How many accounts is too many?

[Anonymous]

I have

3 Capital One credit cards:

$1500 CL, $1000 CL and $1000 CL. Only one is close to being maxed out.

Discover with $800 CL, almost maxed out.

Care Credit $3000 CL, almost maxed out

Target $800 CL, balance is $32.00

Lowes $300 CL, 0.00 balance

Walmart $1100 CL $200 balance

credit union secured cc $$300 almost maxed out

credit union auto loan for $19,000
credit union personal loan $1200, maxed out

credit union personal loan $500 balance is $372

American Express new account, not sure what CL is yet

Utilization is 60% now, I do understand I need to  lower that to about 20%, but is it going to hurt my score if I say apply for a new charge card? I'm wanting to lower my utilzation by increasing my credit limits, but I don't want to hurt my score by having too many accounts.

Is this too many???

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I'd work on lowering the balances of those almost maxed out cards before apping for anything. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have

3 Capital One credit cards:

$1500 CL, $1000 CL and $1000 CL. Only one is close to being maxed out.

Discover with $800 CL, almost maxed out.

Care Credit $3000 CL, almost maxed out

Target $800 CL, balance is $32.00

Lowes $300 CL, 0.00 balance

Walmart $1100 CL $200 balance

credit union secured cc $$300 almost maxed out

credit union auto loan for $19,000
credit union personal loan $1200, maxed out

credit union personal loan $500 balance is $372

American Express new account, not sure what CL is yet

Utilization is 60% now, I do understand I need to  lower that to about 20%, but is it going to hurt my score if I say apply for a new charge card? I'm wanting to lower my utilzation by increasing my credit limits, but I don't want to hurt my score by having too many accounts.

Is this too many???

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A agree with the other poster - no more cards. You need to get your UTI under control - mutiple maxed out cards is a HUGE red flag for FICO and its likely pushing your scores down considerably. Pay those personal loans off as well, they are doing nothing for your credit scores.

Use the debt snowball strategy to get those balances down as quickly as possible. You need to get it down to ONE card with a balance of less than 10% of its limit.

[Anonymous]

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Should I close them once paid off?

[Pway]

No do not close them as you pay them off.  Keep them open and if you don't want them any more allow the issuer to close them.  It will hurt you more and your util will sky rocket because the card that you close is not considered in the mix. 

[Anonymous]

As Pway said, don't close them, you want to keep them open. Just use them a couple of times per year so they remain open.