Too many CC affect ability to get mortgage?

[DrDG]

Does having too many credit cards, even if there are minimal balances, impact your ability to qualify for a mortgage? Do lenders hate store cards? Very new to all of this, still learning. Plan to apply for a few cards within the next week or so. I just dont wanna go crazy and ruin my shot of qualifying for a home next year.

[Anonymous]

If they are established and you are paying on them and their balances are low, no this shouldn't be an issue and it should help your credit score. If you don't have any each will be a hp and that will ding your score a bit. Also when are you planning on applying for a mortgage, lenders don't like to see a lot of HP right before you start applying for a mortgage. If you are planning on starting to shop for a house soon, I would wait on the credit cards until after the mortgage closes.

[Roscoe_13]

Im curious about this as well.  I plan on applying for a mortgage in May 2015.  And had the same question

[KoolDev]

I have been gearing myself up for buying or building by this spring.  Too many credit cards WILL affect you.  I had a pile of them and have closed all but 4 I think.  Only one carries a balance.   One bank i talked to uses what they call a BNI score to determine if you are at risk for bankruptcy.  NOW let me be clear, i do not know for sure that they use this on the mortgage end.  but my scores have actually crept up when closing some of the small cards.    Closed my Cap 1's and my score went up lol.  Talk with a mortgage loan officer at the banks you may deal with to be sure.  My thoughts are this, if you have 40k in available credit with credit cards and owe only 5k, a bank can look at it like this..........Can they pay back the loan if they max out the cards ?   Becareful..

[DanTheMan77]

There is no simple answer to this question. The total number of credit cards does not impact your score; however, many things relating to the accounts WILL impact your score. Overall credit utilization, average age of accounts, minimum monthly payments, # of recent hard pulls all impact your score. Also, most lenders like to see at least 3 open trade lines. If the account in your signiture is your only account, it would be wise to open 2 more. Just realize that you will likely see a dip in your score short term. If your plan is to purchase in 6+ months, your score should rebound by then. Just don't use the new cards.