in a big city where cash is anathema to the coffee vendors (like London).
I used Experian. Maybe the score range is different in the UK?
I seem to be an outlier. I have 10 credit cards but only two have any balance on them, both at 0% interest. (I’m not counting the debit cards for the three bank accounts because they are essentially a plastic, immediate-pay check). The oldest of the CCs is 15 years old, which helps my credit rating because history appears to be important. I’ve accumulated them over the years by taking advantage of the 0% interest promos.
I have a lot of animals, and have always had horses and old vehicles. All of these are prone to sudden and expensive mishaps which I rarely have the immediate cash for. I generally pay at the outset with one card, and then if it’s a giant balance that will take a while to pay I’ll do a balance transfer to a 0% card with the longest period I can, generally 21 months.
I immediately set up auto-payments through my bank (I pay TO them, I don’t allow them to draw FROM me) and mark a couple of dates on my calendar to check the balance, and the drop-dead date when the promo runs out. At that point I can generally pay it off.
I started this after my husband’s plane accident when we had ginormous medical bills. 20/20 hindsight tells me that I could have worked with the medical institutions on all that, but at the time I was overwhelmed and scared, and he was the only money-earner.
Now I have something insane like 60k in open credit that I almost never use. I don’t intend to either, but it’s comforting to know that if life turned totally upside down I could still feed everyone and keep the lights on for a while, until I could make other arrangements.
This is an artifact of US law. I don’t believe it’s true in most countries.
For the benefit of those from other countries who may not be familiar with US law, your liability for fraudulent transactions on a credit card in the US are limited to $50, and that’s so low that most credit card issuers don’t even claim that much. That amount was codified into law when $50 was worth a great deal more than it is now. But that’s why i carry two or three credit cards and an ATM card, but don’t carry a debit card.
ETA: @saje 2 posts up.
I’m a lot closer to you than most of the folks here.
I have 15 active credit cards & 4 active debit cards.
Two CCs that each have 40 year credit histories and are now unused, just kept for their longevity and high credit limits. One hotel chain and one airline card that get heavy use and accrue lots of points and miles. Another three travel-affiliated cards that grant better ticketing deals and / or access to travel lounges on airlines I occasionally fly.
8 cards that are affiliated with various retailers and afford significant discounts on their stuff. Four of those are also general use Visa / MC / Amex, while the other four are that-store-only cards.
The debits go with my primary ordinary checking account, my backup checking account, my brokerage account, and my retiree FSA-like account thingy. The FSA one is used when I buy medical care or medical crap; the others are never used for purchases, and only the primary checking account debit card is used to (rarely) obtain cash from an ATM at a bank branch.
So I use 2 general purpose cards + the gasoline-affiliated card all the time. I use most of the others only when buying from that retailer.
The only balances are on the that-store-only cards where I’m enjoying the 1-, 2-, or 3-years no interest loans they’ve given me.
Most are on an auto-pay system where they send my bank an e-bill if there’s a balance, and my bank auto-pays them on the last possible day. So my effort to oversee this herd of cards is negligible.
I look at the various percent-off cards as just a perpetual coupon I can’t lose that won’t expire.
They’re all counting on me to get stupid, forget to pay timely, or spend money I don’t have and can’t get. But I have no reason to play their game. I’d rather play mine.