Do You Need To Have More Than One Credit Card?

Deciding whether or not to have more than 1 UK credit card can be a difficult decision to make. On the one hand, you want to keep a careful control on your personal finances and having numerous creditors makes this difficult. On the other hand, it can be convenient to have more than one credit card, for example in an emergency. So, should you have more than 1 credit card?

The pros

The pros to having more than one credit card include:

• Not all outlets accept one credit card provider. For example, you may find that some outlets accept Visacard bur not MasterCard, or the other way round. If you restrict yourself to one credit card provider, you may find that you are restricting yourself to where you can use your credit card.
• Keeping one credit card for Internet use. If you like to purchase items off the Internet you may want to keep one credit card exclusively for this purpose. Doing this will give you the peace of mind of knowing that only one set of credit card information has been given out via the internet and as you do not use this credit card anywhere else, if any fraudulent transactions are charged to the card there can only be one place where the information has been obtained from. In fact many credit card user like to keep credit cards for exclusive use in certain areas. Another example is with credit cards that people like to charge their petrol purchases to.
• You can get different loyalty programs. Different credit cards offer different credit card loyalty bonus programs. If you want to benefit from both a air miles and a cash back loyalty program, you’re unlikely to find a single credit card provider offering its members both. As such, you may think it is worth having more than one credit card in order to take advantage of this.
• Iit can be good for your credit rating. Having more than one UK credit card can be beneficial to your overall UK credit rating, which allows you greater access to other credit.

The cons

Some of the reasons why maybe you should not have more than one UK credit card include:

• It is difficult to financially manage. Lots of different payment dates at different times of the month can be hard to manage. If you find it difficult keeping tabs on which card you have to pay when and how much you may find that you end up having to pay late payment penalty fees, etc.
• It may mean more debt than you can handle. Unless you are very disciplined, having access to lots of credit can be very tempting. In turn this could cause you to suffer extreme financial difficulties as you try and repay the debt that you have spent on your credit cards. As such, unless you know that you have the financial discipline to repay your cards on time and not to run up huge debts on your cards, you should probably stick to one or two credit cards.
• It can be bad for your credit rating. As well as possibly causing you to run up more credit card debt than you can repay, having too many actual credit cards can also have a detrimental effect on your credit rating as other credit providers will be able to see that you have access to lots of credit that you may not be able to repay.

Making the decision of whether or not to have more than one UK credit card can be a tough one. Hopefully the hints above have given you some idea of whether or not having more than one UK credit card will work for you.

Related Links

• Choosing the Right Card
  There are literally hundreds of credit cards on offer in the UK, and the list is growing daily. So, which is the best on offer? It very much depends on how each person plans to use their card. The answer lies in asking one simple question; “What do I want to use a credit card for?”
• Applying For Credit Cards Online
  More and more people are applying for credit cards online. Along with online auctions, and shopping, signing up for credit cards, loans and insurance has been one of the fastest growing commercial activities on the net.
• Quick Balance Transfer Guide
  Balance transfers allow card holders to transfer the money they owe to their existing credit card to another, usually at a special rate of interest. The new credit card company pays off the old credit card debt and transfers it to the new card. This article will tell you how to play the game.