How many Credit Cards do you have? What is your total credit limit?

[azloafer]

QUESTION: Why does anyone need more than ONE card that is accepted anywhere, like Mastercard or Visa? I know that some people have 3-4 cards, but I don't know why?

[mommabear2]

I have 3 cards - one card has 40K limit, another has 25K limit, a 5K limit department store card. Who needs this much credit?

When you have a really high credit limit it can hurt your FICO score (so I've been told). Banks think you might use it when you lose your job - so they get sketchy about lending you more - the idea is you might over extend yourself.

[thepizzaguy]

I used to have 8-9, but I took care of them. Right now I have none, but I can fill out this form to my left and get one pre-approved for 20K. It's a no hassle Mastercard. Capitol One.

[Angel Bear]

I have a Visa with a $55K limit, but I pay off the balance each month.

My Macy's card has a $1K limit, but I only use it to buy concert tickets via Ticketmaster when I can't buy tickets in person LOL. I don't run a balance on that either.

That's it...Not sure about hubby's...He has AmEx and not sure of the limit am I.

[hnsq]

Originally Posted by azloafer

Once you have the card and sign up for their web site you can download the software directly from their site. You can also pay your card between statements by going to the site or check on pruchases, etc. I really think that the virtual number feature is great because you hear so much about stolen credit card numbers.

Actually over 80% of stolen numbers are offline. People are paranoid about shopping on the internet, but will hand a 19 year old college dropout their card to pay at a resturaunt.

The only reason I bring this up is that I work in IT and have done a few projects in security. I am much more worried about identity theft offline than on the internet.

[Shopaholic]

I have 3 cards. One I keep on me at all times and use for most purchases to rack up flying miles. The other one I keep at home for emergencies, like if I lose my wallet, that way if I have to cancel the first one I still have something to use as immediate back-up. The third one is for work related expenses. I work in Marketing and you have to expense stuff frequently, so it is best to keep these expenses separate.

[azloafer]

My credit card number was stolen and used by someone before I switched to a card with virtual numbers. I live in Arizona and someone in Garland, Texas bought something and had it shipped to Skokie, IL. The credit card company did investigate and put the money back into my account. I had to agree to testify if they caught the person. I never did hear anything further. They canceled my card and issued a new one.

There was a magazine show on TV a couple of weeks ago that delt with stolen credit card numbers. It showed a computer expert go to sites (the site names were blocked out) that openly sold credit card numbers with expiration dates. Some cards were listed as, "never used" and were selling as cheaply as $5.00. What was really shocking is that the sites also sold online store names that didn't check card information as closely as they should and never ask for that three digit code! It was a real eye-opener!

[mommabear2]

Originally Posted by azloafer

QUESTION: Why does anyone need more than ONE card that is accepted anywhere, like Mastercard or Visa? I know that some people have 3-4 cards, but I don't know why?

I have three instead of 1 for different reason...

1.) Mainly - it adds more positive lines on my credit report
2.) I have points on one card that are earned for travel
3.) I use the card companies against one another to lower my interest rates if they go up (which they always seem to try to sneak in a point or so).
4.) If one card gets ganked - I have the other one to use (it's happened already).

[azloafer]

If you go to the credit bureau sites (use google) you will find out that more cards is not a better thing. Credit scores go down with more "availble credit" that a person has. The fear is that you will someday max out all cards and file the big B! I have one card, but never carry a balance. In fact many times I pay online between statements. If I use my card to buy furniture, I will have many times, prepaid the card with the amount that I was planning on spending.

I admit that I am a little obsessive about bills. I pre-pay my electric bill for the entire summer because it is high here in AZ. Then each bill comes with a credit and it just makes me feel good. I know, I'm weird. I don't like to owe anything. My credit score is 860.