There are a number of very good reasons why you should only carry one credit card around with you at any one time. They relate to keeping a control of your spending and therefore your budget but also relate to matters involving such as security.
More and more people in modern times have more than one – and in fact perhaps several – credit cards. This could be for any number of reasons, including the way in which they obtain rewards for the spending they make on their credit card, to the fact that one of their credit cards is almost at its limit and they required further spending power. Although this latter reason is quite clearly a sign of serious debt problems at least mounting if they are not already present, the fact remains that it is common practise.
Regardless of how many credit cards a person may have, however, there are likely to be very few circumstances where they are required to carry more than one around with them at any one time. Although such as trips away from home may prove to be an exception, day to day activity is unlikely to require anyone to carry two or more credit cards upon their person.
The first reason as to why you should carry only one credit card at any one time has to be in relation to security. If such as a wallet or purse is lost or stolen with a credit card in it, the inconvenience and potential for fraud can be considerable. If such an unfortunate event occurs, however, with two or more credit cards subsequently affected, the inconvenience and fraud potential are essentially multiplied by the number of cards lost.
Carrying more than one credit card around also introduces the possibility of losing track of spending. Where one card may be intended to be provided to make payment for goods or services, another may be handed over by mistake. This can lead to such as a spending limit on a card being inadvertently exceeded where no online verification is performed, or it can lead to payment being made from a card where the bill is due three weeks before the one which was intended to be used and can in this way throw anyone’s personal budgeting in to potentially serious disarray.
It is therefore always advisable that when leaving home in the knowledge that a credit card will be required in order to make a purchase, the credit card so required should be clearly identified and all others left safely at home, out of potential harm’s way.