I was looking at my credit reports and those for my husband recently. The way the reports are set up, by listing the credit limits on old, closed credit cards, it looks like we have tons of cards and lots of available credit. Only when one checks the details does one see that most of these cards have been closed at our request. We have only two open cards, only one of which is used, and the utilization rate is nearly always under 5%. There are no balances at all on these old cards, and we never made even one late payment. I guess my concern is that a quick glance makes it look like we have about $40,000 more revolving credit than we actually have available. Some of the credit reports also appear to be monitoring the monthly payments on these cards, all of which show up OK, since we owe nothing and receive no bills. My trust in the people/systems who come up with the FICO scores is not too high. We are planning to sell our house and buy another in the next year, and I want no surprises. Any thoughts?
