How many cards should I have?

[giosan32]

Hello Everyone,

    I currently have 3 cards. All 3 are with Capital one, 1250 limit, 750 limit and a 400 limit.  Balances are all around 10% of the card limits.  Question is, is this good enough or should I have anymore credit cards or just try to have them raise my credit scores without doing a hard inquiry?  Any feedback would be great , thanks.

Current scores.  Transunion: 560 fico, equifax: 608 fico, experience: 597 fico

Goal: 640 across the board or higher.

[mountainmom]

What is causing your scores to be so low? That will have a huge bearing on how you rebuild.

[giosan32]

I have a handful of CO, some 30, 60, and 90 day lates about 8 months ago.  I have some collections that total about $2000 which I am looking to pay off in December.  I will try to get a pay for delete on my collection accounts.

[yudeology101]

How long have you had your cards? 

Based on your info provided on your signature,  if all your cards are opened less than a year, I wouldn't apply for anymore cards.  Let your current cards age well-  show good usage, PIF, and let time gradually raise up your scores.   Also, we would need a bit more info to help you better- How many INQs do you have?  Any baddies?  What's your AAOA? 

[giosan32]

My cards are 2 years old.  I have 3 baddies, not sure what aaoa is?  I have 6 Inquiries.  

[mountainmom]

Well I'll let others chime in. But in my opinion I would focus on cleaning up your reports and take excellent care of your cap 1 cards for now.i would not get any crappy cards with high fees. I think with 3 cards that is plenty until your report is way cleaner, baddies are old and scores come way up.

[mountainmom]

Did you post on the rebuilding forum about cleaning up your report?

[giosan32]

No not yet, I will do that next, thank you.

[longtimelurker]

Agree with the posted advice, and in regards to the subject line: however many cards you eventually want, it's a good idea to have issuer diversity, i.e. you don't want all your cards to come from a single issuer.  This is because "stuff happens", and for example, if something went wrong with you and Cap One, even if it is a mistake on their part, you would have no working credit cards.

But, this is NOT the time to address that, wait until your scores are much better and you can apply for cards that you want.

[alvon123]

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@mountainmom wrote:
Well I'll let others chime in. But in my opinion I would focus on cleaning up your reports and take excellent care of your cap 1 cards for now.i would not get any crappy cards with high fees. I think with 3 cards that is plenty until your report is way cleaner, baddies are old and scores come way up.

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+1