How many credit cards should i have?

[dpride86]

I have been working on improving my credit score and want to know what is a good number of credit cards to have?

[OptimasPrime]

3-4 is the general concensus in terms of optimizing your fico score. After that, most experience diminishing returns.

[astritaho1979]

15 cards and you look solid.wait for those cards to age a little like 1 yr and look at your score going 720

[OhioCPA]

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@OptimasPrime wrote:

3-4 is the general concensus in terms of optimizing your fico score. After that, most experience diminishing returns.

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+1

Not counting store cards. Thus, three from visa, master card, discover, or american express.

[E150GT]

I have one from each network and one store card (discount tire car care 1) My score is at 724 and it will go up once I get my util under 10% on my usaa card. All others are showing Zero balance except for amex charge. That has worked best for me. I think about apping for more but I'm not going to.

[Revelate]

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@astritaho1979 wrote:

15 cards and you look solid.wait for those cards to age a little like 1 yr and look at your score going 720

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Nowhere close to needed.

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@OhioCPA wrote:

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@OptimasPrime wrote:

3-4 is the general concensus in terms of optimizing your fico score. After that, most experience diminishing returns.

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+1

Not counting store cards. Thus, three from visa, master card, discover, or american express.

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+2, this is where it's at in my estimation.

[jake619]

Four seems reasonable. Gets you one on each billing network.

[newportguy]

I would say 4 also... As you can see I only have 4 and could get many more if I wanted to ,  but I choose not to . I don't like store cards.!!!!

[dpride86]

Thank you. I need to get a Amex card.....15 cards seem like way too many

[chnceit]

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@OptimasPrime wrote:

3-4 is the general concensus in terms of optimizing your fico score. After that, most experience diminishing returns.

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+1 

You only need 3-4 cards, one year of solid payment history and low utlization your scores will be great. Plus you dont want 15 inquiries across all CR's in a short period. But do not go over board to where you are not able to handle.