Revealed: how many credit cards loveMONEY readers have

Banking and Borrowing

Updated on 03 March 2016 | 2 Comments

A staggering number of loveMONEY readers have a LOT of credit cards.

At what point would you save that you have too many credit cards? When you have two? Or three? What about five?

According to a recent poll of loveMONEY readers, a surprising 25% of you have FIVE or more credit cards. 

This is particularly concerning when you consider that according to Moneyfacts the interest rate on all credit cards has hit an all-time high of 21.6% APR. If you have outstanding debt on five cards with an interest rate that high, your debt could easily spiral out of control.

So why have more than one card at all? 

Why you might want multiple cards

Different cards are handy for different kinds of borrowing: use 0% balance transfer to pay off debt, 0% purchase for larger spends and rewards for perks like air miles. 

So for example, you might have made a huge purchase, and then switched that debt onto a 0% balance transfer card. At the moment, that could see you avoid interest on the balance for as long as 40 months with Halifax!

But while you are paying that off in manageable chunks, you might want another card for your regular monthly spending. In that case, a rewards card offering cashback, loyalty points or air miles on your spending may be ideal.

Alternatively, you might have lots of cards because you are a stoozer and fancy manipulating them to make some extra cash. Check out The return of stoozing: make free cash with this nifty credit card trick.

Not everyone ends up with a heap of credit cards for such sensible reasons though. Some will simply have lost track of how many cards they have, while for others it's a sign that they are in serious debt trouble. According to The Money Charity, the average credit card debt per household in the UK currently stands at £2,364. For a credit card charging the average interest rate, it would take you more than 25 years to pay that balance off if you only made the minimum payment each month.

Does that sound like you? Are you a stoozer or a struggler? Let us know in the poll below.

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