How Many Credit Cards

[Moses Yoder]

I inherited my father's spending habits, which are terrible. If I have money, I spend it. I have been without a credit card now for about 10 years I would say. My wife has several, one for Amazon and one for emergencies. We had to replace one once and I think to have a backup in case your card is compromised is taking planning to an extreme; it would really not be that hard to go without a card for a few days. With the proximity of ATMs, I would say if you need a credit card the most you would really need is one good one. More than that is a luxury.

[Mike Henderson]

I inherited my father's spending habits, which are terrible. If I have money, I spend it. I have been without a credit card now for about 10 years I would say. My wife has several, one for Amazon and one for emergencies. We had to replace one once and I think to have a backup in case your card is compromised is taking planning to an extreme; it would really not be that hard to go without a card for a few days. With the proximity of ATMs, I would say if you need a credit card the most you would really need is one good one. More than that is a luxury.

The problem is if you are traveling. You're in some other town and your card has been cut off. It's really nice to have a backup card.

Or, you go to buy gas and your card is rejected. You don't know why but you need gas and you don't have a bunch of money in your pocket. Maybe you can go find an ATM to get some cash but that takes time and sometimes you're in a hurry.

I have a backup credit card and I think it's a good idea.

Mike

[paul cottingham]

You can do those things with a debit card, so if you want to ditch that last credit card you have an out. Also, more and more online retailers are taking PayPal. You can tie your PayPal account directly to a particular bank account without any card.

We have one credit card left, and the ONLY reason I keep it is because of travel for work, specifically hotel charges, because on so many occasions the hotel charges took FOREVER to actually post and it messed with the running balance on the checking account tied to my debit card. I have actually gotten my reimbursement check from work before the charges showed up on the account. I found it annoying. I always pay it off each month so have not payed any interest in YEARS. If there were ever any down side to that credit card I would ditch it in a minute.

I pay all of our monthly bills online and frequently buy online and NEVER use a credit card. It's all done with direct draft, the debit card, or PayPal.

We also have ID theft protection through ID Experts. They are not as big on the prevention side like LifeLock, but if you have a breach they assign a caseworker who spends THEIR time cleaning up the mess for you. If your identity is stolen you aren't liable for the fraudulent charges, but proving that, and restoring your accounts is where they big losses of time and money are for the consumer.

Cheers,
Charles

Yeah, I've tried to tie PayPal to a bank account but it doesn't seem to work in Canada. Should try again.
i also have I'd theft protection thru my house insurance. Would love love love to be rid of the credit card, as we are on a fixed income, and the card scares me. :-)

[Mike Henderson]

Just in case anyone doesn't know, your liability for use of your card by theft of your card is limited to $50 - and most of the time, that is waived. If the thief only steals your credit card number, and not the card itself, you have $0 liability. Of course, that is dependent upon you reporting the loss as soon as you become aware of it. See here and here for some details on that.

Debit cards do not have the same level of protection - check the two above links for details on debit cards. The net is that you're sometimes better protected if you use a credit card instead of a debit card.

Mike

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

. We had to replace one once and I think to have a backup in case your card is compromised is taking planning to an extreme; it would really not be that hard to go without a card for a few days. With the proximity of ATMs, I would say if you need a credit card the most you would really need is one good one. More than that is a luxury.

I still only have the one credit card, but one summer, my credit card got closed for being compromised, the same time I was without an ATM card because it surprisingly expired. (Even my bank was surprised it expired - the card was a non debit ATM card old enough no one at the bank remembered when they stopped giving them out. ). Working nights, it was tough to be able to get to banks during regular hours, and I only had two checks left, that I needed for rent and bills. Waiting for something (ATM, credit or checks ) to come in, it was an interesting couple of weeks, and I was glad I was spendthrift. Made me appreciate modern conveniences. The other times a credit card has been cancelled, I've lived with it easily.

[Jim Matthews]

Note - if you are the victim of credit card fraud, you should be filing a police report and then notifying the credit agencies and asking for an EXTENDED fraud alert. Then get your free copies of your credit report and check them over carefully and monitor them every now and then.

With an extended alert on your record - if anyone tries to take out credit (even you) they would need to answer a series of questions about your personal history - past addresses where you have lived or worked, etc

Here is some more info
http://idtheft.utah.gov/education/ed...alert_001.html

Excellent, useful post.

Thank you.

[Jim Matthews]

One Discover card, shared with SWMBO.

Balance paid, in full each month.
Groceries, gas and clothing all go on this.

VISA Debit card for the places that don't accept Discover.
(My cash back costs them money.)

Small wedge of folding cash.
If it costs less than $10, most stores around here decline credit card purchases.

What can I say, I live in a backwater.

[Matt Meiser]

Amex and a Mastercard for backup use. Not fun to be out traveling and have one compromised regardless, but having a second takes away some of the risk. Since rental car companies and hotels will do a preauthorization for a significant sum, you really don't want to be using debit there.

[Curt Harms]

Just in case anyone doesn't know, your liability for use of your card by theft of your card is limited to $50 - and most of the time, that is waived. If the thief only steals your credit card number, and not the card itself, you have $0 liability. Of course, that is dependent upon you reporting the loss as soon as you become aware of it. See here and here for some details on that.

Debit cards do not have the same level of protection - check the two above links for details on debit cards. The net is that you're sometimes better protected if you use a credit card instead of a debit card.

Mike

I wonder if the limited/no liability is going to change. According to a European forum, once their banks went to 'chip & pin' (chip in the card, pin required) the banks were no longer responsible for any fraudulent transaction where the chip card & pin were used. Thieves have used inconspicuous cameras and rigged ATMs to harvest stripe reader and pin info. I wonder if something similar is possible. I'm sure it'd be harder to duplicate the chip than to read the magnetic stripe but criminals can be a resourceful bunch.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I have quite a few credit cards because I get bonuses of between $300 and $500 for signing up for them.

That way more generous than I ever managed to score!
I'll have to start looking back into that.

Right now I'm trying to find some bank that will give me free money ($100 to $300) for opening an account - - - that doesn't require me to have a direct deposit or use a debit card X number of times a month.
The direct deposit thing my be doable, but, I despise debit cards.
We only have one because it's tied to a bank account we opened as a condition of opening the account. That and one store we shop at only takes debit cards &/or cash.

[Brian Elfert]

That way more generous than I ever managed to score!
I'll have to start looking back into that.

There are entire websites dedicated to credit card offers. A lot of them are more for cards that give out airline miles or hotel rewards points, but even most of those allow you to trade the points for cash or gift cards. I already have all of the cards with the best offers. Some of the cards you can cancel and then sign up again a year later, but they are starting to state you can't get the bonus offer more than once.

The only card out there that I don't have right now is the Wells Fargo American Express which I think is a $400 offer. I have to wait until my house purchase closes before I do another credit card.

[Rich Engelhardt]

When we bought one of our rentals, I knew we were going to put a lot of $$ into it. I opened a Home Depot card account - one that paid reward points - and stuck as much stuff on there as possible. I got XXX number of reward points for opening the account, and xxxx more points for what I put on the card (plywood, drywall, 2x4's, paint, stuff like that).
Bottom line is I managed to pile up enough points to where I could buy my TS3660 table saw for some ridiculous price like $240 something dollars.

I sort of envy you the position you're in with the new house and all the expenses. Well not so much the expenses - but - you know what I mean .
You're going to spend it anyhow and you might as well get something for nothing right?

I'll have to get back to looking for some of those CC sites.Oh jeeze - I forgot also - someone mentioned to look into buying gift cards also for places like Lowes and HD at places that discount gasoline prices based on what you buy at the store. That's another good way to have your cake and eat it too!

[Charles Wiggins]

Charles - You are really missing out on some of the benefits from using a credit card. I have used the AmEx 90 day accidental damage protection a number of times. Just recently we purchased a new EZ-Up for around $200. Set it up and went inside for lunch. Unfortunately, a gust of wind caught it and flipped it over up against a planter wall while we were inside. The top got ripped and the scissor frame had several links bent. AmEx refunded our money in full in just a couple of days. They also extend you warranty on something for another year. I have had a couple of computer monitors stop working in the 4th year of a manufacturer's 3 year warranty, filed the claim with AmEx - and full refund.

The annual rebate checks are a nice bonus

Another thing I have done recently - Chase was offering 50,000 reward points for a new account with the Southwest Reward program if you charged $2,000 in 3 months on the card. 50,000 points can be converted to $500 in Amazon gift cards instead of using air miles, and Amazon sells a lot of tools....

How much to you pay AmEx per year to have this "privilege"? They're making money somewhere. Maybe not on you, but they're making the money up somewhere else or they wouldn't offer the service. There are other reasons not to use cards, the main one being that if you don't play with snakes you don't get bit.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2033...u-to-overspend

http://www.moneycrashers.com/you-spe...a-credit-card/

http://money.usnews.com/money/person...h-of-good-debt

[Mike Henderson]

How much to you pay AmEx per year to have this "privilege"? They're making money somewhere. Maybe not on you, but they're making the money up somewhere else or they wouldn't offer the service.

Of course, every time you use the card, the merchant pays a fee. Actually, the fee is deducted from the amount of the purchase. So if you buy something for $100, the merchant doesn't get $100 from the credit card company, the merchant gets less - maybe $95. So the credit card company makes money even if you pay off your balance each month. They make more, of course, if you don't pay off the balance, because then they charge you very high interest to carry the balance.

Mike

[Greg R Bradley]

Mike,
There are some CC programs for credit challenged merchants that work that way. People accepting Paypal use that system. All normal CC Merchant programs that I've seen give you the complete deposit and then charge you the fees later. Most of the fees for the month hit a couple days after the close of the month and some other fees hit a month later. I was just reviewing the two accounts that accept CC to make sure there is enough money to cover the charges that will hit on the second or the third. It will be a couple thousand dollars in fees.

That is where they make a big chunk of money. People that don't PIF (Pay in Full by the due date) will pay interest and they make more money there.