The part #1 of this series deals with the basics of how to keep track of your credit card accounts.
Between me and my wife, we have 18 credit cards (9 each) ! In any given month, 10~14 of them are active. Some of have balance transfers on them and others have purchase charges; that basically means I have to juggle with 10~14 credit card statements every month. I have been doing this for more than 5 years now and till date there hasn’t been a single instance of a late payment. So here are some tips on how I am able to do this; more importantly, tips on how YOU will be able to do this.
Problem with paper statements:
If you get a lot of paper statements and if you are not organized with putting papers in their proper places, you are going to miss a statement or two very soon. Plus, I don’t like the fact that many credit card companies print your full credit card number on the statement pages. This creates additional headache of shredding all these pages which carry sensitive information. Managing paper statements require a lot of resources.
Get everything online:
I have all my credit card transactions online. This is the first step towards better credit card management. Register for online access to credit card accounts and sign up for paper-free billing. Paper-free billing means you will get your statement be email. Then, register you bank’s checking account with the credit card company so that you can pay your bills online. Almost all credit card issuers have this online bill payment facility. Check with your bank to see if it charges any fees for such online transactions; if it does, my advice is - dump it and open an account with a bank that doesn’t have fees for such transactions.
Get organized with your online activity:
Once you have set up your credit card accounts for online access, the first problem you will face is managing the information: different websites, logins, and passwords. Here tools like Yodlee MoneyCenter are extremely handy. But, if you are not comfortable with that idea you can still be organized. A good way to access credit card websites without having to search for them everytime, is to add the login page to your “favorites” folder in IE or “bookmarks” folder in Firefox. Here is an example of my Firefox bookmarks (all cards are not shown):
With a list like this you also have all the credit cards in front of you at once and there are no issues like “Oh, I forgot about this card totally”. Once you have the list of cards, every week start from the top of your list and login to every credit card and check the status. If you have cards with Citibank, this becomes really easy because Citibank allows access to all Citi cards with just one login. In fact you can put cards from two different persons under the same login. So you can combine all the cards in your family if you wish. If you have cards with Discover, this thing will suck because Discover doesn’t allow two cards under one login…not even when it’s your own second discover card. Thats why in my list above there are three different bookmarks for Discover. Though each of the Discover link will take me to the same page, when I list them as Discover-1, 2 and 3, it helps me remember that I have 3 cards and avoids “Oh I forgot about the third” mishaps. With Citi this is not a problem since I see all cards once I login and hence only one bookmark for Citi.
Manage your passwords:
If you use Yodlee, this does not apply to you because Yodlee does all the remembering stuff. If you don’t use Yodlee then write down your logins and passwords on a piece of paper and store it somewhere safe. I would go one step further and recommend that you remember all the logins and passwords. It seems like a big thing to remember 18 passwords but believe me, if you try it you will be surprised to see how easy it is to remember them. Just FYI, at the present moment, I have about 33 unique users names and passwords in my memory for various online accounts. If you don’t want to remember and don’t even want to write it down, use some password management software like the Comodo iVault.
Some additional comments:
So I use 14 of the 18 credit cards, what about the remaining 4 cards? Well two of them are in my bank’s safety deposit box for ultimate emergencies and the other two are always at home for situations like “I lost my wallet and don’t have access to the bank”. If I sound a bit paranoid, it’s because I am a bit paranoid.
In part #2 of this series, I will write about managing credit cards with an account aggregation service. My focus will be on using Yodlee.
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Wow, 18 cards! I do something similar with paying my cards, but through my bank billpay. I have not heard of Yodlee before, sounds like an interesting service.
Can’t wait for your next article.
I have to admit that I’m curious about what you use them FOR.
I could see having a gas rewards card, a general card, and a couple of department store cards for each of you. How many cards are you using for BTs?
For comparison, I have two. One is my “primary” that I use for my usual CC purchases. The other was a 0% for 15 months deal that I used to buy my computer (essentially my DIY installment plan). I’ve considered getting a rewards card but will probably put it off until after I buy a condo.
What on earth do you need 18 cards for?? We have 2 + a debit card, and the two provide more available credit than we could possibly ever need (at one time, anyway). Having that many cards is probably detrimental to your credit report because it would create a huge ability for you to get overextended. Do you have a plan to get rid of some of them once they’re paid off?
Hey I didn’t realize that Discover does not allow you to show more than one card per login, but it’s probably because I got mad at their less-than-lucrative [for me] cards so I fired them.
But you can link more than one person’s cards under Citi? That’s awesome! I’d been wondering what that aspect would be like when it comes time for merging BoyDucky and my finances.
Nice job on never having a late payment though, I’m very neurotic and usually very careful but I’ve been dinged a few times. Of course I always call and ask for a courtesy credit and they’ve almost always been nice enough to give it to me. Except for Chase. Gr to Chase! Speaking of Chase, I must go comment on my new terms and conditions…
It’s 18 in all (I have to admit it is too much); 9 each for me and my wife. In my case: Of the 9 I have, 1 card is in the bank, 1 at home - unused. Of the remaining 7 there are balance transfers on 3 (all done recently). Of the remaining 4, I use 3 for everyday purchases by rotating them often and 1 card (with the lowest credit limit) is exclusively for online purchases. More-or-less similar story for my wife.
To account for the “more-or-less factor” I have changed the text in the post from “atleast 14 of them are active” to “10~14 are active”.:)
dimes: it is a myth that having many cards is detrimental to credit history (at least as far as my scores go). I will write a post about this in a few days. :)…make sure you read it
ms. miniducky: I am pretty sure you will be able to merge your Citi cards under the same login.
It is great that you have such an efficent system for managing your cards. At one time I was managing twelve cards and while I did a good job, every once in a while something fell through the crack. I had to combine my balance into a couple of cards in order to pay them effectively.
Great tips! I am always on the hunt for advice like this. Look forward to the next article.
Just found your blog–and I was worried about four cards! I don’t have late payments yet; it’s not that I forget, I sometimes just have to scrounge to get the money to pay. But I start a new job next week, so that should make it easier. I’m in massive debt, but working to dig free.
How can you remember 33 login and passwords? I think that’s more surprising than the 18 cards. I guess if you use them a lot it’s ok.
save sheila: that is something I havent considered, but I do acknowledge that cicumstances might make you miss a payment or two. Luckily I havent come across such time. Good luck for your fight against debt.
moneyfwd: It is really not that difficult. If you sit down and devise a formula, to generate your own passwords you can do it easily. In fact, make a list and you will be surprised how many you already remember. the 33 includes: banks, credit cards, emails, computer labs in my school, some online forums and stuff…
Write them down initially and log in a few times regularly and you will start remembering them quickly.
while i only have 2 CC’s and a debit… all of my bills (all of them are online in one form or another…
BofA lets me pay any bill i want, even other CC so i don’t have to worry about multiple log in info.
good tips ,
Man. i can not believe you have that many credit cards. Between my wife and I we have 3 credit cards, and I was worried about how adding a forth card might effect my credit rating. Looks like I do not have a lot to worry about!
Jon Postal
Efficiency, thy name is golbguru =)
I’ve been curious about Yodlee for some time, so I’m looking forward to your article!
Looking forward to part #2
Bookmarking the credit card logins is a great suggestion.
I never thought of it. But 18 cards is a lot to manage.
Why do you have multiple cards with the same lender?
TJP: The answer is simple: it’s more to do with my stupidity. Long before I was aware of “good credit cards” I applied for a few of them without much research. But since those are my oldest credit cards I don’t want to cancel them at this point. Later on, I started discovering the “good cards” 0% APRs, rewards points and what not…so applied for the better ones.
Also, of the 18 cards…9 belong to my wife…and 9 to me…but I look after all the payments and notices and balances stuff..so end up managing 18 of them.
We use “Informenter” (extension) on Firefox to remember passwords for credit cards. Works well.
Your case is interesting, but I think, no more than that. Having numerous credit cards is a display of the disorderly personal finance management. If you some day decide to apply for an important loan, you can be rejected due to these cards. I have two credit cards, one for purchases - low APR credit card, and the other one for balance transfers. Plus, I’m going to get a gasoline card as I travel by car very often. For me, it’s much…
Still, I can’t but admire the way you manage payments on your cards)))
Eighteen cards. That may be the silliest thing I’ve ever heard. The idea that you even need ONE is a myth, several is just stupid lookin’ for a place to happen, 18 is indicative of a breathtaking lack of ability to say NO to yourself or at the very least a wildly inflated impression of how valuable things like low rates and balance transfers are.
I’m not sure I understand this blog, but it seems a common enough paradigm: I’m fascinated by personal finance enough to write a Blog about it, but not enough to do anything difficult or meaningful regarding my own.
Corndogdriver: I guess you completely missed the point of the article. Whether we were stupid to get 9 credit cards each - is NOT under discussion here.
Trying to paint everything with a broad stroke (without knowing anything about the causes behind certain actions), is a stupid and rigid thing to do.
I wonder what value your comment has added to the discussion.
If you don’t understand (or don’t like) this blog, you are free to not read it. I am not saying that in a demeaning sense - it’s just that I wouldn’t spend my valuable time making self-righteous comments on blogs I don’t understand.
Oh. Okay. The 18 credit cards was not the issue. Your highly successful techniques for managing 18 credit cards was the issue. I guess you are to be congratulated for handling them with such skill and aplomb that you’ve had “not a single late payment”. That and 3 bucks will get you a cup of Starbucks.
What value has my comment brought to the discussion? Maybe none, but the Youngsters among us need to be told that being really effecient at doing something dumb is not a virtue. Nor is “rigidly” following successful money handling techniques something to be ashamed of.
Corndogdriver: “but the Youngsters among us need to be told that being really effecient at doing something dumb is not a virtue.”
…with that I agree. And I wouldn’t encourage youngsters to do dumb things - but those millions who already have enough credit cards - they need to be told how to efficiently handle them. Simply saying “you don’t need credit cards” doesn’t solve their problems.
Although, having a lot of credit cards *may* be dumb under certain circumstances - efficiently managing them is not dumb - paying late fees and to keep blaming your early mistakes is dumb.
The term *successful* is very relative. You can close your mind to any new suggestions and be complacent with your current knowledge - but that’s not how everybody looks at the world.
And if I may ask, would you care to explain what is really *dumb* about using (one or many) credit cards?
There’s an article on this blog about simplifying life. There’s a lot to be said for that, and these 18 credit cards are the antithesis of that. There are more choices than handling all 18 of them carefully or paying late fees - cancel them and close the accounts. Your response infers people have no choice but to keep a bunch of credit cards they stumbled into while they were in college, so you want to explain how to effeciently handle them; I say get rid of ‘em.
What’s dumb about credit cards? There’s no emotional connection when using plastic. If you go to Lowe’s with a credit card vs. cash, studies indicate you are going to spend far more money using the card. Multiply that by all the transactions you do on plastic and you’ve got a lifetime of overspending. Most people think they’re the exception to this rule, but there’s a reason the retailers happily shell out tons of money to have those little card processing boxes on the counter - gross sales go through the roof. Ask McDonald’s.
With 18 cards, you are eventually going to get burned. Some drone at some card company fails to post your payment correctly or you have a card stolen and before you know it some felon has spent a zillion dollars on a card which triggers all your other cards to raise your rates because your debt just went up a ton. You’re not winning the game. It’s their game. They’re calling the tune - you’re just dancing to it.
As far as being “closed-minded”. That’s a laugh. I live in a debt-ridden world with no debt. My kids will go to college with money I invested while their friends whose parents make more than me go in debt. I don’t have a credit card in an 18 card/person world. I don’t have an Emergency Credit Card, I have Emergency Money. In other words, I’m open-minded enough to look at the way normal Americans handle money and do the exact opposite. And no, I don’t need “new knowledge” about nifty new ways to waller in debt - which is why I’m successful.
Corndogdriver: There are some misconceptions you need to clear first.
- It’s not 18 cards per person. Read this:
-People have different versions of how to simplify life. You can be on one extreme and claim that a caveman’s life is the most simple one. That’s not how you want to live in the world - you got to learn new things and keep your life in motion. You need to simplify the process of coping up with these new things - not learning and experiencing new things is not simplification.
-canceling credit cards is a pretty mindless advice given by a lot of people around in personal finance area. It doesn’t do any good to your credit score and harms potential savings when it comes to applying for credit in future. However keeping old cards open doesn’t do any harm - so what’s the problem in keeping them open? stress of paying the bills? - that’s what this article is about - it can be all done without stress.
-people spend extra money because of credit cards is nothing but a myth. Surveys should be taken with a grain of salt, because people tend to use credit cards for large purchases instead of cash - even though they are cash-loving people. That drives most statistics to claim that card purchases are higher. Don’t blind yourself with statistics - try this for yourself - for a couple of months - just spend cash - and then for a couple of months just spend with credit cards and see it if made a difference. For a person who knows what he wants those two modes of payment shouldn’t make a difference. I have been raised in a cash-only economy and used cash till the last 5 years in my life - so it’s not like I am pulling things out of a blue here.
-This is a baseless statement: “With 18 cards, you are eventually going to get burned.”. In the same baseless spirit, I can say this “With cash in your wallet, you are eventually going to get mugged.”
-When I say we carry so many cards - it doesn’t mean I carry their balances over. You anti-credit card guys need to understand this very clearly. There is no damn debt - except the 0% self-inflicted balance transfer, which btw is earning me money.
-I still laugh at your definition of success. I live without debt in a debt ridden world too. I have an emergency card in ADDITION to having emergency money…and my kids will go to college with the money I invested plus they will go to college with the real picture of what’s good or bad with credit cards - not some biased one-sided view about how “credit cards are bad”.
And by the way, there is no harm in having a definition of success they way you do ~ different things work for different people ~ and I don’t really care how you call yourself “successful” - it’s the tendency to call other people unsuccessful based on your yardsticks is what is appalling ~ that’s narrow minded.
I and my wife have 14 cards. We had 11 with balances a couple of months ago but I got it down to just 7 now. People always ass-u-me that people live beyond there means with they have credit card debt. Apparently, since I and my wife take care of her parents and other extended family it has required a lot of money that was not readily available. There are problems that not all families go through that others don’t understand. Again thats for the website, I have been doing this for over 6 years myself and never been late.
One last thought. I always found the best way to organize these cards was to write down in a calendar (I prefer a pocket calendar) the card name and the amount due and check them off when I pay them.
A little late in the day to reply, but anyway…
Corndogdriver - having 18 credit cards can actually be a *smart* decision and can make you money. If you are lucky enough to be allowed fairly good credit limits on 0% introductory offers, you can take this money and go invest it in a high interest savings account.
So, as long as you make your minimum payments each month, you are not charged any form of fee by the credit card company. However, you are making money with their money because you have invested it somewhere at a good rate.
That’s not dumb, that’s smart…
With the ability to pay credit cards on-line, late payments should NEVER happen. Nothing to mail. Just point,click, pay.
Personally I would have a difficult time managing that many cards, but kudos to anyone who can efficiently manage them and even make some money while doing so.
If you use your credit cards as you would use cash, i.e., when you are at the check-out counter and you realize that your total purchase exceeds your budgeted amount for the items, and you make the decision to subtract something from your purchase to bring your total back to your budgeted amount, instead of simply going ahead and over-purchasing on the credit card, in that case, its simply a convenient way to make purchases.
I have however come across information that suggests that shopping with a credit card results in one spending about 32% more than if cash was used, probably because the “hard stop” that cash affords, is not there with the credit card. That is also probably why most folks who are counseled on debt management are told to go on a strict cash basis, in order to reform their habits, more like “portion control” for dieters.
Having said that, I think it is quite a laudable feat to be able to manage all your cards.
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