After a bit more research decided to give up the SPG (atleast for the next two years) and replace it with the Citi Amex Plat 5/3 TY Points for two years, no fee for a year and also free credit monitoring (replacing myfico $89 annual) was too hard to beat. Now the Citi Amex will be my everyday card (for the next two years). Also I am a Citigold and the fee on my PPE is waived.

Now if I can figure out a way to my Fidelity Plat Amex fee waived @:-)

So I called Amex to cancel the card and to my surprise, the two numbers on card is for their MR department and for *wood .

To make a long story short, they offered to convert my card to their cash back rewards card (5% for gas, groceries etc) and will keep the same account number, member since date and credit line. The whole thing would be transparent to the credit agencies (which was a concern for credit scores). So all in all it ended well. Now just got to wait for my statement to print next week and then I will call back (got a account manager's direct number).

waw! 15 thats allot of credit cards to juggle! I would cancel most of them but if you are good at the rewards collecting game then cancel them for new and better rewards credit cards...

I would rather cancel and limit the cards number to 7. 15 are tooo much i assume. Keep the best ones only, i would advice.

How much does it hurt your credit score to cancel cards? I have a few cards that I probably haven't used in 10 years. And considering they offer no benefits of any kind (that I'm aware of anyway) I'll most likely never use them. Is it really such a bad idea for me to dump them? My credit score is currently over 800.

Thanks for the tip. My Citi MC statement date is coming up, and this month have a good bit of usage on the card (86k). I'm planning on applying for the Diners Club MC next week. Would paying my Citi MC balance prior to the statement date have any effect on the credit limit granted on my DC card when I apply? The DC is technically a "no limit" card, so I'm not sure how that would work.

Then you should not have much to worry about, escpecially if you are not carrying balances on your other cards.

Having too many open credit cards is OK as long for the most part, depending on what your short/long term goal is.

As a rule of thumb:

- Make sure the balance on each card doesn't exceed 25% (some say 50%). If one card is near maxed out, it will hurt your Fico. BT it over.
- Check for Annual Fee (someone mentioned above)
- Analyze your cards to see which ones have a way low limit (e.g. $5k limit average, and one card with $500 limit). If the card with low limit can be raised up to $5k, then keep it, otherwise close it.

Your FICO score is mainly dependent upon credit balance, payment experience/history and inquiries. So having 15 cards with "positive" reporting each month will raise your credit score significantly. But if your credit score is 750 or above, it may or may not matter anyways.

However, note that some banks use their "internal" scoring system and not the FICO system. Banks will balk at high debt to income, but sometimes they may say something about the massive numbers of credit cards that go unused.

But if you've got your house, got your car, and the credit cards, then its really not a big deal either way.

For me, my fico hovers between 675-725 depending on my spending. Sometimes I run business expenses thru personal credit card to get points, and when the balance is reported to the credit reporting agency, my Fico will tank. But it comes back up once it is paid off. Mind you, my credit cards are paid in full each month.. but they may report the balance prior to paying in full.

Also, having many credit cards means many due dates and higher chance of late payment.

So the bottom line is, you have to manipulate your FICO depending on what you plan on doing. I know that under 700 will not get me the best rate for leases, so I tend to lay low on the cards if I know i am getting a new car.