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People love having credit cards. Today everyone fins their email flooded with offers about new cards in the market and great value for money offers. If you have been receiving a lot of emails about credit cards, you may think it is great to apply and have some 4 cards on hand. If you do not plan to use it then having four cards is really not going to make much of a difference to your credit history. However if you do want to have four cards, you must be prepared to deal with four different credit interests, four different payment dates, differences in grace period and penalty fees and more. In case you miss a payment date you will find interest rates bogging you down and a debt to deal with that you have no clue how to sort out.
The best thing to do in any case is to keep it to two or three cards. Also whenever you see offers do not jump at the opportunity to use the card. Impulse shopping on a credit card can be dangerously difficult. You must make sure you shop for what you need and keep your cards balance well below the credit limit so as to not incur huge losses. If you have a huge credit limit and you decide to max out your card, you will have sleepless nights later wondering how you will sort it out.
In case you are someone with a shopping binge problem go for a secured credit card. That way you have an assurance of spending within your budget. You can also go for a charge card, where you will be having a certain fixed limit and it has to be paid in full at the end of the month. You are less likely to take risks with such a card. In case you need a card to use just for frequent fuel purchases or flying you can have a card for that alone where your reward points on gas miles and air miles will be quite useful to your line of work. You will want to consider other limited use cards such as store credit cards if you stock up in bulk for your office on certain products. This will help you save on your purchases if you know which card to pick and what deals to use. For your son who is in college, you could consider a prepaid card which works much like a debit card, it will work well as emergency money and you can see that he doesn't land up in credit trouble anytime soon.