I currently have 4 credit cards, and 4 department store cards. Total of about 10k cl.
I recently applied for a personal loan and the loan agent suggested that I only have 1 credit card open and close the rest of my accounts because the way the bank look at my report was they had to consider the worst case scenario of me maxing out all of my credit cards and not be able to make my minimum payment and also the payment for the personal loan.
everything that I have read suggest she is not correct, however I was not approved for the loan due tothat reason and another reason.
my other question is I have a 300 dollar credit card from Capital One that I opened in 2008 and about 3 years ago I missed a few payments and have a 120 day late payment on my credit report. Although this is my oldest credit card account, this is the only account that I have that has a negative mark on it. Is it worth closing this account or would it even matter? I know it would decrease the way of my credit history
also does anyone suggest trying the goodwill letters and how they had success with it? Thank you again for all of your help.
The advice that the loan officer gave you is the exact opposite of what my CU loan officer told me when I went in and app'd for a car loan.
I was almost unable to be considered for a loan there....he had to get special permission from his boss to take my app. He told me that I had too few credit lines. At the time, I only had 2 CC's, and he said that, at minimum, they normally required at least 4, and preferably 5 or more, reported lines.
Thankfully, due to my decent credit score and income, I was given a chance. Also never a late, and AAOA of 7 years on the 2 CC accounts. I received their lowest available rate at the time, 1.74% for 60 months (17.5 K).
That experience jolted me into action...I went on a big app spree that very same night! Never again would I be without plentiful credit lines... 
I have noticed that Credit Karma STILL whines that I have a below-average # of total accounts. I can't wait to hear from the rest of you about this subject.
Starting Score: 600
bs6054 wrote:Problem is that this is a YMMV situation. The OP states that this WAS one of the reasons given for denial, some lenders have different policies. So if you are in a situation where you HAVE to get that loan, try to do as they say! I agree in general people want more than one line, but here the Loan Officer had the file, so the advice might have been targetted to that particular situation, whereas we are totally in the dark.
The only way it makes sense is if the OP is maxed out on all cards and the personal loan is actually a debt consolidation loan. Otherwise, no reputable loan officer is going to tell you to close all but one of your cards just to qualify for a normal personal loan.
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