nooobFlyer

I used to have a perpetual cycle of reviewing statements and scheduling payments but then I realized I should set the due date for all cards to one date, duh! That's the most important and most simple thing about managing multiple cards, e.g. all credit cards due date set to the 12th of every month.

Different companies have a different gap between statement and due dates and some companies won't let you set a due date of (say) 28th or 29th. Barclays statement date 15 would mean due date 12. Same with Chase and CapOne. BoA and Citi statement 16th would mean due 12. Discover 17 would mean due date 12. Wells Fargo statement 18 would mean due date 12.

I keep two spreadsheets, one for the info when I apply for credit cards such as the income etc for each family member at the time of application, the other spreadsheet is for maintaining monthly payments etc. The monthly one has these columns:
Due date
Payment scheduled date (since I schedule these through my checking account bank's site, not through credit card's site)
Card Name and last 4
Card Limit
Payment amount
Balance on the account
Balance to limit ratio
Statement date
A reference to whether auto payment is set on it or not (I use AutoPay for cards on which I keep a balance for the 12 or 15 months 0% intro APR period)
0% APR expiration date
Annual Fee if any (this is set to red for card which have an annual fee, then as the annual fee date approaches I need to take action)
Authorized users names for each card

The ordinary MS'er who is not keeping any credit card debt doesn't need all of this but my situation was different. Using this system I maintained dozens of cards and at times upward of 100k in total credit card debt spread over 20+ cards without paying any interest apart from the rare balance transfer fee when cash was needed urgently to pay off another card.

alben

You don't have to get too complicated.

Generally I apply for a single card at a time. When the card arrives, I write the account opening date on the back with a permanent marker. I then put most of my spending on it to make the initial minimum spend.

When I receive an email that a new statement for a card has been generated, I pay in full on the spot.

I set up autopay on all cards for the minimum payment required in case I make a mistake in paying the card in full. I haven't needed this yet, but the safety net is there.

If I close a card, I write the account closing date on the back with a permanent marker and put in the drawer into the cancelled cards stack.

In my drawer I keep two stacks of cards wrapped by large rubber bands. One stack is cancelled cards. These cards are kept for record keeping purposes to know what cards I had in the past, when I opened them, and when I closed them (permanent marker dates on the back).

The second stack is my currently open cards. I periodically rotate through the cards by taking the one lowest in the stack, make a charge on it, and put it on the top of the stack. This keeps all the cards in periodic use.

nfpa70e

Can you add and see NWBuxx, serve,square in Mint in one place? to get an update on all accounts.

yugi

Prism supports all of those, as well as Visa/MC/Amex gift cards. Mint Bills also to some extent.

nfpa70e

If mint can do it all, I would like to go with mint as I have heard it's name more often than Prism, what do you think? One other thing, I would like to use these money management websites as "view only" in one place. can you do that? I do not like to make any payments etc using these portals.

Just see the activity, transactions, bills due, account balance etc.

yugi

I think that Mint is useless compared to Prism or Mint Bills. Nobody forces you to make any payments via those apps. You can just track you CC and most other bills with them. Personally, I pay my electric, cell phone and internet bills with Prism. This saves me from going to their respective web sites. They take my credit card (Chase Ink, or whatever I say to them), and goes to their respective web sites instead of me. I get the same 5 points as if I got them by paying myself.

Dockdogs

I use baseball card holder sleeves in a 3 ring notebook. Sharpy writes appl. date and cancel date on each CC. Separate sections into active cards and cancelled cards. Slip dated paper notes into sleeves of active cards to show you when to cancel. Makes for very fast reference when new CC apps are considered. Also have 3rd section for No fee cards that i keep forever or so. Set payment due date to 1st week of the month for all cards.

nfpa70e

Not able to add NWBuxx to mint bills. is there any trick?

yugi

I don't have NWBuxx, so I can't test. Try one in Prism.

biggestbopper

I have many credit card accounts (yeah, this is Flyertalk ).

I want to download all the transactions from the various issuers and get them in one place where I can categorize them and get totals for each category for tax and other purposes.

Recently, I have been using Expensify.com which is an expense account managing program but it is apparently not set up to manage a 1000 or so transactions a year. Starts out fast but gets sloooooow quick as transactions are added.

Possibilities for alternatives: 1. Mint, but I hear it has reporting problems. or 2. Quicken, which I have and have found very confusing when I attempt to do anything beyond write checks.

So, FTers, got any thoughts or suggestions?

txa

I have been using mint for a few years with thousands of transactions and had no issues with multiple different accounts and multiple CCs.

I use the 'tag' feature to track certain plans I have running, and I use the download feature to bring it into excel when I want to play with the data in different ways.

The online access also allows me to manage it while I'm waiting in airports on my mobile.

Schutzee

I have been using Quicken since the DOS days! Once it is set up to download I find it very efficient. One click downloads all my transaction from 30+ bank and credit card accounts.

memphian901

are mint and quicken free, or is their a pay option which unlocks all features?

side question - I've got many CC's and am trying to figure out an easy way to when I opened each CC and when the AF hits. Is there an online tool that accomplishes this or should I just track it myself?

StartinSanDiego

Here is a suggestion for those who want to keep track physically. It's working beautifully for me, so I thought I'd share.

I don't like having so much stuff on Mint. My credit cards change quickly, and I also need to track spend and retention bonuses. I currently have between 30-35 open credit card accounts in the family. I try not to lose out on a single bonus point, but it's hard to keep track of. I'm not a spread sheet person, either. I sometimes have to log on to a turned off computer before heading out the door with the credit cards, just to figure out which Barclays card has xxx promo or which Amex promo I've used or not used, etc.

At the end of summer, I was completely fed up with my own accounting system... post-its on the back of credit cards with retention offers; smeared marker notes on the cards I carry, notes about churns, apps, 8/65/18 month rules, etc. This was effective when I had a few credit cards, but, now, with dozens of cards, it just wasn't working for me.

So, here is the method that I came up with:

You will need a 3 ring binder for each person's cards that you manage, plus a set of divider tabs and a sheaf of 3 ring clear plastic business card holders. And a 3 hole punch to add the paperwork. I also have a student zipped, clear plastic pen/marker holder... I put the "to do" bank correspondence envelopes in there before filing them in the binder.
-Get a binder for every family member. Compile all your paperwork by family member.
-Use tabs to separate the pages by bank. So Chase, Citi, Barclays, etc... they each have a tab and a plastic business card holder.
-Use the 3 ring hole punch to put in ALL relevant mailed paperwork...bonus spend notices, approval notices, recon call notes, cancellation notices, etc, in chronological order, most recent first, sorted by card. With the Citi Exec cards, this meant tracking the progress of a large number of short lived card's lifespan... app date, approval notice, cancellation notice, all in order.
Now, by bank, you can quickly track all of your apps, cancellations, etc, by date, using the bank's own dated correspondence to you.
-Then, I have a tab section for denials, all banks (only 3 of these so far, but I want to keep track of them because I know I'm pushing the limit). I have a copy of these in the "denial" section (all family members), and a copy, in order, under the bank's tab. I will look here before making new applications.
-Add a tab for Misc. debit cards such as Redcards (opened and cancelled), Bluebirds, Buxx cards, Serves, Sun Trust, misc debit cards from checking accounts, etc. Put all the debit cards in the "live" folder in this tab. If you've got multiple people as AU's, this will help keep the accounts straight.

-All open cards go in the front, in the business card holders, sorted by bank. This is the "sock drawer" file. This works if you don't have a ton of open, active cards. Actually, I needed more space, so I have an entire "open card" binder for JUST open cards and retention/spend bonus notes. All family members have their own tab, and each bank has a business card holder page, as needed. At a glance, I can see that I've got xxx cards from xxx bank currently active and open. I can also quickly tell what cards are out "in the wallet" and, with teenagers in the picture, which cards they've been handed to use currently.

- All closed cards go in their individual bank section, with all the associated paperwork on application dates, spending, miles posting and close dates. This way, you can see at a glance if you had a card in the past. If I've thrown out a card, I just put a little paper (a flipped over business card) in the card holder noting that xxxx IHG card was cancelled on XXX date as a Visa.

Let me know if any of you find this handy..I'm sure there is room for improvement. I'd love to hear your suggestions.

memphian901

very interesting concept. I'm going to try and go the digital route and create some sort of document that I can maintain in the cloud. Google Sheet maybe.