how many...

[moesy4]

Credit cards do you have and how often do you cancel/get new ones for bonus stuff?

 

[katie111]

I have 2, Kohls and a Chase SW card, as well as my bank debit card. I've had SW for about 4 years and have never cancelled it, although I prob should. Before that I had an Amex platinum but barely used it. DH has Amex Platinum & a Bank of America Visa card he uses for gas.

 

[Marionnette]

Credit cards do you have and how often do you cancel/get new ones for bonus stuff?

I have a fistful. Maybe two fists full if you count my husband's cards as well. It's been a very long time since I canceled a card. Years.

 

[HM]

We have 1 Amex, 2 MC, 3 Visas, I think.
I haven't ever cancelled one.

 

[TippeeCanoe]

I have 2 credit cards, both Visa's. I've had one of them for 12 years and the other for about 4. It's been about 15 years since I've canceled a card that wasn't hacked.

 

[kashzan]

I have a bunch of credit cards. Only use 2 of them. I never cancel them as it does reflect poorly on your credit rating.
I pay my balances every month on the ones I use, and forget I have the others. I keep them put away and pray that no emergency pops up that will force me to use them.

 

[MommaBerd]

We have had only two for pretty much 13 years - the Chase Visa and Costco Amex. I have had a Kohl's card for about 6? years and I *just* got the Target Redcard for the GC churn/discounts. Since Costco is ending its Amex partnership and that card will be discontinued, I'm going to get the Amex Blue Cash Preferred. So, we've never canceled a card that I can remember.
BUT DH has "personal" cards for his business, for example, several months ago he got the Disney Visa rewards card. So, I guess technically we probably have at least two or three more, but they are strictly for business. (The rewards, however, we do enjoy!)

 

[MommaBerd]

Credit cards do you have and how often do you cancel/get new ones for bonus stuff?

I didn't really answer the second part - I'm only now starting to shop around for credit card incentives/bonuses, but I don't think DH would want me to be opening/canceling cards routinely for fear of what could happen to our credit.

 

[Katy Belle]

2, a visa and a Discover. We get cash back on both, and use them for everything. Use our debit card only for cash from ATM, never as a credit card. We've had these 2 cards a long time. We never carry a balance, so no need to change to lower interest rate.

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

my wife and I each have a Discover card, which we both got in college and have had for 20+ years each. We have a SW visa, just got this last fall for the 50,000 promotion. We have a chase visa and a first national bank visa. Both those cards give us 1-1.5% cashback bonus. We also have a debit/atm visa tied to our checking account.

We have done bonuses with creditcards for promotions a few times. We both have credit scores just shy of 850 (max) and pay them off each month in full. We charge EVERYTHING to cards and earn the points/miles etc. In the last year, we have paid for about 35% of our Disney trip on miles/points associated with our credit cards. This only makes sense if you pay in full each month. The cards we don't use that much, we will charge something to them a few times a year to keep them active.

 

[bjscheel]

A bunch.
Amazon Visa for the Amazon points
Disney Visa for 0% on packages
Capital One for 1.5% cashback- we got it because it used to be 2% on fuel and DH has a semi
Two Discover cards from back in the day when that was the best cashback around- barely use them now, but have had them since almost the beginning of our adulthood
Chase Freedom - I don't know why
Two SW Visas- these are our primary cards now as we hoard SW points to fly for free. DH had another one for the bonus points that we cancelled. These two current ones are in my name so all the points go to one RR account now.
Kohl's card, for the discounts
Sears card- this one might be cancelled soon for lack of use

Over the years we've had more that we cancelled. We took out a few after 9/11/01 when there were so many 0% offers and we had some debt to take care of. Cancelled those later.

 

[hsmamato2]

a bunch.... but I tend to use 3-4 at a time, rotating to whichever has the best rewards in a given category that coincides with what I need to buy/the rewards I'm seeking. If you have good credit it's not an issue.... but as noted,it's a good idea to keep older cards so your record is longer....

 

[havaneselover]

Way too many. Three Amex cards (soon to be two once Costco and Amex part ways, a Citicard, chase freedom and chase Disney (don't have a clue why I haven't closed that one), capital one quicksilver, and a Wells Fargo visa. Balances are paid in full every month and most of my spending goes on my C1 card or Amex blue preferred.

I probably have opened one card per year when there is a good sign on offer. But I need to not open any more and close a few.

 

[calypso726]

I probably open up 3 - 6 cards a year and cancel about that many too each year.

These are in my wallet
Chase Freedom for the 5% category bonuses earning Ultimate Reward points
Chase Sapphire preferred for the 2% on dining and travel and to dump my Freedom UR points in that account so I can transfer them to airline miles
Chase Ink Plus business for the 5% on electric, cable, phone and office supply stores. I buy store or Disney gifts cards at office supply stores and get 5 miles per $ on my shopping and Disney vacations.
Starwood Preferred Guest - points transfer to over 30 airlines, Amex offers
Citi Prestige which I just picked up for the bonus recently

These are in the "sock drawer"
Amex Everyday no fee to keep my Membership rewards active from a previous Amex that I picked up for the bonus (100,000 mile Platinum) and then cancelled. Didn't want to lose the points but didn't want to pay a $450 fee
2 no fee Discover cards in a drawer that I only use if they give me a great incentive like spend $1000 and get $100 cash back
Disney Visa no fee - used to book Party for the Senses in advance of regular booking
Capital One Venture which DH and I picked up to get $800 in excursions on the Disney Norway, Iceland Scotland cruise last year. Haven't decided if I will keep it or cancel it yet.
Barclay Arrival no fee card which I just downgraded from the Plus so I can keep a card with chip and pin for travel in Europe
Citi American Airlines Advantage gets me 10% back on redeemed miles and free checked bags
United Mileage Explorer card - card holders have access to award flights that are not available to those who don't have the card
Club Carlson card - 40,000 points every year on your cardholder anniversary date = free hotel stays overseas
Marriott Rewards card - free night each year in a category 1-5 room which is worth more than the fee
Hilton Amex - gold status and part of my 5 year plan to stay in overwater bungalows in Bora Bora for a week which is going to need about 7 credit card bonuses to accomplish LOL
Amazon card no fee - sits in the drawer, buy gum or something with it once a year.
Costco card which is now a Amex no fee green card which I will probably cancel so I can get a rewards earning Amex in its place

 

[tvguy]

1 VISA that I have had since 1979. I get decent cash back.
I had another VISA for about 3 years that I got for some circumstances that never materialized, and never used, so I closed it 12 years ago.
I had an ARCO gas credit card, it was closed in 1982 when ARCO stopped taking credit cards.
I had a Mobil gas credit card, but closed it 20 years ago when Mobil pulled out of California.

 

[Princess Minnie321]

I have a bunch that are all put away and never used. The ones I use are my gap card for the rewards, the target card for the 5% off, and the Amex blue cash preferred for the bonus points. I pay each off montly.

I did get the capital one venture card today so I can get the bonus miles for the airfare to Disney. The annual fee is waived this year. I plan to get the rewards, buy the airfare, and cancel before next year.

 

[scrapquitler]

Credit cards do you have and how often do you cancel/get new ones for bonus stuff?

I have a discover, a MasterCard and a Kohls card in my name, DH has a Mastecard in his name and we have a joint MasterCard in both our names. I got the Kohls card about 20 years ago when they are new in our area, We've had the joint MasterCard for about 12 years and all the others have been open for about 30 years.

I don't open/close cards at all usually.

 

[star72232]

One.

No churning for points/rewards. It can be done, but I do think it's harder/less effective in Canada.

 

[moesy4]

Interesting...so you don't have to answer if you don't want, but for those with five plus cards open, what is your total amount of credit available? I used to be a loan officer at a bank and we were taught that several open lines of credit (even ones that hadn't been used in years) were a huge red flag because of opportunity risk....say I approved you for a personal loan when you had 25,000 available in credit lines. Even if you never put a dime on them, it was a huge risk because you had the opportunity to go out tomorrow and become massively in debt. We only in the past couple of years started taking advantage of bonus deals and I have always closed the card when we were done (particularly to avoid the annual fee) for this reason. We have never been turned down, but we currently have two cards (Disney and chase preferred) that we have had less than a year. I was tempted at the airport to sign up for the southwest visa, but since we already had two cards I didn't want to get greedy. We have excellent credit, pay off in full every month, but it just seemed like a lot. I was curious where everyone else stood on it.

 

[scrapquitler]

Interesting...so you don't have to answer if you don't want, but for those with five plus cards open, what is your total amount of credit available? I used to be a loan officer at a bank and we were taught that several open lines of credit (even ones that hadn't been used in years) were a huge red flag because of opportunity risk....say I approved you for a personal loan when you had 25,000 available in credit lines. Even if you never put a dime on them, it was a huge risk because you had the opportunity to go out tomorrow and become massively in debt. We only in the past couple of years started taking advantage of bonus deals and I have always closed the card when we were done (particularly to avoid the annual fee) for this reason. We have never been turned down, but we currently have two cards (Disney and chase preferred) that we have had less than a year. I was tempted at the airport to sign up for the southwest visa, but since we already had two cards I didn't want to get greedy. We have excellent credit, pay off in full every month, but it just seemed like a lot. I was curious where everyone else stood on it.

When we first got married we had a total of 3 cards with a total limit around $10k, and we did get denied a car loan because of too much available credit. We went to another lender and got approved. Now we have 5 cards with total limits several times that (and we almost never carry any balance) and it hasn't been questioned since that denial back in the early 90s.