1. An American Airlines Mastercard that we pay off every month. We get free mileage and pay no interest. If it weren't for the Miles, we wouldn't have any.

And yes, my son is named Miles, too.

Hmmm...I have an Amazon branded Visa, a United Airlines Visa card I plan on cancelling this year because I've used all the miles I accrued, a Chase Freedom card, and one from my bank WAMU.

So I have four cards...wait, I may have a Nordstrom card but I don't think it's been used for several years...so five cards with probably one finding itself cut up into multiple pieces later this year.

I've got two cards, myself. Discover and a Disney Visa. I swap back and fort between the two and always pay them off regularly. Getting free money (real money for the Discover and funny money for the Disney Visa (but, hey, I do use it)) is always a good thing... at least for me.

.....All I've got is a Chase Platinum Visa and a debit card for my checking account. Simpler is better. And the Visa gets paid off in full every month. I only use the debit card at Sam's Club, which won't take Visa...

i have one boa platinum visa on the verge of being maxed-out. but i'm working on it... (paying it off, that is, not actually maxing it out)

My main card is AmEx, because they have the best customer service in my experience.

I have a Visa card for stores that don't take AmEx.

Finally, I have a Mastercard which is rarely used, I keep it because some places in Europe Mastercard is more widely accepted than Visa.

All get paid off in full each month.

Oh, and there's my old AmEx, which I'm canceling once the next bill comes through as I just switched from Platinum to Blue.

I've got one Discover (going to cancel it), one BofA mastercard, and Amazon Visa. I've been using the Amazon card mostly, I like the $25 gift certificates I keep getting since I do buy from Amazon. I had Mervyn's, Target, and Sears cards but only got those for the discounts when signing up and have closed all 3. My wife and I are going to get a Costco Amex card so we can see how much $$ we spend there over the course of a year and get that 1% or 2% (woo hoo!) rebate.

I have nothing but my Visa check card, while the wife has an AmEx we use regularly (paid off monthly, natch) and a Disney Visa we stopped using due to ridiculous terms and Chase's inability to process payments in a timely manner.

I need to get a credit card one of these days.

I have a Discover. My husband has a Visa. We're each on the other's card. So, that means our household has two or four cards, depending on how you look at it.

I suppose it's easy to get caught in the trap of owning a bunch of credit cards though. I found some guy's wallet at Lowe's over the holidays. When I looked in it to get his photo/name, I couldn't help but notice the fistful of cards he had, probably close to a dozen. I'd never be able to keep that many straight

I was just discussing this with a relative who worked in the credit card industry for several years. He advised me to get rid of all but two cards. Lenders are leery of people with a lot of untapped credit on the basis that, if they are hit with a sudden series of problems (or just go off the deep end) they could go from owing nothing to owing tens or hundreds of thousands very quickly.

@drrew: Think hard about cancelling "old" credit cards.

According to Suze Orman, it shortens your credit history which can lower your credit score.

Also, closing credit cards lowers your available credit which increases the percentage usage of your available credit. This will also lower your credit score.

Just stop using the card.

I have a Sears card and a debit card. That's it.

Sams Club Discover: used so I can purchase things at Sams without a check or my debit card, also to accrue rewards points.

Chase VISA: it had a good rate and a good 0% balance transfer I used to save financing charges when I bought a new computer

MBNA Alumni MC: got it as an additional, lower-rate card to avoid the high rate on a capital one card

Capital one MC: got it when I was 17.

All but the Discover card are sitting unused in my desk drawer.

Oh, I have a debit VISA but that doesn't count.

Okay, I'm sorry to have to point this out, but I'm sure most of these numbers fall within the margin of error. A lot of the quoted results would really mean there's not that much of a change, statistically.

I have a Discover card I pay off in full every month and use for most purchases over $100. I also have an Apple Credit Account Mastercard with twice the limit of my Discover card, which I keep on hand for emergencies but haven't used since I opened it to buy an iBook. My credit report, however, shows a lot more cards than that, since I'm technically still on a couple of my mom's accounts, even though I don't carry those cards. good thing she pays her cards off in full every month, too. ;)

zero, nada, none... and loving it

@ColoradoShark:

What Suze doesn't tell you, is that you don't need a credit score. Much ado about nothing.

I have a Visa and American Express. Between the two of them I can pretty much buy anything with a card anywhere either is accepted. And that's good, because I really, really don't like carrying cash.

I carry one AMEX, one Visa and one MC. But, as I recently discovered, Experian and the other credit bureaus think I'm carrying several more because past cards I've carried (mostly for promotional no-interest deals) were never closed despite my requests. Thus, I have to question these stats because I'm surely not the exception in this regard (it's well-documented that many CC companies may not actually close your card when requested).

I wanna see somebody make a SUIT out of credit cards... that would be amazing, and sick.

One Citi Bank Mastercard that I pay off every month and just use since I get a percentage back and one Chase Visa with no interest for 18 months I used to buy my laptop.

Good god! 10 cards?? I have a Capital One platinum card with a 4.99% APR (for real - it stays at that rate unless I make a late payment or take a cash advance, which I've never done) and no annual fee, plus two other cards I never, ever use (I'm not even sure one is valid any more).

Bofa Visa (employee credit card rate, although I've been gone for years!), Discover Platinum (Opened for the 0% bal. transfer rate for 12 months), and Amex. No new charges on em' though, just payin em' off steadily!

Six.

Two Visa debit for two different accounts. [Only use one]

2 Cap One Mastercards
1 Cap One Visa
1 Saks Fifth Avenue
1 Sears

Credit score: 700

1 marital MasterCard
1 personal Visa (you can't buy your spouse secret presents when he sees the bill!)
1 card that my mom gave me for disasters like a $20,000 medical airlift from Timbuktu. Because I really can't imagine any other situation in which I would need my parents' credit in addition to my own, but that's what moms are for.

So that's 3 for me, I guess, if the mom-card counts. My husband maintains a personal Discover and a mom-card (from his mom, not mine!) as well as the marital MasterCard, so 3 for him.

(I do wonder how they count these things - primary users only? Because if they count kids who have a parental emergency card, or spouses who are on each other's accounts but never use the card, that will drive the # of cards per person up by a WHOPPING amount, whereas if they only count primary user, or actual users, it'll be lower. None of these ever explain their methodology, or if they count "dead cards" people just don't cancel.)

one card............

@SexCpotatoes:

You ask, I deliver: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/14/1047583697734.ht...

I've never had a credit card in my name. Ever. My credit score is 755.

[sarcasm]Good thing I spent my time (and money) 'building my credit'.[/sarcasm]

The whole system is such a terrible system of myths.

For me- I have 4 credit cards.

My Chase Flexible that just ended its 0%, so i rarely use that now.
My WaMu card that I used to transfer the balance from Chase that i never use, just pay the monthly fee since its 0% balance transfer.
My Citi Dividend card, which is awesome- gives me 5% for gas and shopping- I use that for about 100-200 bucks a month, paid in full monthly.
My Chase Business Card which is currently 0% until I believe December 07.

Credit Score of 697.

1 Visa
2 Mastercards
and 2 debit/check cards.
The actual cc's are almost maxxed, but being paid off as quickly as possible.

One Amex,
One Visa
One MC
And one business MC
Zero balance on all of them

After using up the 12-15 months of 0% interest on one of those mail-order credit card offers, and the free loan...I mean full balance has been paid off, what's the best thing to do with the account? Should I put it in a drawer and never use it, or cancel the account?

We have two Mastercards. My wife uses one, and I use the other. That way, if we are on a trip, and one of us lost our credit card, we could cancel the one that was lost, and still be able to use the second credit card.

We are fortunate enough to be able to pay off our credit cards each month.

@TPK NEVER CANCEL A CREDIT CARD!!!! Canceling or closing a credit card will put a nice dent in your credit score!

Your credit score looks at your available line of credit, how much you borrow of that line, do you make your payments on time, how long you have had credit AND HOW LONG YOU HAVE HAD INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS OPEN.

Now, with that said there are a few times when you should cancel your credit card.

#1 If you have a problem controlling your debt.

I'm not saying cancel because you have a balance... I am saying if you lack the willpower to stop spending, as a last ditch effort cancel your card.

#2 If you pay annual fees for your card.

Why would you pay for a credit card?????? For Miles or Points? Look around, plenty of banks offer the same without a $40 or $80 annual fee.

Just starting out building credit and the only card you could get has a fee? Fine, use it! CARRY A BALANCE!! A small balance is fine... NEVER MORE THAN HALF THE AVAILABLE CREDIT LINE. Make your payments on time. Pay it off once in a while and buy something else the next month (gas for your car, your gonna spend the money anyways). Do these things, you get a decent credit score, you YOU CALL YOUR EXISTING CREDIT CARD COMPANY AND ASK FOR AN ACCOUNT WITH NO FEE. They took the risk on you... you proved you use the card and pay on time. They'd rather keep you as a customer! ALSO APPLY FOR A NEW CARD WITHOUT AN ANNUAL FEE.

#3 Keep in mind, if your credit card company changes its Terms and Conditions, you can usually opt out of these changes within a set timeframe by closing the card. Normally you are permitted to pay off your existing balance under the previous Terms.

@TPK:

It depends upon what you are doing, going forward. Are you going to continue living and dying by credit cards? Or is paying off this debt a part of a larger plan to get out of debt and stay out of debt?

If you are going to stay out of debt, then build up an emergency fund of cash - there are numerous articles about how to do this. Then close the account and shred that sucker. If you are staying out of debt, then what do you care if your credit score takes a ding or two? There's no reason to intentionally trash your credit score, but at the same time, there's no reason to worship it. As I stated earlier, my score is 755 despite having all kinds of comments like "Lack of revolving debt this, and Lack of long term that". You don't need it. I don't see why you should keep an unused card around as well as the added risk.

They try to scare you with that glasses-on-the-end-of-their-nose look like, "You do want to be able to buy a home and provide for your family one day, don't you?" crap. No credit cards, no revolving debt, consumer debt free in fact for nearly a year, and yet I'm getting the prime rate on my mortgage.

If you're planning on continuing with the 'building of credit', then have fun with that. As you've seen, that blade cuts both ways.

Thanks for the replies. I should have provided more background.

This was one of those many 0% junk mail offers I'm always getting. I finally decided to go ahead and take some money from these folks. I transferred the full credit limit balance to the new card from my main card (which is paid off every month), and put that same money into my on-line savings account. So after 14 months of paying the minimum payments and collecting my interest on the balance, I'm done with this card. Will never use it again, so that's why I was asking what is best to do with it now.

If the only "ding" is the reduction in my overall credit available (from the eliminiation of the credit limit on that particular card), well I couldn't really care less about that. I've had to call my other card company at least twice and have them reduce my limit by tens of thousands of dollars at a time simply because it is silly to have a credit limit that high on a card! Very few people need that much purchasing power in their wallet.

I think when it comes to setting up the credit limits on the 0% cards, they are running a fraudulent scam, but that is a subject for another day.