School me: my next Credit Card???

[Taylor814ce]

Hi,

I currently have:

Chase Freedom

Chase Shpphire

Company credit card with my name on it. (This is not on my report so I don't think it counts)

All of these are paid off in full each month. My credit score average from three is 760.

1. Should I get another card? would getting another card or two increase my score?

2. What card would you reccomend if you were in my situation? AmEx? please specifiy exact card.

Thank you!

[kdm31091]

What are the limits on those? What are you looking for? Rewards? Low APR? Can you justify an annual fee or do you prefer a no AF card?

Need a bit more info than your score and what you have. Need to know what it is you feel you are missing.

With your score and PIF habits, I see no reason you can't be approved for something new, but the question is what you are seeking.

[Taylor814ce]

Hi,

My limit on Sapphire is $5K. I had it for 3 years and the limit never got increased. Limit on Freedom is $18K and I only had it for 3 months.

My score for EQ 790, TU 750, EP 720.

I really don't have a "need". I just want to hold magic number or ideal number of cards to achive better score. It just seems that many on this forum have more than couple cards to increase there score.

Thanks

[kdm31091]

With that information the only thing I can think to suggest is a general spending card, since Freedom and Sapphire are both basically for categories.

Maybe a Citi Double Cash -- with your score you should theoretically get a high CL and good APR (theoretically!). Or the Capital One Quicksilver (the no AF version). The latter pays out 0.5% less than the Double Cash, but also offers instant posting of rewards, no FTF if that is important to you, and redemption anytime. If those factors aren't important, you'll get a higher return with Double Cash, just be forewarned that Citi has given lower than expected limits to most people on that card.

[Taylor814ce]

So would getting additonal cards increase my score? How many, addition to my current two should I get for ultimate score?

Thanks

[kdm31091]

At your score level, it's not going to be a huge jump, but adding one more decent limit card that is PIF is going to decrease your util % and increase available credit so it will give you a handful more points. I see no need to add more than one, really no need to add ANY if you don't really want to -- your score is already in the upper tier

[newhis]

It would not help you a lot, but a good number are 3 credit cards. If you want to max your score for a single month, you should let 1 report a balance <9% and the other 2 $0 balance.

Chase will report the $0 balance when you PIF, so if you add another card and change the due date so it reports near the time you pay both Chase cards to $0 then you can have the max score for a few days.

Another question, do you feel your Sapphire limit low? Do you use that card for more than 20-30%? You can send a secure message and ask for a SP CLI, sometimes they will grant that or at least give you something a couple of statements later. If they don't, you can ask them to transfer some of your Freedom limit to your Sapphire, to balance your cards.

[Anonymous]

Offer up the Boy Scout Motto: "always be prepared" ... that means having a diversity of lender cards. You say why, you never know when one of the card issuers decides to go rogue on you, or has a website problem, get's hacked or whatever. Good to have a Visa and MasterCard just in case. As to the credit bureau, it will make no difference. Another poster mentioned three cards with a suggested method to maximize your credit file/scores. Good food for thought. Your scores are great now and with a little time will improve more to the 800's. Great job

[Anonymous]

As mentioned above, just for diversity I would add something. You never know when chase might blow a fuse in their data center and chase cards stop working lol. With those scores you have choices in lenders and I would assume you have low inquiries. Pick a card or two that fit your needs. Citi DC some sort of travel card if you travel, Barclays, Amex or maybe BOA better balance. 25 bucks a quarter for paying off more than minimum payments is a pretty good deal.

[Uppingmyscore]

You only have 2 cards with Chase....might want to add either Amex, Discover, Capital One Quicksilver, etc just to diversify the lender.