Currently I have

American Express Platinum
American Express Blue
BoA Visa Signature
Citicard Premiere Elite Mastercard World
Discover More (Platinum)
Merill Lynch + card

In the boards opinion, would this be a healthy mix of good cards? I think this will be my mix of cards for a long time to come, no need for anymore.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Welcome to flyertalk its an interesting mix of cards you have there but without knowing your yearly spend and what programs you use its hard to see if the cards you have are best for your needs.

Well I spend +200k on these a year, travel a lot. I figure these are the best rewards and benefits for my spending, I guess anything above these cards I need 500k+ to a mil spending or investments for lets say a chairman card or accolades, stratus.

For my spending, anything I should have got.

Is this too many? I'm not the type that hordes 50 credit cards to have absurd amoun ts of credit, I actually was thinking maybe I got too many cards.

Thanks

welcome to FT

you might want an amex starwood for hotels, and additional airline partners.

i have amex plat and starwood right now, plan to get centurion when i qualify and merrill+ sometime.

If you are interested in top level benefits (i.e. Amex Centurion) you want to maximise/concentrate your spending on just 1 AMEX card since it is your annual spend how they determine invites.

I don't spend anywhere as much as you but I like to keep spending to just a few cards to maximise the rewards rathyer than having lots of orphen points around. I'd pick one AMEX and one MasterCard to concentrate your spending on

I don't see any card on your list that gives real airline miles directly, or points that convert to real airline miles. Please tell us if you want miles. If so, there are better ways to go than what you have.

American Express Platinum = Membership Rewards

Merrill+ = British Airways

Hmm good point about the airline miles however I am all set on Amex stuff.

I would guess I'm all set then really.

Good point about concentrating on the Amex and a MC when necessary.

Thanks for the advice.

Jim,

If you can't get the Chairman card from Citi, then I would get a PremierPass Elite Mastercard to get Flight points. This will get you one point for every mile that you fly in addition to the reg. FF miles that you would accrue. I would personally carry that and the SPG Amex.

Thanks. I am not very familiar with either of these. But I suspect that the original poster would get more miles per dollar spent on most airlines except United and Continental by using the Starwood American Express card, as previously mentioned, if miles are what is sought. Info on that card and its up front bonus is of course available on the Free Cards page of the Credit Card section of my website below.

1. AMEX Platinum is good for lounge access if you fly DL/CO/NW a lot
2. Citi PP Elite is a good card for rewards, if you do not want to transfer to an airline
3. Discover More card is not too useful. I have one, but I keep it only for the credit history. It is 18 or so years old.
4. ML+ is great if you spend $50k to get the free AA/DL status. If you do this, why do you need AMEX Platinum?
5. Why do you need AMEX Blue? I might switch this to another AMEX card and collect the initial bonus, e.g. AMEX SPG, AMEX Hilton, AMEX DL or the Knot/the Nest (both of which have a 10,000 point bonus for spending level)

Great points..

Discover card has 5% cash back but I hardly use it. Might as well have it for the history and having an account with them.

I was thinking about getting rid of the blue and stick with Platinum.

All great points to think about thanks.

I mis-stated the $50k Merrill+ benefit. Its a DL or AA club membership. If you had that, why would you want AMEX Platinum?

Since OP stated that he travels alot, definitely consider getting Starwood card. Its probably the most flexible in terms of redemption for airline miles. I also dont see the point for keeping Blue or Discover.

To my surprise, I learned this week that I have a $30K+ BofA credit line I wasn't aware of. Apparently, it traces back to an MBNA MC card I never used and told them to cancel when I saw that they were going to bump finance charges up to something like 25%. (Though I wasn't using the card, and I stay clear of finance charges like the plague, I object to usury.) Though card was canceled >5 years ago, it seems they continued the account as a line of credit, and BofA took it over when the subsumed MBNA. So...

I have no use for this BofA line of credit. (When I inquired, I was told the APR is 9.99%. Then I noted the very small print at the bottom of the letter inviting me to use the convenient "access checks" which mentioned a 5% fee for taking a "cash advance" against the line. The hell with that.) Should I keep it open for the "history," though? Has been around since at least 1998, but no activity? Leave it there, but ask BofA to reduce credit line to something like $2K or whatever their minimum is, so it won't look to FICO like I have too much unused credit? (My impulse was to close it, but then wondered if the "history" might be a reason to leave it there.)