So in this post I am going to talk about all the credit cards that my wife and I have. Â It is a crazy amount by most normal people’s standards. Â This I know. Â It was even featured when I was on the CBS Sunday Morning show talking about rewards cards
So I will repeat my common mantra – DO NOT SIGN UP FOR A CREDIT CARD JUST BECAUSE SOME GUY ON THE INTERNET SAID THAT YOU SHOULD! Â YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE QUITE AS CRAZY AS I AM TO STILL RESPONSIBLY USE CREDIT CARD REWARDS TO TAKE YOUR FAMILY ON VACATION
Okay then with that disclaimer out of the way, here are a few thoughts
The old tracking system
I used to have a giant spreadsheet where I’d list all of our cards and another tab where I would put down spending and reconcile it to different accounts.
Then every Saturday (or so), I would go through each of my accounts, making sure that I understood each transaction and hadn’t missed anything (like an unwanted annual fee or something like that)
This got to be super unwieldy and time-consuming, which caused me to stop doing it, which led to some unfortunate occurrences, like annual fees that I paid that I would have preferred not to pay, and other transactions that I didn’t recognize and/or needed to get reimbursed or take action with.
Clearly this non-action was not working either so a new system was born!
The new tracking system
After putting it off for awhile, I finally decided to organize with Mint. Â I also considered You need a Budget (YNAB). Â There are pros and cons with Mint or any other online system I know, but I figured I would give this a try.
One thing that I do NOT have is a good way to track my signup bonuses. Â I don’t want to run into an issue where I miss out on a signup bonus (again)
[The time I missed out on a $400 signup bonus]
The complete list of 43 credit cards
And we all know that the only reason you clicked on this post is to see the list of all the cards my wife and I have :-), so here you go:
- Amex
- Dan
- Every Day
- Hilton Honors
- Amex Plat
- Delta
- SPG Business
- Carolyn
- Every Day
- Hilton Honors
- SPG Biz
- Dan
- BoA
- Dan
- Alaska Business
- Carolyn
- Alaska personal
- Dan
- Barclay
- Dan
- AA Aviator
- Arrival
- Upromise (my oldest card so I keep it for Average Age of Accounts)
- Carolyn
- Aviator
- Dan
- BBVA
- Dan
- BBVA Compass NBA card
- Dan
- Chase
- Dan
- Freedom
- Freedom (old Amtrak card)
- Hyatt
- IHG
- Ink
- Marriott Business
- Carolyn
- Freedom
- IHG (SEE: Why you should get 2 IHG cards at the same time)
- Hyatt
- United
- Slate (her oldest card)
- Dan
- Citi
- Dan
- Hilton
- Hilton
- Hilton
- AT&T Access More
- AT&T Access More (SEE: How you can still get an AT&T Access More card)
- AA Plat
- Prestige
- Premier
- Carolyn
- AA Gold
- AA Plat
- Double Cash
- Prestige
- Hilton
- Hilton
- Dan
- First Bank
- Carolyn
- Best Western
- Carolyn
- US Bank
- Dan
- Flex Perks
- Flex Perks business
- Dan
This does not include any Authorized User cards, which we have several of
And now what?
I’m glad I did this – it makes me feel good to have a bit of organization here! Â I did find a few problems that I need to address such as missing accounts, or discrepancies between the list I had and the list on their website. Â I’m also planning on canceling some of these cards before the annual fees hit (and so I can apply for the cards again!). Â The worst part was finding that Hyatt Place Atlanta somehow charged me $40. Â Perhaps I earned NEGATIVE hotel fire alarm compensation, where I pay THEM when the fire alarm goes off??!!?
What about you? Â Which of these do you have? Â Leave a note in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Nice post. What is your total annual fee cost between the two of you guys? Do you feel it’s worth hanging on to that many cards with that required capital outlay each year?
I don’t pay annual fees on most of the cards – I’ll cancel them before the fees hit. See also – 4 cards I will pay the annual fee on
Can’t your wife change her Slate to the Freedom Unlimited without changing the AAoA?
Yes she could and I’ve considered it. I’m still not ruling out getting a signup bonus on the CFU yet (can’t currently due to 5/24)
WOW! how many cards do you normally carry on you while running errands?
I usually only have maybe 4-5. I’ve given my wife just one to use (usually the Chase Freedom). I used to try and micromanage her card usage but it got to be too much to deal with for the amount of points we’re talking about
Definitely seems a lot, especially some of those duplicates (5 Citi Hilton?). I would close them. Typically after getting the points, and waiting for a period of time – with Citi, it’s just a month or so, with Amex and Chase it’s a few more, I close the accounts unless I plan on keeping the account long term. There is no reason to keep them open.
The reason I’m not closing the Citi Hilton card is that it will then reset my 24 month clock
Understood, and as I mentioned, just offering that I would close them, you can certainly keep them open if you like. But there is at least one link out there without the 24 month language on it. Unfortunately the current offer is only good for 40K miles, but if you can churn it over and over, it’s not quite as important.
I know you have said you can’t get a Chase card if you have applied for 5 cards within 24 months but are there others that will allow you to apply multiple times for the same card and still get the rewards. Also we get business card offers all the time but don’t owns business. Don’t you have to have business to get one of those cards?
Well, somewhere in there you said it was crazy, so I concur.
I’m curious how all of the activity, opening and closing accounts, affects your credit score? Clearly you are able to open more accounts so it must be good, but I’m curious how you monitor or manage your credit score. Perhaps you have written about this at some point? I’m a new subscriber.
Tammy – you are correct that I’ve written about this before – How does applying for credit cards affect your credit score. I also use Credit Sesame to check my credit score for free.
Dan, have you ever asked a credit card company to waive its annual fee for you? And did they? I was told when I applied for my Barclays AAdvantage Card that they “might” do that after the first year if you told them you would only continue to use the card if they did. Of course, this was from a flight attendant who was pushing me to sign up for the card.
Yes and sometimes they do. It depends on a lot of factors but generally doesn’t hurt to try. I typically will do that before I cancel a card and if they say no, then I cancel it
Dan, I also manage a large number of cards but on a database instead of a spreadsheet. You wouldn’t use a hammer to fasten a screw as it isn’t the correct tool for the job. This site gives a good explanation. https://www.techwalla.com/articles/the-advantages-of-databases-over-spreadsheets.