Between 0% deals on balance transfers, purchases and general stoozing, the number of credit cards you acquire can build up quickly. The more credit cards you have, the more organised you have to be to ensure that each credit card is paid on time each month and you don’t rack up any of those dreaded late payment charges.

It is possible to juggle a large number of credit cards easily – it just takes a little organisation and planning. So, here at MoneyTowers, we have put together our guide to helping you manage your mountain of credit cards.

The problem with paper statements
If a lot of your statements come through on paper, if you aren’t organised, it is easy to misplace or lose a credit card statement. Many statements also come with a lot of personal data on them – including the card number – therefore it is also important to keep a track of how you are disposing of your statements to ensure that you do not become a victim of ID fraud. Plus there is the added problem of the postal service – it isn’t always reliable and if your statement is late, you run the risk of notching up a late payment.

So what’s the answer? Although some people do not like banking online, online credit card statements can really help with your credit card management. If possible, register for online access to your credit card account and sign up for paper free billing – this usually means that instead of a paper statement, it will be sent through to your email account. If your credit card provider charges for online transactions or online accounts, we suggest dumping the credit card as soon as you can for a free one.

Getting Organised
The problem is now that you have multiple websites, logins and passwords. Firstly, we advise adding each credit card login page to your ‘favourites’ and always use this favourites link to logon – this reduces the risk of you accidentally typing in an incorrect address and being redirected to a malicious site. It is important to note that if you do sign up for online statements and your credit card provider sends you an email asking you to log in to your account, never follow the links – always use your ‘favourites’ link just in case the email is not from your credit card provider.

The advantage of having all your credit cards in your favourites list is that it will be hard to forget a credit card – you can set a day each week or month to go through your favourites list and check the status of each of the credit cards in turn.

Password Management
It is advisable not to use the same password for each account – it minimises the risk. If you are unable to remember all your username/password combinations, you can write them down but we advise using cryptic password hints. For example, if your password is your daughter’s name, write down something specific to her (for example the car she drives) that will remind you that the password is her name. We would advise that you do not allow your browser to remember your username/password combinations.

If you want to go for a more hi-tech solution, there are password management systems around that store all your logins and passwords.

If your finances are good, it is also worth changing the payment days so that they are all the same – this way, you know you have to sit down once day a month to sort out all your credit card bills, rather than dealing with them as and when they come in.

So that’s it – the method won’t suit everyone, however online banking can help you manage your credit cards more efficiently.

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