The average American has between three and four credit card accounts, with an average credit card balance of more than $5,000, according to recent data from Experian.
Of course, there’s nothing implicitly wrong with having more than one credit card. But if too many card balances are causing you to miss payments or leave you unable to pay down balances in full, the costs add up quickly. Americans are buried in more than $790 billion in credit card debt, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York data, and few people can afford to ignore that heavy feeling they get when charging items without a plan to pay for them later — whether due to an unexpected emergency or spending without a budget.
