Can You Manage More Than One Credit Card?

The average American consumer has more than one credit card. Some have even more than one – try up to ten credit cards at any one time. While there is not much harm in having the credit cards, there can be a great detriment to your financial life if you don’t know how to use those multiple cards responsibly. Without managing credit cards and being proactive about your credit spending, you will likely end up in more debt than you can handle.

Here are some tips to handle more than one credit card account successfully and avoid debt and other financial problems:

Be Mindful of Due Dates

If you are paying off several credit card debts, you likely will start juggling payments if you can’t keep up. The worst thing you can do is miss a payment, or even be late with a payment. Keep an easily visible calendar where you can mark which credit card bills are due on which date. If you have the cash on hand, make sure you start mailing out your checks as soon as the statement comes in. If your dates are currently too hard to manage, request new ones from your credit card company that can help you keep better track of what is due when.

As long as you can keep enough cash in your bank account at all times, you can set up automated payments to handle all of your credit card payments without further intervention. This will save you time and money in stamps.

Consolidate Those Accounts

If you feel you have more than you can manage, consider consolidating your active accounts to one or two more manageable accounts. There are several low interest balance transfer cards available to meet your needs. You can transfer higher interest balances to a credit card so you can devote more cash to one balance, allowing you to pay off the balance faster. You may also be able to get a much lower interest rate on the new card during the introductory time period, saving you more money in the end while you continue to pay down your credit card debts.

Cut Down on Spending

Instead of spreading out charges among all your credit cards, work at paying down all of the other balances and stick to the one or two cards that have the best rates and rewards then continue using just those cards while you continue to pay off, and maybe even close out, your multiple accounts you no longer need.

Choosing which credit cards will stay open can be a tough decision, especially if you are used to having access to all of them at any time. It becomes an issue of discipline but it also has some financial aspects. You’ll need to consider which cards charge you high fees, maintenance fees, high interest, low benefits, or which ones may have downgraded your credit limits or rewards earnings recently. It will be up to you to determine which cards are worth keeping and which are worth tossing. If you have had some credit cards for many years, you will need to revisit your original contract terms and then check out some of the newer credit card offers to see what may have changed that you are not taking advantage of for your personal finance goals.

Having more than one credit card is fine but having too many credit cards can cause you serious financial harm. Managing your credit cards should be a number one priority on your path to financial success. Using credit cards to your advantage will take some work but will be with the extra effort.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 6:22 am and is filed under Card Security, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.