How many credit cards do you have

[David1961]

How many credit cards (including ATM cards, debit cards, and credit cards for specific stores) do you currently have?
I have two credit cards, two ATM/debit cards, and a Kohl's credit card, which I rarely use.

 

[pb4uski]

3 credit cards (Discover, VISA and Mastercard). Most charges go on Discover and VISA is backup and Mastercard is rarely used. Two ATM cards (local bank and bank where we used to live which is where our main accounts are).

No store cards for me, but DW has a JCP card.

 

[razztazz]

I voted wrong. I just saw "credit card" and gave a knee jerk response. I have 2 CREDIT cards. I remember reading many yrs ago that two was the optimum number of cards as far as assessing your credit rating. Don't know if that's still true.

I also have ONE debit card from my local bank where I have a checking account

 

[audreyh1]

Three years ago the answer was 4. We only had 3 credit cards, two of which we carried, and one which sat in the safe to use as a backup in case one of the others was compromised, plus our BofA ATM only card.

We've accumulated quite a few cards over the past couple of years, mainly for various rewards, or conveniences like chip and pin and no foreign transaction fee. So we're closer to 12.

We have no store specific credit cards.

3% Amazon Chase VISA Rewards card - we each got one for the $50 bonus each. These stay in the safe so are only used at Amazon online. We buy a great deal at Amazon so we've racked up a lot of rewards point this way and they make it super easy to use.

The rest we have jointly.

Fidelity AMEX for 2% everything on everything - our main card.

Bank of America Travel Rewards VISA chip and signature. 1.5% on everything. This is our main card overseas or when ordering online from Canada, plus we use it when someone doesn't accept AMEX. Actually this is a 1.65% rewards card because as a BofA checking customer we get an annual bonus of 10% of the rewards accumulated annually. I checked - and we got the bonus!

Costco AMEX - we only use for 3% off gas at Costco plus as our Costco membership card. It gives 2% for restaurants and travel, so we could use it for that, but we usually use the Fidelity because we get to cash in the points monthly rather than annually.

PenFed VISA Cash Rewards with chip and PIN and no foreign transaction fee. We specifically got this to use in automated ticket machines in Europe, but it also gives 5% gas rewards so we use it at filling stations other than Costco.

United Travel Rewards card. We only use it when we buy United Airlines tickets. It gives one free checked bag for each of us plus priory boarding as well as flight points and a large initial bonus. Stays in safe.

Old legacy BofA VISA in safe - we could get rid of this one. The newer has better features.

Old legacy Delta American Express in safe. This is used to pay monthly recurring bills and never used otherwise to avoid the inconvenience of compromise. We have a lot of old Delta travel miles on this, but Delta does not fly out of our airport anymore, so tough to use. Maybe one day. Delta might resume.

BofA ATM only card for our main checking account.

PenFed VISA Gold check card for our PenFed checking account. This normally stays in the safe, but we would take it for traveling. We keep PenFed checking account low and the only bill we pay out from it is our PenFed VISA, so we feel OK funding it for travel and using a debit card against it. We have it linked to from other accounts and can transfer funds in and out in a couple of days - don't need to leave money sitting in there and it's isolated from our main checking account.

We just got two debit cards - one each - for our new HSA Bank accounts. These will probably never be used as we're more likely to use EFT to reimburse ourselves for medical costs and don't anticipate ever using the card at a provider. Parked in safe.

 

[jerome len]

2 AMEX, 2 Visa cards......DW has many more, uses Macy's card most of other cards for extra discounts......Costco AMEX card give us most cash back......hundreds of dollars each year since we buy all gas and big ticket stuff like TV's at Costco. Then we take actual cash from Costco and spend it only on "fun" stuff.

 

[Midpack]

Two credit cards, one debit. If it wasn't for Costco and our bank ATM, we might only have one credit card and no debit card.

 

[scrabbler1]

Two credit cards, one of which I rarely use any more (it serves mostly as a backup), and one debit/ATM card, which I rarely if ever use as a debit card (only ATM for cash). No single-store cards, either.

 

[drb391]

got 2 visas; one for everyday use, one for online/telephone only. one debit card for atm use only ('cept for a week period waiting for reg cc to be mailed to me after leaving it at restaurant on cross-country trip). also have a mastercard never used; maybe never activated. was a "fill out form, get free tshirt" at a hockey game

 

[6miths]

one personal visa and debit, one business visa and debit, one usd visa, one us bank account debit. the personal and usd cards are duplicated for DW.

 

[W2R]

Stop the presses!

As most here know by now, I have only had a debit Mastercard from my bank for the past 16 years. But, after reading this thread I decided, "what the hay" and about five minutes ago I applied for, and was immediately approved for, an Amazon Visa card.

It has no annual fee and nice rewards. I got a $60 gift card for signing up, too. It has a horrible interest rate (14.24% to 22.24%) so I hope I can figure out how to pay on time each month and not mess up. First world problem, I suppose.

So now, I am joining the rest of the indebted masses.... If nothing else it should be interesting to see what this is like, after all these years.

 

[W2R]

I voted wrong. I just saw "credit card" and gave a knee jerk response. I have 2 CREDIT cards. I remember reading many yrs ago that two was the optimum number of cards as far as assessing your credit rating. Don't know if that's still true.

I also have ONE debit card from my local bank where I have a checking account

OK, I edited the poll numbers to change your vote.

 

[ERD50]

... about five minutes ago I applied for, and was immediately approved for, an Amazon Visa card.
...

Ummm, did you check your calendar? Did you mean to save this post for April 1st?


But seriously, I set up our CCs on auto-pay, with an amount that is larger than I typically expect a monthly bill to be. I edit it when the statement is available, and the repeating, larger $ amount 'sticks' for the next month. So I'm unlikely to ever pay an interest charge, and will never pay a late fee.

Even if I forget and over-pay, that will just roll forward to the next month, though I suppose you could ask for a check reimbursement of the excess.


-ERD50

 

[W2R]

Ummm, did you check your calendar? Did you mean to save this post for April 1st?


But seriously, I set up our CCs on auto-pay, with an amount that is larger than I typically expect a monthly bill to be. I edit it when the statement is available, and the repeating, larger $ amount 'sticks' for the next month. So I'm unlikely to ever pay an interest charge, and will never pay a late fee.

Even if I forget and over-pay, that will just roll forward to the next month, though I suppose you could ask for a check reimbursement of the excess.


-ERD50

Thank you so much! This sounds like a good method to keep me from incurring those awful interest rates. I am just totally ignorant about how people do that. All my bills are on automatic deduction so I seldom think about late fees and such.

 

[RetireAge50]

We have Costco Amex, Chase Visa, and Credit Union Debit cards. All on Auto Pay Full Balance.

 

[KingB]

I have 3 credit cards - Chase MC, Chase Visa and Discover. After the Target fiasco, I set up the MC exclusively for paying utilities. For everything else, I use the Visa over the Discover for lots of reasons and so I had not used Discover for months. This is until I got an offer from Discover about a month ago, that I will get $75 back if a make a purchase minimum purchase of $1000.00 by July 31. This is easy - just my homeowners insurance due next month is over $900.

 

[MichaelB]

Stop the presses!

As most here know by now, I have only had a debit Mastercard from my bank for the past 16 years. But, after reading this thread I decided, "what the hay" and about five minutes ago I applied for, and was immediately approved for, an Amazon Visa card.

It has no annual fee and nice rewards. I got a $60 gift card for signing up, too. It has a horrible interest rate (14.24% to 22.24%) so I hope I can figure out how to pay on time each month and not mess up. First world problem, I suppose.

So now, I am joining the rest of the indebted masses.... If nothing else it should be interesting to see what this is like, after all these years.

Is this gonna be anything like that "W" word?

Good luck with the Amazon Chase card. We took one a couple of months ago. For the first time (in the US) I paid interest on a credit card. When setting up the autopay I somehow ended with "minimum payment" instead of "pay entire balance". Of course, I corrected it, but only after one billing cycle. My fault.

I see using a credit card and getting between 1%-3% cash rebate an easy choice, as long as you pay the balance monthly.

 

[Alan]

Thank you so much! This sounds like a good method to keep me from incurring those awful interest rates. I am just totally ignorant about how people do that. All my bills are on automatic deduction so I seldom think about late fees and such.

DW also has an Amazon credit card, issued by Chase, and it allows you to set up automatic payment of the balance each month. It also has good alerts so you can get an email and/or text message each time your card is used on line. Useful since this is the most common type of fraud.

I also didn't read the OP before I voted and only counted CC's not the debit card we have. Maybe you could change the title to include debit cards.

We have 4 credit cards and a debit card between us. One CC never leaves the house and is only used for automatic payments. The Debit Card is only used as an ATM card except at Specs liquor store where a discount is given for cash.

 

[aaronc879]

I have one debit/ATM card and that's all. I'm surprised there's no "0 cards" option in the poll. I know several people who have no cards at all. I don't know anyone that has double digits.

 

[frayne]

One, a VISA, no ATM cards, or debit cards. Still believe in cash for most face to face transactions. Also have never paid a penny of CC interest, ever.

 

[David1961]

I have one debit/ATM card and that's all. I'm surprised there's no "0 cards" option in the poll. I know several people who have no cards at all. I don't know anyone that has double digits.

Actually, when I set the poll up, I'm pretty certain I had a choice of "0". Maybe I set it up wrong. It was my intention to have that as an option. Could a moderator add that option?

 

[audreyh1]

Stop the presses!

As most here know by now, I have only had a debit Mastercard from my bank for the past 16 years. But, after reading this thread I decided, "what the hay" and about five minutes ago I applied for, and was immediately approved for, an Amazon Visa card.

It has no annual fee and nice rewards. I got a $60 gift card for signing up, too. It has a horrible interest rate (14.24% to 22.24%) so I hope I can figure out how to pay on time each month and not mess up. First world problem, I suppose.

So now, I am joining the rest of the indebted masses.... If nothing else it should be interesting to see what this is like, after all these years.

If you order a bunch from Amazon, that 3% will really add up! We've gotten that on the vast amount of our purchases, including non-prime items and orders that ultimately go to other companies. Amazon makes it very easy to apply the reward to new orders.

You can set up email alerts to remind you to pay the bill on time. We schedule the online payment from our bank account as soon as we get an email that our statement is ready. Haven't accidentally missed a payment yet.

Chase administers the card. If you have a Chase checking account you can set up automatic payment of the bill. Otherwise, configure email alerts to include statement available and payment reminder, as soon as you get the email that your statement is ready, go online and schedule the payment.

Wow - it's up to $60 credit now for signing up. Impressive.

 

[Alan]

If you order a bunch from Amazon, that 3% will really add up! We've gotten that on the vast amount of our purchases, including non-prime items and orders that ultimately go to other companies. Amazon makes it very easy to apply the reward to new orders.

You can set up email alerts to remind you to pay the bill on time. We schedule the online payment from our bank account as soon as we get an email that our statement is ready. Haven't accidentally missed a payment yet.

Chase administers the card. If you have a Chase checking account you can set up automatic payment of the bill. Otherwise, configure email alerts to include statement available and payment reminder, as soon as you get the email that your statement is ready, go online and schedule the payment.

Wow - it's up to $60 credit now for signing up. Impressive.

We don't have a Chase bank account but still have our Chase Amazon card set up for automatic payment of the bill from our bank account.

 

[audreyh1]

We don't have a Chase bank account but still have our Chase Amazon card set up for automatic payment of the bill from our bank account.

Yes - I see how to do that. But I initiate all my credit card bill paying from my BofA account, instead of having the credit card debit the account directly. So bill paying is automatic IF a financial institution can send BofA an ebill. That way I can see and manage all the pending bills in one location.

Neither Chase nor FIA card services are on BofA ebill list, so I have to enter the bill amount and date manually.

 

[W2R]

If you order a bunch from Amazon, that 3% will really add up! We've gotten that on the vast amount of our purchases, including non-prime items and orders that ultimately go to other companies. Amazon makes it very easy to apply the reward to new orders.

You can set up email alerts to remind you to pay the bill on time. We schedule the online payment from our bank account as soon as we get an email that our statement is ready. Haven't accidentally missed a payment yet.

Chase administers the card. If you have a Chase checking account you can set up automatic payment of the bill. Otherwise, configure email alerts to include statement available and payment reminder, as soon as you get the email that your statement is ready, go online and schedule the payment.

Wow - it's up to $60 credit now for signing up. Impressive.

Yes, I do order a lot from Amazon and plan to order even more now that I am no longer paying for cable TV. (Thanks for your thread a few months ago about disconnecting from cable TV, too, which started the seeds of thought in that direction.) Anyway, I suspect that the 3% will be adding up nicely, plus I think it was 2% for gas and 1% otherwise, or something like that. Even if it only adds up to a few dollars a month, I could get a free lunch now and then.

Unfortunately I don't have a Chase checking account.

We don't have a Chase bank account but still have our Chase Amazon card set up for automatic payment of the bill from our bank account.

Oh good! My good friend Frank was telling me over lunch that he thinks I might be able to get the entire amount automatically deducted/paid from my checking account, which would be my desired option, and what you are saying seems to confirm it. That would be great.

I haven't checked my credit report for years, so maybe I'll do that now. At least there will be something on it.

The last time I had a credit card, everything was done by snail mail. The Dark Ages.

 

[Alan]

Yes - I see how to do that. But I initiate all my credit card bill paying from my BofA account, instead of having the credit card debit the account directly. So bill paying is automatic IF a financial institution can send BofA an ebill. That way I can see and manage all the pending bills in one location.

Neither Chase nor FIA card services are on BofA ebill list, so I have to enter the bill amount and date manually.

That would be useful. I actually never leave it for the automatic payment to happen, and pay it online when I'm ready, but I do like that if something bad happens then it will go out automatically.

Penfed doesn't have the auto pay option so I have an auto payment from our bank of $100 each month which covers the minimum payment should I fail to pay it any time.