How Many Credit Cards Can You Have With Each Credit Card Issuer?

Update 8/20/19: Maximum for HSBC has been increased to 3. If you see any other errors on this page let us know so we can update them.

Some credit card issuers only allow you to have a certain amount of credit cards with them before you’ll be automatically denied. I thought it’d be interesting to look at each of these limits with the major credit card issuers. These limits do not count authorized users, the limit only applies to cards that you’re the primary account holder on.

American Express

You’re limited to five credit cards from American Express at any one time. It’s important to remember two things:

• This limit only counts credit cards issued by American Express. Credit cards that are issued by other banks that run on the American Express payment network will not count towards this limit.
• This limit only applies to credit cards. American Express issues two types of cards: charge cards and credit cards. The only difference is that a credit card allows you to carry a balance and a charge card doesn’t. On the American Express website it’s easy to search just for charge or just for credit cards.

Sometimes this rule isn’t actually enforced, which leads people to have more than five cards. I’m not sure what causes this limit to be enforced or not enforced but in my personal experience it has always been enforced. If you already have more than 5 credit cards with American Express then you won’t have to close any, but next time you apply they will likely not approve you stating this 5 card limit. If you call reconsideration they will likely give you the option of cancelling one of your existing cards.

Being an authorized user also does not count towards this limit.

More recently, some data points indicate that the limit has changed from 4 to 5, or possibly even more.

Barclaycard

There is no hard limit on the amount of credit cards you can have with Barclaycard. Most people find that they will struggle to get approved for more than one card with Barclaycard every six months, but this really depends on your individual situation.

The more spend you put on existing Barclaycard products and the less recent inquiries you have with all credit card issuers, the more likely you are to be approved. Barclaycard used to be a lot less strict, but gone are the days of getting instantly approved for 5 cards in one day.

Bank of America

Bank of America does not limit the amount of cards you can have with them. I know plenty of people with 10+ credit cards with BofA. Keep in mind they do have a 2/3/4 rule now.

Capital One

There is some discussion on the limit about Capital One limits on the myFICO forums. To save you some time, here is the basics:

• Some people have been told that they can only have two Capital one cards. This does not include co-branded cards (like the Capital One Sony card), only cards like the Capital One Quicksilver or Venture.
• Other people have been told that there is no limit or they have two or more cards.

Keep in mind people are being told this when they apply for the cards and are denied, so this isn’t really a case of misinformed customer service representatives. In fact when people have received their notices of adverse action, this is the official reason listed (maximum limit of two credit cards with Capital One).

My personal theory is that there is a limit of two cards per consumer, business cards do not count towards this limit , cards in the credit card steps program do not count and neither do co-branded cards. Some people have been able to get past this two card limit because they have old cards that have been product changed a number of times, for whatever reason these do not count towards the limit even if they are Capital One branded credit cards.

Chase

Chase doesn’t have a hard limit on the amount of credit cards you can have with them, they usually just restrict you by the amount of total credit you have available to you (which will vary person to person). You can get around this by calling them asking them to reallocate credit limits from existing cards onto a new card that you’ve applied for.

There is some discussion on the card limit on Flyertalk, but I’ve never seen people be denied due to this before.

Citi

Citi does not have a hard limit on the amount of cards you can have.

Discover

According to Discover:

A cardmember can be the primary cardholder on two Discover accounts, and can only be considered for a second account once they have had the first account for at least a year

One reader even commented that this limit applies to debit cards you have with Discover as well. This limit does not apply to debit cards. You can also only have a maximum of one student card with Discover.

HSBC

You can have a maximum of three HSBC credit cards.

U.S Bank

There is no hard limit on the amount of cards you can have with U.S Bank, that being said the more cards you have with them the more difficult it is to get approved. You can improve your chances by freezing your IDA & ARS credit reports, but this won’t really help that much if you already have a few U.S Bank credit cards.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo doesn’t limit the amount of cards you can have, typically they will want you to have a banking relationship with them before approving you for any of their premium credit card products.

Smaller Issuers

Alliant

You’re limited to one credit card currently with Alliant (according to our contact at Alliant).

Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU)

You can hold a maximum of three NFCU cards.