Most Americans have wallets full of at least five credit cards, according to new research. In some cities, people care carrying even more plastic.
“There isn’t a magic number of credit cards you should have in your wallet. It’s good to own multiple cards if you can manage them well, by paying on time, keeping your credit utilization low and waiting at least six months between applications,” John Kiernan, an editor for WalletHub, the personal finance website that conducted the study.
This January, Audacy reported that half of all-American credit cardholders were carrying debt from month to month, and many didn’t have a clear plan for paying it off. Bankrate Senior Industry Analyst Ted Rossman said in a statement that credit card balances had risen 51% since early 2021 and that credit card delinquencies were at their highest point since 2011, citing the Federal Reserve Bank.
Last week, Audacy reported that Americans’ household debt had increased to record highs, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. At that point the debt – which includes mortgages, auto loans, student loans and credit cards – had risen to $18.04 trillion.
To figure out the cities in the U.S. where people have the most credit cards, WalletHub compared 182 cities based on the number of cards and the increase in the number of credit cards. They found that, on average most Americans have at least five.
At the top of WalletHub’s “Number of Credit Cards Rank” list, Winston-Salem, N.C., residents have nearly seven each (6.42 credit cards each). Although people in the third ranked city (Irvine Calif.) actually had the most cards on average at 6.92, Winston-Salem residents opened more credit cards than people in any other city during the last quarter of last year, 1.5 cards on average.
WalletHub noted that “Irvine has a large population of wealthy people, who may be able to afford having more credit cards open than the average person,” and it seems like people there are slowing down the rate at which they open new accounts.
Here are the top five cities on WalletHub’s “Number of Credit Cards Rank” list:
1. Winston-Salem, N.C.
2. Santa Clarita, Calif.
3. Irvine, Calif.
4. Warwick, R.I.
5. Cape Coral, Fla.
“If you’re opening new cards simply to spend beyond your means, you’ll quickly find many cards hard to manage,” warned Kiernan.
People who need to manage multiple credit cards should focus on five things, according to WalletHub. These are: prioritizing high-interest debt, setting up automatic payments, monitoring credit utilization, waiting at least six months between applications and never open cards to spend beyond means.
Per WalletHub’s research, the five cities where people have the least credit cards per person were Juneau, Alaska; Detroit, Mich.; Missoula, Mont.; Des Moines, Iowa and Amarillo, Texas.