Personal Finance

I've gotten 7 stellar credit cards but am getting bored with the game. What's next?

Christy Bieber

Published: February 23, 2025 8:59 am

A Reddit user posted a thread recently indicating he had gotten “bored with the credit card game.” He said he had seven credit cards, including all of the ones offering 5% cashback bonuses in every category where they are available. He has just one card with an annual fee that provides him 6% back on groceries, and all the rest of the cards are free while still allowing him to earn generous rewards.

Now, he isn’t sure what he should do next. He’s thinking about signing up for a card that has a loyalty program that gives him bonus rewards if he has at least $100K invested with their bank or brokerage firms — but he says it will take him a while to save up $100K and he’s not sure if he should move forward with doing this anyway since he’s getting tired of optimizing his card use.

So, what should the Redditor do?

Continue playing the card optimization game if he enjoys it

One option the Redditor has is to simply keep using the cards he has strategically so he can maximize his rewards. He has already done the hard work of trying to find all of the cards he needs to max out his bonuses. Now he just has to keep track of which ones to use for which purchases. If he doesn’t remember, he could try a Post-it note in his wallet or even write on the card with a Sharpie marker to specify what to buy with it.

Since he is paying almost no annual fees, this approach would work well with little downside if this is something that he enjoys doing. Some people find maxing out their card rewards to be a fun hobby and, as long as the Redditor has plans for how to redeem his rewards, there’s no real reason not to continue with the status quo. 

Simplify and focus on other financial matters

On the flip side, however, the Redditor admitted he is getting bored with having multiple cards, which means this hobby may not be very enjoyable for him anymore.  If he doesn’t want to keep spending time and energy on making sure he has the best rewards card for every single purchase, then he can simplify things instead.

Rather than trying to juggle multiple cards and figure out the rewards programs for each one, the Redditor should get one great credit card that offers the maximum in cash back for every purchase. This can make life a lot easier. There’d be no more trying to figure out which card to use and no more spending time trying to figure out how to make the most of rewards. Instead, he would just charge everything on the cashback card, which pays an overall decent rate, and stop using all the other cards entirely. 

Simply switching to a single cashback card also has other benefits as well. Specifically, he could have the money deposited into a brokerage or savings account and invest it. This could help him grow his wealth over time, much more than just taking advantage of card rewards ever could. By contrast, redeeming for things like miles may encourage him to spend even more money going on vacation and not help him in the long run. 

If he opted for the cashback and invest strategy, the compound growth from his investments could, over time, end up being worth far more than the rewards he’d have received. 

The reality is that juggling many cards is often more hassle than it’s worth as doing it may not actually benefit you much in the long run depending on what you are doing with the rewards. Many people — including this Redditor — are better off using a simple cashback card, investing the money, and then spending time on other more important financial matters, like making sure you’re debt-free and have a good emergency fund to stay that way.