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[Juice]

I wish this had been more data-driven instead of a bunch of anecdotes.

The "glamour" of high end rewards cards means that the whales get a shitload of free stuff and the rubes get screwed with really high APRs the instant they start to carry a balance.

I carry the Amex Delta Reserve ($450/yr fee) and a Hyatt Chase Visa ($90/yr). I get about 20 lounge visits a year ($550 value), 30 first class upgrades, and a half dozen free luxury hotel nights a year (Park Hyatt Tokyo being my favorite).

But I've been careful to never carry a balance for a single month in 15 years of carrying a credit card. Always autopay in full. Not everyone has the means or diligence to do that, and I bet a lot of the folks interviewed in this article aren't doing that either.

 

[BocoDragon]

I wish this had been more data-driven instead of a bunch of anecdotes.

The "glamour" of high end rewards cards means that the whales get a shitload of free stuff and the rubes get screwed with really high APRs the instant they start to carry a balance.

I carry the Amex Delta Reserve ($450/yr fee) and a Hyatt Chase Visa ($90/yr). I get about 20 lounge visits a year ($550 value), 30 first class upgrades, and a half dozen free luxury hotel nights a year (Park Hyatt Tokyo being my favorite).

But I've been careful to never carry a balance for a single month in 15 years of carrying a credit card. Always autopay in full. Not everyone has the means or diligence to do that, and I bet a lot of the folks interviewed in this article aren't doing that either.

Good post. Very true.. I think a lot of the people with these multiple credit cards are actually embroiled in a debt spiral. Very few people are gaming the system for rewards... the system is gaming them. That's why these offering these cards are profitable for the banks at all.

More power and respect to those winning from the system rather than getting trapped.

 

[outunderthestars]

I wish this had been more data-driven instead of a bunch of anecdotes.

The "glamour" of high end rewards cards means that the whales get a shitload of free stuff and the rubes get screwed with really high APRs the instant they start to carry a balance.

I carry the Amex Delta Reserve ($450/yr fee) and a Hyatt Chase Visa ($90/yr). I get about 20 lounge visits a year ($550 value), 30 first class upgrades, and a half dozen free luxury hotel nights a year (Park Hyatt Tokyo being my favorite).

But I've been careful to never carry a balance for a single month in 15 years of carrying a credit card. Always autopay in full. Not everyone has the means or diligence to do that, and I bet a lot of the folks interviewed in this article aren't doing that either.

Well said. I have a rewards card that I adore and use it for literally every purchase I can. That said I make sure that I never float a balance. I also have a card with no annual fee that I use as a backup in case my primary card is lost, stolen, or has some weird issue.

I never use my debit card anywhere.

 

[Culex]

I refuse to believe that number of cards is real.

I have ONE credit card, same one that was issued to me when I joined the army in 2002

 

[M3d10n]

Because he doesn’t spend enough to qualify for all the rewards, he heads to a local mall and uses his credit cards to buy cash-equivalent prepaid cards, earning points in the process. Then he uses the prepaid cards to pay off his credit-card balances. He recently had to wait a long time to check out because someone ahead of him in line was doing the same, he says.

The fuck?

 

[RumblingRosco]

I wish this had been more data-driven instead of a bunch of anecdotes.

The "glamour" of high end rewards cards means that the whales get a shitload of free stuff and the rubes get screwed with really high APRs the instant they start to carry a balance.

I carry the Amex Delta Reserve ($450/yr fee) and a Hyatt Chase Visa ($90/yr). I get about 20 lounge visits a year ($550 value), 30 first class upgrades, and a half dozen free luxury hotel nights a year (Park Hyatt Tokyo being my favorite).

But I've been careful to never carry a balance for a single month in 15 years of carrying a credit card. Always autopay in full. Not everyone has the means or diligence to do that, and I bet a lot of the folks interviewed in this article aren't doing that either.

This is exactly the way to do it. The number of credit cards someone has is a meaningless number. What matters is how much debt they carry month to month.

 

[entremet]

Could it be that depressed wages and rising cost of living, coupled with job insecurity, has made Millenials more savvy in using CC rewards to counteract the aforementioned points?

 

[haxan7]

Still just rocking the 2 cards I've had forever. Vantage/FICO are both 800+

 

[Lkr]

I have one and that alone is enough stress

 

[Amory]

Shrug. I have 5 and they give me a ton of free money. Never paid interest and my credit is good

I made a thread a few months back about having "too many" credit cards. General consensus is as long as you can keep track of them go nuts

 

[Air]

I have no credit cards and yet I am a millennial. Everybody I know with more than one card is like 50 years+

 

[Aquavelvaman]

I have two. One for each country I maintain residency in. Never paid credit card interest in my life.

My wife has 4. Got some discounts on big ticket items for signing up. Two of them are going to be canceled in a couple months though.

 

[TarpitCarnivore]

There's entire subreddit dedicated to this, it's called Churning

You open credit cards purely for rewards and constantly cycle them based on the use case. Cards like Chase and Discover do rewards by the month so you'd use it for the month then switch it up.

For me it's far easier to find a card with a solid rewards program and just use it on everything. The Citi DoubleCash is only 2% cash back, but it's on everything. It's just not worth keeping 8 credit cards to get an extra 1-2% a month on groceries. I'd rather earn 2% on a much bigger balance, than 5% on like $200.

 

[TheOfficeMut]

If you demonize credit cards it's probably because you're an idiot who doesn't know how to use one and/or can't control spending urges.

I have several but only use one. My longest running CC is from 2007, but I haven't touched it since 2010.

Spend only what you can afford, collect points, pay it off in full each month, and enjoy. Yes, they're designed to take advantage of people who can't manage their money very well, but they can be to your advantage if you don't let Interest accumulate and follow those steps.

However, racing to collect a ludicrous amount of points sounds very stupid because it means you are purposely going out of your way to spend money to accumulate them. At some point you might as well just pay for the trip.

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

Could it be that depressed wages and rising cost of living, coupled with job insecurity, has made Millenials more savvy in using CC rewards to counteract the aforementioned points?

That's way too too complicated.

Here follow the story in which millennials are sexist.


I abhor this sort of reporting. Not even remotely evidence based. Not one iota of original research.

 

[PillarEN]

I have 0. I'm a millenial. A contrarian type.

Spoiler

I don't currently reside in the States

 

[oneils]

I have one credit card with a small limit of $15k. Not a millennial. But I know people my age who have lots of cards. I don't think it's a millennial thing. Also it's probably people my age or boomers that are designing these things and selling them.

 

[ColdPizza]

I have, like, six. My credit kicks ass

Same. 824 here. Boom.

 

[oneils]

You're going to have a hard time taking out loans and buying a car or a house unless you're planning on paying straight up cash for everything.

I've never understood this. I've only ever had one card. Got a mortgage pretty easily. Your credit history is more than just how many credit cards you have.

 

[shnurgleton]

I'm 28, have two cards, and have excellent credit. Am I a millennial?

 

[rambis]

Jesus Christ. Im 27 and I've only had 2 CC's my whole life.

 

[Black Republican]

29, 3 credit cards, RBC/TD/Amazon Chase Canada, credit score 740

TD has a 30k limit, and i use the Amazon chase mostly for points off amazon purchases

i wanna increase the limit but they wont let me

 

[scogoth]

27, have two cards because I am transitioning from one I've had for 9 years to a better one. After next month I'll be back to 1.

I don't understand why you would ever need more than 2.

 

[Nabbis]

I have one CC with a credit limit of $1500. Thank god Australia doesn't do that stupid credit rating crap America does.

Same thing here, what a garbage system.

 

[Pagusas]

I have 12 credit cards and no credit card debt what so ever. Never payed interest in my life but have got a whole hell of a lot from points. It's easy to keep things organized as they all have purposes:

Citi Double Cash: primary spending card, put about 4-6k a month in it in general bills and pay it off completely every cycle. It's basically my "debit" card, but with 2% back

Citi AA card: I travel a ton and use American Airlines as much as I can (out of Dallas). This card is for most travel purchases (currently have over 200,000 miles saved for our next international vacation). My wife and I havnt paid for our own airfare in sometime thanks to business travel + this card

American Express DeltaSkymiles: because I have to fly to Atlanta a lot and it's paid to have a skymikes and Amex card. Gets used whenever there is a good Amex deal, which is a lot. Last year I saved $350 by useing the card with Amex deals (like one deal where you got 10% off your cable/internet bill if paid via the Amex)

Best Buy Reward Zone Elite Plus - honestly a greatcard if your elite plus, before double cash it was our primary spender and we'd have thousands of dollars each year to use st Best Buy. I bought my Sony x940c with mostly points ($8k tv at the time, luckily the card also extended the return period to 90days and allowed me to get another 3k back for the Christmas price drop!)

Chase Freedom - my wife's primary card but I'm a user on it too. Decent rewards but I'd rather get rid of it one day.

Chase Amazon prime card - use it for everything Amazon. Not my biggest earner but it works for 5% back.

Kohl's card, furniture row capital one card, nebraska furniture mart card - store cards that are valuable because of the amount of money we spend at each store.

Chase Slate - perfect emergency card due to its 24month no interest on balance transfers (2% fee) and super high limit. It's kinda the "if shit hits the fan and need access to a very large sum of credit, it's there". The hope is to never be in a position I need to use it. But stuff happens, and ussually all at once. Like last year my dog almost died of a deadly disease (12k cost after 3 nights at emergency vet), both our water heaters leaked (3k to replace water heaters and 1k in home repairs) and our roof got destroyed by hail (3.5k insurance deductsble) all within 35 days of each other. Luckily we didnt have to hit savings to cover it, but we felt that fiscal hit for months in our budget.

A few odd cards I'll likely roll over into other cards - Citi Diamond Prefered (will be rolling its credit limit into my double cash card this month and getting rid of it)

Also have 2 corporate cards (different purposes for each)

I micro manage my fiscal life, I know where every single penny I've ever spent has gone over the last 16 years (thanks to Quicken), so managing some cards is super easy.

 

[Aztechnology]

How the fuck do these people get cards with no income? I have really good credit as I share a card with my parents (I don't use it outside when they ask me to pick things up for them etc) and paying student loans. I want a good rewards card but I feel like there's no way I'll get approved as a student with no income.

 

[TirMcGrey]

Didn't click on it, sounds like an ad for credit card applications just from the title alone.

27, I currently have 3 CCs with 1 being for work only, I think my credit is fine? (everything gets paid on time or beforehand)

 

[GSG Flash]

Millennial here, one personal and one corporate credit card. I don't know many millennials with more than one card.

 

[Kusagari]

I have no idea what that 16 card guy with no income is doing. I assume he's lying about his income on the applications and then letting his friends use the cards for big purchases with the expectation they'll pay him back.

Sounds like an impending disaster.

 

[HvySky]

I have three cards at 23 (only one of which I use regularly) and I have pretty good credit. Go millennials.

Edit: For context, the one I use regularly is a Chase rewards card. The other two are Target and Best Buy CCs which I used for large purchases with no interest (although it wasn't really necessary in hindsight as I paid off both purchases fairly quickly).

 

[Mineshaft_Gap]

I have two actual credit cards, two store cards, and one car loan. 770 credit score.

 

[oneida]

i got 1
trying to build my credit.

 

[BearPawB]

I have like 8?
I only use 2 regularly

 

[hack646]

I've got over 30 cards and have accumulated over 2 million points (worth around over 20k in travel). I've been to over a dozen countries across three continents in the past 8 months alone, traveling in business class and staying at high end hotels all for free. I never carry a balance, don't spend over my means, and have a credit score near 800. It's a game that is quite easy to exploit (legally). People say that there is no such thing as a free lunch, but AMEX literally paid for my lunch yesterday (via cash back bonuses).

It's nice to make money off these asshole banks instead of the other way around for once!

 

[Imperial Hot]

I've got one with a pretty high balance for the balance and I'm looking to get another that's got some good rewards. I always pay mine off in time, not to hijack this thread, but since I'm a millennial and I need more credit cards, do any of you have any recommendations?

I've got over 30 cards and have accumulated over 2 million points (worth around over 20k in travel). I've been to over a dozen countries across three continents in the past 8 months alone, traveling in business class and staying at high end hotels all for free. I never carry a balance, don't spend over my means, and have a credit score near 800. It's a game that is quite easy to exploit (legally). People say that there is no such thing as a free lunch, but AMEX literally paid for my lunch yesterday (via cash back bonuses).

It's nice to make money off these asshole banks instead of the other way around for once!

How, bruh?

 

[TimHortons]

Newsflash if you are spending over $1000 in annual fees your vacation isn't free. Also not American so don't understand your credit score bullshit. You do you USA rofl.

 

[Zackat]

1 credit card 1 debit card. thats all i got

 

[John Caboose]

The american way of handling credit seems crazy to me as a Swede. I will probably never use a credit card, debit is where it's at.

 

[Pagusas]

The american way of handling credit seems crazy to me as a Swede. I will probably never use a credit card, debit is where it's at.

Do you get rewards or cash back with your debit card?

 

[hack646]

I've got one with a pretty high balance for the balance and I'm looking to get another that's got some good rewards. I always pay mine off in time, not to hijack this thread, but since I'm a millennial and I need more credit cards, do any of you have any recommendations?



How, bruh?

It's called churning and there is a whole subreddit dedicated to it. Basically you open up a credit card with a hefty bonus (ex. the chase sapphire preferred offers 50k points after 4k spend-enough for a round trip ticket to europe in economy). You meet the spend (which is easy to meet creatively-you can basically pay yourself in a round a bout way), get the points, then cancel the card before the annual fee hits. Then rinse and repeat. Do extensive research first, keep organized and its easy to come out ahead. Just make sure to pay off your balance in full every month, if you don't do this the bank wins.

 

[Fewr]

I've got 1 card that I pay every friday in case I used it.
I think I fit the examples because it's there for the points and extra stuff I get.

Newsflash if you are spending over $1000 in annual fees your vacation isn't free. Also not American so don't understand your credit score bullshit. You do you USA rofl.

Hmm... I'm pretty sure credit score companies are a worldwide thing. I think the scale is universal too (fico), but I'm not sure on that one.

 

[hack646]

Newsflash if you are spending over $1000 in annual fees your vacation isn't free. Also not American so don't understand your credit score bullshit. You do you USA rofl.

Clearly, its more like a subsidized vacation. 1k in fees would probably be from two high end cards which could easily yield 3 or 4 round trip economy tickets to europe. Not to mention you get free global entry/tsa pre, free lounge access, and usually around 600 dollars in travel credits (ex. uber, parking, hotels, airfare). However, there are a plethora of great cards with the annual fee waived for the first year (for which you cancel before that fee hits).

 

[Fuchsdh]

Good post. Very true.. I think a lot of the people with these multiple credit cards are actually embroiled in a debt spiral. Very few people are gaming the system for rewards... the system is gaming them. That's why these offering these cards are profitable for the banks at all.

More power and respect to those winning from the system rather than getting trapped.

I don't even think it necessarily has to be a debt spiral either. By adding rewards points they gamify spending, encouraging you to spend more, which probably outweighs the redemption values for a lot of people. It's ultimately a numbers game of consumption.

 

[Cyanity]

1 card, for the points. Paid off in full whenever I get the chance. (I really should regularly schedule my payment, but Capital One app makes it so easy that I just pay up whenever I feel like it)

 

[Azull]

I have 5 and trying to pay them off to move out of my parents, tired of this shit. It embarrassing. 28 and living with my parents, fuck this shit.

For our generation, that's pretty much the norm man. Doesn't make it anymore shitty though.

 

[~Kinggi~]

1 credit card 1 debit card. thats all i got

Same, been this way for past 15 years +. My credit score is very good. Im American too. I really dont need any extra financial things to keep track of or incentives to spend more or be aware of rewards. I spend on my credit with what i have the cash to back it up. Credit is an easy safe way to spend my money and thats how i look at it, and i think its the right way to look at it. Ive seen people go down the rewards rabbit hole and they dont even realize they are doing it sometimes but they immediately go into a rationalization why it would probably be a good idea to just spend the 100 on this thing they dont need on this one card so they can get the points. I guess it is fine if money can never potentially be a problem for you, but i play it safe.

 

[lunchtoast]

My coworker has gotten me into the credit game. I signed up for the Sapphire rewards for the 100k. Hitting 4k in 3 months was easy since I can pay my rent with credit. I also used it to tsa pre check free. I will cancel it after the year and transfer the points to another chase card

Currently waiting for their other card to get the 50k.

Also want me and my gf to sign up for the hyatt card to get a total of 4 nights at one of their all inclusive resorts free.

My coworker is always flying cheap/free and staying at nice places, otherwise it's tough to pay for a vacation when you have a family.

As stated before, you just use the credit card for everything until you reach the required spending to get the points then you move on the another card, or only use that card to get the most points possible. I have no debt and always pay the full amount every month.

 

[Incendiary]

I've got two credit cards and they're both from credit unions. Although the Amazon rewards card has definitely been tempting.

I just don't understand the need for more than one or two - I don't like having that much debt weighing over me.

 

[CreepingFear]

I have about 6. My mother mostly uses them and she has built up my credit.

 

[Aske]

It's called churning and there is a whole subreddit dedicated to it. Basically you open up a credit card with a hefty bonus (ex. the chase sapphire preferred offers 50k points after 4k spend-enough for a round trip ticket to europe in economy). You meet the spend (which is easy to meet creatively-you can basically pay yourself in a round a bout way), get the points, then cancel the card before the annual fee hits. Then rinse and repeat. Do extensive research first, keep organized and its easy to come out ahead. Just make sure to pay off your balance in full every month, if you don't do this the bank wins.

If I could spare the time to do the research, I'd definitely do this. I rock two credit cards, and the only impact they've ever had is to give me free money every month. Churners are both more wise and more savvy than the rest of us.