How many credit cards do you have and why?

lr1277

A John Lewis card for my day to day spend and I get vouchers. CS is very good.
A JAJA card for all foreign transactions. Not confident about customer service though.
An FD card for any dodgy transactions as I know their CS is rock solid.

If I can’t get the replacement John Lewis card provided by Newday, thinking of using the FD card as the replacement  or applying for the Lloyds cashback  or Halifax Clarity cards

[Deleted User]

Currently

Spending

Lloyds - main card with cashback (0.25% to £4000 and then 0.5%)

Sainsbury's - main card for shopping and fuel / nectar

BT

Barclaycard - consistent 2 year offers with 3.1% fee

M&S - good long BT period with a cashback offer

Santander - got it for the 21 month transfer no fee but I am having problems with this as they keep reversing the BTs (have done it 5 times, they claim there is no issue with security but confirmed with the receiving bank that no funds are going through. Going to try one last time over the phone and if they can't do it, going to close it again)

Legacy

Halifax - oldest card and paid 0.25% on everything for pretty much 20 years before I got the Lloyds one - be nice to merge them but can't, I keep it around and do the odd spend on it but not much use any more

NatWest - was a good initial BT offer with good balance and low fee but now just offering 12 months and no perks so just closed it. Will give it a couple of months if the Santander one gives up and try and get this one again with the new user offer (the staff chat online said I can apply immediately but going to wait)

Marchitiello

8 Credit Cards account currently plus 2 charge cards.

why so many? Mostly legacy products with benefit I do not want to lose but the break down is as follows:

BA AMEX PP 90-95% of my annual spend (1.5 Avios or 3 Avios on BA spend, 2-4-1 voucher at 10k annual spend)

HSBC Premier WE MasterCard first choice when Amex is not accepted (mostly used for the school payment system, unfortunately they changed from a previous one that did accept Amex) (2 Points per £ which convert to 1 Avios, but normally conversion under a Promo at 1.25 minimum). Give Lounge access for 1 person for free (useful as a family of 5)

Santander Zero MasterCard (not currently offered) - First CC choice form Foreign Currency Spend (actually using Chase Debit a card as it meet the same positive attributes but also offers cash-back until October for me)

MBNA Horizon Cash-back Visa - A Legacy product, Back Up for Forex spend, offers 0.25 or 0.5% cashback (cannot recall right now) on all spending in any currency but at slightly worst Visa exchange rate.

Barclaycard Chashback Black - Legacy product, but my oldest account from the late ‘90’s,  only put few £ through every 3-4 months to keep Alive. Slashed my CL be 2/3 during Covid when not being used at all.

Barclaycard Hilton - Legacy Product, give automatic silver status or gold for spending £10k pa, plus bonus point when used at Hilton hotels. Kept alive with few £ every 3-4 months for status when I may not hold The Platinum Card by Amex.

The last two, from MBNA and RBS are for stoozing.

The Charge Cards:

The Platinum by Amex - Heavy fee but I can currently justify it. Only used to meet bonus spend (made over 142,000 MR in the first year, that I normally convert to Avios at 1:1 rate), retention offers and Cashback/statement credit offers. It gives me basically 4 lounge access (with a secondary cardholder)  or 6 at the Centurion Lounge Network (regularly fly from T3 now) and status with 4 of the main hotels chains and Almost all Car Rental Company (using status match).

The Blue Card - Never used, applied 8 years ago to keep relationship with Amex when they allowed easy churning of Cards, should close it really. 

I would be happy with retaining the first 6 CC  and The Platinum ChargeCard only and close the other three (when the 0% offers end) .

if I did not have those legacy products right now I would probably just have the Current Barclaycard Avios, an Halifax Clarity or similar for Forex, and my current BA Amex PP and HSBC Premier WE (until my anniversary date, then cancel), so effectively I think I would want a minimum of 3/4 cards plus The Amex Charge Card at any time.

The additional though is that I have very large limits on my first three cards (and still  4-5 digits on the remaining) as there is a long history of large spend and repayment  in full that if I had to close and reopen later, I would not get at the same level.

Maple08

I've got the Amex Gold card and it's £140 a year but essentially £20 per year due to the £120 Deliveroo credit that I can make use of. It's going up to £160 but I like the changes coming to the card, so I'm keeping it going forward. The card itself gives me 0.8% cashback at a minimum because I can use the Membership Rewards points by converting to Avios and then to Nectar (eBay). However, I'm just using it for the benefits and to transfer to Avios. Acceptance of Amex has also not been an issue for me.

My backup to the Gold card is the Barclaycard Avios (Mastercard and is free) and that gets me 1 Avios per £1 spent. Again, it's the same as the Gold card in that the minimum value I can get out of it is 0.8%. 

I also have the Amazon Platinum card that I used only for Amazon. It's being scrapped so I've stopped using it because I don't think I can hit the spending required to get the £10 voucher.

Finally, I need to close the Amex Platinum Cashback Everyday card because I no longer use it. I'm just waiting on my anniversary month to be able to use the cashback I've gained.

blue.peter

Four:

1. Amazon Platinum (Mastercard), used for the cashback. Most of my spending goes on this.

2. TSB (Mastercard), kept going because it's got a higher credit limit than the Amazon card. I spend a little (typically, about £40) each month on it, just to keep it active.

3. MBNA (Visa), kept going only because it's my oldest card. Again, I spend a little each month on it.

4. Nationwide (Visa). Excellent for foreign currency transactions because there's no non-sterling transaction fee. That's useful because I often buy e-books and music downloads priced in USD or EUR.

Managing them is fairly easy: I record all transactions in AceMoney, so I always know how much I owe on each at any time. All are paid in full by DD each month.

gd55

I'm six months post-IVA discharge (settled in full) so rebuilding my credit.

I have three credit cards:
Vanquis, opened very soon after IVA.
Ocean Finance, opened a few months after that.
Capital One, opened last week.

Total credit limit is £3.5k which I'm very pleased with at this point. I put food and petrol spends between them and pay off in full each month.

I'm planning to merge Cap One onto Ocean, as that's also provided by Cap One, and just stick with the two cards then and see how it goes over the next 12 months.

Rosco32

I currently have 3.

My Amex Platinum, which I use for the cashback element, plus they always seem to have a lot of offer on that appeal to me, such as spend £60 or more in Molton Brown and get 10% back.

My other 2 (Mastercards) are with my main bank. I originally just had the one and the 0% offers expired. They allowed me to open a second account, which has new 0% offers on.

guesswho2000

Currently 17, it varies and I've recently cancelled a few, but always 10+ anyway. They're from 3x countries, I use them for rewards.

jbrassy

Currently 3:

1. Amex Platinum cashback which is the main card I use as it gives me cashback (0.75% up to £10k spending, 1.25% above £10k).
2. Capital One Platinum which is a legacy card which also pays cashback (0.5%). I use this when Amex is not accepted.
3. Barclaycard Rewards which I use abroad as it has no foreign transaction fees and also pays cashback (0.25%).

Overall, the main reasons I use credit cards are:

1. They give you cashback for purchases you're going to make anyway;
2. They offer section 75 protection;
3. They help to improve your credit history (when paid off in time and in full) which is beneficial when applying for mortgages etc.

Ohfeelya

1. Capitol one (0.5% cashback)

2. Barclaycard (0.25% cashback),  no forex fees

3. Tesco (use vouchers for Disney plus and RAC membership, 1.25% equivalent), use this card for tesco shopping only 

4. Halifax clarity - no forex fees

5. Amazon (1.25% back in amazon vouchers, use this card for amazon shopping only) 

6. Amex rewards 

All set to pay statement balance via direct debit, so no extra work for me.

I like the consumer protection credit cards provide, and I like free money.