Card Organization

Barefootwoman

Level 2 Member
What do you use to organize your cards, both when mobile and while at home? If I were to store my dormant cards in the proverbial sock drawer, there'd be a mess of cards.

Currently I have a CC wallet with slots that I carry and a business card holder at home where I store cards that are currently out of rotation.

What about you? any neat tricks ? This post was prompted by a guy I saw in the check out line over the weekend. Appeared he had punched a hole in the corner of his CCs and DCs and had them all strung on a big wire he was wearing around his wrist....a bit unique. I suppose they were loose enough to be swiped.
 

Matt S NYC

Level 2 Member
What do you use to organize your cards, both when mobile and while at home? If I were to store my dormant cards in the proverbial sock drawer, there'd be a mess of cards.

Currently I have a CC wallet with slots that I carry and a business card holder at home where I store cards that are currently out of rotation.

What about you? any neat tricks ? This post was prompted by a guy I saw in the check out line over the weekend. Appeared he had punched a hole in the corner of his CCs and DCs and had them all strung on a big wire he was wearing around his wrist....a bit unique. I suppose they were loose enough to be swiped.
This! lol I have lots of wallets for holding cards at home and a normal wallet for out and about. One of the home wallets usually comes with me on liquidation trips as well so I have a good place to put all my prepaids.

20151109_182924.jpg
 

SanDiego1K

Level 2 Member
I don't remember responding there so will do so here. For home, I have three business card folders. One is for AMEX cards, one for Chase, and the other for Citi, B of A, USBank, and whatever else there might be. I divide the pages within each folder by two, with one half for me and one half for my husband. We own a business, so each of our sections are subdivided further, one for personal, one for business. Each is then subdivided once more, with the front half for open cards and the back for canceled cards. I buy big round dots and put one on each canceled card, giving the date of cancellation. Hopefully I then will pay attention to that date and not reapply again before the card can be churned.

I use a label machine to make up a label for most cards, giving the multiples for businesses. I also note if there is no F/X.

All three card folders go in a drawer by my desk. I consult it before a new CC ap. I keep cards where I still have spending to do to trigger a bonus or have yet to receive the bonus in a big clamp in my desk. I have a label on each card where I note the amount of spend, the date by which it is to be done, and the points to be earned. Once the spend is done, I note that and keep the card to remind me to follow up on the bonus. I keep my bluebirds there as well, noting how much is on each card. This is a great visual system.
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
I don't remember responding there so will do so here. For home, I have three business card folders. One is for AMEX cards, one for Chase, and the other for Citi, B of A, USBank, and whatever else there might be. I divide the pages within each folder by two, with one half for me and one half for my husband. We own a business, so each of our sections are subdivided further, one for personal, one for business. Each is then subdivided once more, with the front half for open cards and the back for canceled cards. I buy big round dots and put one on each canceled card, giving the date of cancellation. Hopefully I then will pay attention to that date and not reapply again before the card can be churned.

I use a label machine to make up a label for most cards, giving the multiples for businesses. I also note if there is no F/X.

All three card folders go in a drawer by my desk. I consult it before a new CC ap. I keep cards where I still have spending to do to trigger a bonus or have yet to receive the bonus in a big clamp in my desk. I have a label on each card where I note the amount of spend, the date by which it is to be done, and the points to be earned. Once the spend is done, I note that and keep the card to remind me to follow up on the bonus. I keep my bluebirds there as well, noting how much is on each card. This is a great visual system.
Photo and Asana :)

My talented child slips cards into the shredder... I only catch the ones I catch, regardless of how they are stored.

Or more accurately

Photo, asana and meditation.
 

ElainePDX

Level 2 Member
Not going to share what I do because it is very 20th century and it does not involve spreadsheets, which I avoid as much as possible.

But I will share this: because I only make spreadsheets when I really need to - like to keep track of Amex twitter syncs - I have learned not to cut up and throw away cancelled cards. I have had more than one occasion when a closed card wasn't properly closed on the bank's end, and when I called to resolve it, I was asked to provide not just the the cc#, but the 3 digit code and exp. date as well.

In two cases, the card never was closed because the CITI CSR neglected to add some code. BOA seems to have a hard time getting my cards closed - perhaps because returns or credits dribble in. Specifically, I have noticed that the credits from BOA offers sometimes show up on a card other than the one I actually used. It is very hard to tell from their site to which card an offer is attached. Now I do have many BOA cards from churning AS. And despite my deliberate closing of cards, it doesn't always happen.

TL;DR - Bottom line, is however you store current cards, you might consider storing closed ones too.
 

AnxiousRetirement

New Member
And on a completely different side of the scale, I just keep 4 little cards in my wallet whilst out and about. And at home, they live in a small little stack in a little box on my desk.
 

fpguy

Level 2 Member
Not for keeping track of minimum spend limits or anything, but I have this wallet and I enjoy it very much as I never need cash. It holds around 5 cards and that's all I really have for now.

Just so you know I am in no way affiliated with this website.
https://www.ridgewallet.com/
 

DazeEnd

Level 2 Member
I use a spread sheet. There is no way to keep due dates straight without one.
My solution to tracking due dates is to have them changed. Usually my fist call after getting a card is to have the card's due date changed to the third of the month. Having a single due date keeps me from having to mess with payments throughout the month. One day, multiple payments, and I'm done.

As for organization, I use two business card wallets. A thin one is my "go wallet" and holds 4-6 cards that are in current use. A thicker one stays at home ad holds everything else that's not currently being used.
 

Vic Diaz

Level 2 Member
Although this is not for the physical part of organizing cards, I use mint.com to aggregate all my accounts and purchases so I don't have to visit each site, then I go to YNAB to document the movement of the money from Credit Card to Gift Card to BlueBird or PayPal back to Credit Card. Mint makes the process of keeping up with credit cards so much easier!
 

JoNellie

New Member
I just made a new spreadsheet tab that I place in Dropbox so that i can grab it from phone tablet hotel computers etc. For some time i was concerned about listing all the cvvs and exp dates but came up with an easy system for inverting numbers/adding dummy numbers etc so only I cold possibly use. This covers me for all online or online travel purchases which is bulk of my spend. Even with a wallet system, I had been wasting money by not having say my United or IHG card with me when I suddenly needed to switch flights or extend stays while already on road.

I had already had a tab listing each card (of 30) and category bonuses/high spend kickers/annual fee dates etc but having the live numbers with me always now is a big time saver.
 

Dante

New Member
To help with churning, I keep the 40+ ccs for the 4 people in my family in a spreadsheet on google drive. I fugde the cc numbers by adding one to the last four digits and subtracting the next 4 digits from 10.

The spreadsheet columns are: date cancel(date) bank brand type name number exp code bonus limit af spend
 

porcodino

Level 2 Member
No spreadsheets, I keep cards together with rubber bands.
I remember what I can, look up the rest, billing cycles ending same day, mark significant dates on calendar, KISS
 

rcc

Level 2 Member
Spreadsheets, mint.com, personalcapital.com, and biz card holder like this one:

I also don't throw out any old cards any more - doesn't take much space, especially in a binder, and I've gone back to check random details in the past.
 

travel4less

Level 2 Member
I keep my "out of rotation" cards in an old wallet in my desk. I use a spreadsheet to keep track of all the necessary info. I just noticed last week that my current stack of "in use" cards is WAY too thick!
 

suljaga13

Level 2 Member
I have business card holder that can hold around 120 cards. I am having trouble keeping it fully closed, due to constantly increasing number of cards.
 

falconbeach

Level 2 Member
I use this.
Code:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0087ZRHZ6?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01
It provides easy access and viewing of your cards. I also use a spreadsheet and another notepad that details my plans and next steps.
 

GettingReady

Level 2 Member
For those that keep active cards that aren't being used in a sock drawer (or is that just an expression?), any concerns re: theft? What about long trips?

Our home was broken into last year and drawers ransacked. I'm thinking I'll take the cards we're not using to a safety deposit box especially when making a long trip. When we're home, I keep them in a less obvious place.
 

Bury

Level 2 Member
At home, clear business card sheets (I use the ones made by Avery) work well for credit cards too. I like being able to re-sort cards quickly or keep "families" of cards on separate pages, which I think would get annoying to keep up with in a business card holder as linked above. Also, a binder scales up pretty well in terms of capacity.
 
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