How Many Credit Cards Do You Have?

[steve dave]

If points/miles were used to pay for a personal business expense, should they be tax-deductible at a certain value?

unfortunately no

[Stupid Fitz]

New at this and getting a little    Currently have 4 cards, going to drop 1 I have had for several years as my everyday card, and have to drop another because of annual fee coming up. Planning on adding a couple to replace, but still worried about my credit score for some reason.   Have an elite score and want to keep it.   Am I ok 

[wetwillie]

New at this and getting a little    Currently have 4 cards, going to drop 1 I have had for several years as my everyday card, and have to drop another because of annual fee coming up. Planning on adding a couple to replace, but still worried about my credit score for some reason.   Have an elite score and want to keep it.   Am I ok 

Why are you dropping the one you have had in the past as an everyday card?

[steve dave]

New at this and getting a little    Currently have 4 cards, going to drop 1 I have had for several years as my everyday card, and have to drop another because of annual fee coming up. Planning on adding a couple to replace, but still worried about my credit score for some reason.   Have an elite score and want to keep it.   Am I ok 

Keep the one you've had the longest as long as there is no fee.  A long history on one card will help your score.  As long as you are not carrying a large amount of debt on the cards your credit usage should be in good shape.  Your credit won't suffer at all if you are just cancelling newer cards before the annual fee and aren't using a large percentage of your available credit.  

[steve dave]

I have some stupid FNB Visa I haven't used in years.  looks good on a credit report to have that long history.  will never cancel it as long as it doesn't start charging me a fee. 

[Stupid Fitz]

New at this and getting a little    Currently have 4 cards, going to drop 1 I have had for several years as my everyday card, and have to drop another because of annual fee coming up. Planning on adding a couple to replace, but still worried about my credit score for some reason.   Have an elite score and want to keep it.   Am I ok 

Why are you dropping the one you have had in the past as an everyday card?

Found a better everyday card and thought that since I wouldn't use it, I would cancel it.  Guess I'll keep it now.   

[Stupid Fitz]

New at this and getting a little    Currently have 4 cards, going to drop 1 I have had for several years as my everyday card, and have to drop another because of annual fee coming up. Planning on adding a couple to replace, but still worried about my credit score for some reason.   Have an elite score and want to keep it.   Am I ok 

Keep the one you've had the longest as long as there is no fee.  A long history on one card will help your score.  As long as you are not carrying a large amount of debt on the cards your credit usage should be in good shape.  Your credit won't suffer at all if you are just cancelling newer cards before the annual fee and aren't using a large percentage of your available credit.  

 

Pay them all off every month

[Trim]

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/executive-club-changes/public/en_us

[steve dave]

that is great news.  we only have 50k BA left from our original 210k though. 

[Trim]

that is great news.  we only have 50k BA left from our original 210k though. 

Any guesses as to what hotels they'd partner up with and at what ratio?  Hyatt, at just about any ratio, would be fantastic for me.

[steve dave]

that is great news.  we only have 50k BA left from our original 210k though.  

Any guesses as to what hotels they'd partner up with and at what ratio?  Hyatt, at just about any ratio, would be fantastic for me.

They probably will have something like AA does where you can use your points for stays through their system at any hotel but the redemption rate will be horrible.  Usually less than $.01 per point.  I doubt they will transfer to the actual chain's point system.  But, I mean, they aren't doing you any good just sitting there.  

[Trim]

Usually less than $.01 per point. 

I don't know what this means.  Like I could book a room through BA but what normally would be 15,000 Hyatt points would cost a shitload of BA miles/points?  I'm probably OK with that unless the whole program change includes making it easier to book flights or I find I can last-minute myself all the time w/BA miles as they are now.  Will probably try that in winter by booking refundable flights on Frontier relatively cheap and playing with BA up until I have to board the Frontier plane.

[Dr Rick Daris]

guess who just used some of their ba miles to book a flight to cancun this winter? 

[steve dave]

Usually less than $.01 per point. 

I don't know what this means.  Like I could book a room through BA but what normally would be 15,000 Hyatt points would cost a shitload of BA miles/points?  I'm probably OK with that unless the whole program change includes making it easier to book flights or I find I can last-minute myself all the time w/BA miles as they are now.  Will probably try that in winter by booking refundable flights on Frontier relatively cheap and playing with BA up until I have to board the Frontier plane.

If they use the same system as AA and Delta (I think) they will have nothing to do with the amount of Hyatt points it would take.  It will have to do with how many dollars that night would have cost you had you paid for the room.  For example, a saturday night stay at the Venetian in Vegas next weekend would cost 27,800 AA miles, Luxor 18,200, Bellagio 33,000, Wynn 35,800, Caesars 50,300 (lol, WTF Caesars), etc.

You can mess with it here:

https://www.useaamiles.com/carhotel/?anchorLocation=DirectURL&title=carandhotelawards

This is just speculation on my part that this is how it will be set up.  They could have a direct mile to point transfer for all I know.  Most use this type of system though.

[steve dave]

The benefit of this type is that you can book stays at places that don't have point programs like the Vegas casinos and all inclusive places. 

[Trim]

Got it.  That will work out great.

[Dr Rick Daris]

Got it.  That will work out great.

no it won't. what you can get hotel wise is just horrible compared with what you could get airfare wise. DON'T DO THIS TRIM!

[steve dave]

Got it.  That will work out great.

no it won't. what you can get hotel wise is just horrible compared with what you could get airfare wise. DON'T DO THIS TRIM!

yeah, it's a bad redemption rate.  but, he doesn't believe he will ever be able to use his BA miles.

[Trim]

Got it.  That will work out great.

no it won't. what you can get hotel wise is just horrible compared with what you could get airfare wise. DON'T DO THIS TRIM!

My experience thus far is that I can get nothing airfare wise.  I've got a paid flight on 9/11 ().  Not refundable but will mess with the sd last-minute plan and see if it works and would be worth taking the cancellation penalty.  Probably not, but I'd at least know about the last-minute thing.  Will soon try booking my December flight with BA once set dates are known but am skeptical I'll be able to.  Then I'll see if it's easier to book BA miles when they mod their program in November, but if all that fails, hotels it is.  Unless, we can ultimately figure out some kind of goEMAW point exchange program.

[wetwillie]

guess who just used some of their ba miles to book a flight to cancun this winter? 

Just blew my load for a trip to florida, I'm starting to understand what you mean when you talk about hating spending the miles.

[steve dave]

I currently have 449,984 miles over various accounts.  should have another 225k+ coming in the next month or so.  this is including mrs. dave's miles though.

[ChiComCat]

I got 300k miles this year.  37k are Hawaiian miles tho, only got because BoA card that checks credit through a different agency than Citi or Chase so it doesn't hurt my credit pretty much at all.  Should be good for interisland flights.  Will prob try for a sapphire or whatever then call it year.

[steve dave]

I got 300k miles this year.  37k are Hawaiian miles tho, only got because BoA card that checks credit through a different agency than Citi or Chase so it doesn't hurt my credit pretty much at all.  Should be good for interisland flights.  Will prob try for a sapphire or whatever then call it year.

Hawaiin transfer 2:1 to Hilton too if you need HH at some point. 

[globby]

Phthalates. Lots of them.

[SpudCat]

I've been lurking on here for a while and swimming through this thread.  Must say, I'm impressed.  Also I've spent some time reading through some threads on flyertalk and other blogs.  Based on that, I think I'm ready to get into this and start racking up some miles for the wife and I.  Before I get to that point, I've got a couple quick questions.  At the moment, the we have about 3 credit cards that we use regularly and probably 3 or 4 each that we don't use at all and haven't been used for quite a while.  We've both got very good credit at the moment.  We'd like to shed some of the cards that we never use before we go out and apply for new ones to get the mileage bonuses.  My worry is, that we've had some of these cards for a long time and they have all always been paid on time, thus aiding our credit.  I've always been told to keep accounts like that open since it shows good credit history.  How damaging (credit score wise) would it be to cancel these? 

Basically, what I'm getting at is, we'd like to keep our number of cards at a relatively decent number.  So, if we go out and apply for 3 or 4 cards each over the next 3-4 months, what scenario would be the path of least damage?  Going forward, we'll churn through some cards and keep our total number in a respectable range, but its just getting started that I'm a bit apprehensive about.  Sd, rd, anyone else have any thoughts?  Happy to provide some additional info if necessary.

I wish I would have found this thread long ago when I traveled a lot more than I do now.  Some of this stuff is fantastic.