When it comes to credit cards, some people enjoy strategizing to maximize their rewards, points, or miles. Not everyone finds optimizing their card use to be fun, though. One Reddit poster recently explained that he wanted to find a great card but did not want to “play the game with having 2, 3, 4, or 12 different credit cards to get me bonuses for everything.”

This Redditor is far from alone. Most people simply don’t want to have a wallet bulging with credit cards or consult a cheat sheet to see which one of a dozen cards to use at which store. And, the good news is, this is completely unnecessary to get great rewards for your everyday spending. 

Having too many credit cards can backfire big time 

The Reddit user was absolutely right that some people do sign up for many cards just to max out their rewards. The problem is, though, this works only for those who are very organized and dedicated and who are willing to spend more time than most managing a bunch of different cards.

If you’re not a financial guru and you have a lot of other things on your plate, having too many cards with multiple different rewards programs can actually backfire. There are a few reasons why that’s the case:

• You could end up using the wrong card and limiting the rewards you get. Many cards offering the best bonuses for specific categories, like groceries, offer very limited rewards if you aren’t buying within the bonus category. If you mess up and make a purchase with the wrong card, you could get 1% back or less. 
• You could drop the ball on activating bonuses. Some of the best cards also require you to activate special bonus categories. This could mean signing into your account on a regular basis — sometimes as often as quarterly — to earn the best rewards. If you forget, your points, miles, or cash back could be much lower than expected — or lower than other cards offer. 
• You could hurt your credit. Opening up too many credit cards at once could result in too many inquiries on your credit history. This could damage your credit, costing you more if you take out a large loan such as a car loan. 
• You could make mistakes in managing so many cards. When you have a lot of cards to manage, it’s easier to miss payments or to run up a balance you can’t pay in full. Either of those mistakes could do long-term damage to your finances. 

The bottom line is that there may be more downsides than upsides to trying to max out rewards by signing up for tons of different credit cards at once. 

There’s a better alternative to maximize rewards

The good news is that you can earn great rewards without filling up your wallet or wasting time managing multiple rewards programs. The key is to find the very best general-purpose cash back card that you can and use it for everything. 

Sure, you may not get a 5% bonus on specific purchases like gas or groceries. However, if you earn a generous percentage back on everything, you can often more than make up for missing out on the extra bonus on a small number of purchases.

If you opt for a cash back card, you also eliminate the hassle of trying to figure out which rewards redemption method is best — you just get the money back as a statement credit or deposited into an account of your choosing and you never have to think about it again. You can also focus on making sure you pay off your card in full each month so you don’t negate the value of the rewards you earn by paying high interest charges. 

So, unless you really love trying to game the system to earn a few extra rewards, stop wasting your time with this approach. Instead, research and find a cash back card that works for you and swipe with it every time you charge to see your cash back balance grow. 

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