How Many Credit Cards Should You Have?

The more credit cards you have, the more diligent you have to be about keeping up with your balances and due dates, especially if you have balances on multiple credit cards.

The current Guinness World Record for most credit cards belongs to Zheng Xiangchen who has 1,562 credit cards in his name. If you carefully stacked the cards end to end, they'd reach over the top of a four-story building.

Most people don’t need anywhere near that number of credit cards! So what’s the best number of credit cards for the rest of us? While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, as of 2020, American adults carry an average of 3.84 credit cards. Generally speaking, having just one or two credit cards is enough for most people.

The Risks of Having Too Many Credit Cards

It’s not necessarily the number of credit cards you have but how you manage them that’s most important. The key to having multiple credit cards is to:

keep your credit utilization low
pay your balance in full each month
never charge more than you can afford to pay

You have to be disciplined enough to recognize when you’re spending is getting out of control and practice restraint so you don’t create more debt than you can afford to pay off.

The more credit cards you have, the more diligent you have to be about keeping up with your balances and due dates, especially if you have balances on multiple credit cards. Using a calendar or reminders may be helpful for ensuring that you keep up with your due dates.

If you’ve demonstrated you can responsibly handle credit, credit card issuers are more willing to give you credit cards with higher credit limits. Having lots of credit available to you can be tempting. If you tend to carry a balance on your credit card, it’s better to limit the number of credit cards you have. That way you don’t increase your debt cost by paying interest on multiple credit card balances.

No matter how many credit cards you actually have, it’s best to carry no more than two or three with you at a time. You’ll have a backup credit card in case your primary credit card is declined but you also minimize your losses in case your purse or wallet is lost or stolen.

What credit cards are right for you?

To meet your various needs and uses, WyHy offers a VISA Platinum credit card, with a slightly lower rate for those members that usually carry a balance from month to month, and a VISA Platinum Rewards card, offering all the benefits of Cash Back, Travel, or Merchandise. Both cards offer all the features of the national banks, with rates that are much lower.

If you ever have questions about what credit cards are right for you just reach out! We have a variety of options available to help you meet your needs, whether you want to earn rewards points or safely build your credit.

As always, we’re with you!

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