topic Re: How many cards is best? in Credit Cards

How many cards is best?

Skye12329 — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:05:50 GMT

Just wondering on how many cards is considerd the best a person should have for best score? I am thinking about trimming some of my cards. I guess the better question is do lenders care about Store cards?

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:07:29 GMT

@Skye12329 wrote:
Just wondering on how many cards is considerd the best a person should have for best score? I am thinking about trimming some of my cards. I guess the better question is do lenders care about Store cards?

100.

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:07:50 GMT

@Skye12329 wrote:
Just wondering on how many cards is considerd the best a person should have for best score? I am thinking about trimming some of my cards.

Three cards (or maybe two) are enough to give you high scores. You can also have many more (although getting a new card may cause your score to drop for a while).

So trim only if there is a need, such as some of the cards aren't useful.

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:08:25 GMT

@Skye12329 wrote:
Just wondering on how many cards is considerd the best a person should have for best score? I am thinking about trimming some of my cards.

I don't think there is a set number for 'best' score. So much of your score is determined by other factors not related to number of cards. Certainly you want to have an assortment of trade lines to includes CCs and installment loans but you can have a fantastic score with 2 cards or 25. I wouldn't worry so much about number of cards but instead focus on these other factors like utilization, payment history, etc

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:09:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Skye12329 wrote:
Just wondering on how many cards is considerd the best a person should have for best score? I am thinking about trimming some of my cards. I guess the better question is do lenders care about Store cards?
100.

That's just nonsense. My aunt's best friend's nephew has just 99 cards and he has 850 on all three CRAs.

Re: How many cards is best?

TRC_WA — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:11:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Skye12329 wrote:
Just wondering on how many cards is considerd the best a person should have for best score? I am thinking about trimming some of my cards. I guess the better question is do lenders care about Store cards?
100.

-90

Re: How many cards is best?

Skye12329 — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 04:21:30 GMT

Thanks everyone. Reason i asked was because apparently Discover says for best score have a moderate amount of cards not too large or little. So i guess i wont worry too much about the amount i have.

@LTL also just 99 cards?

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:13:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Skye12329 wrote:
Just wondering on how many cards is considerd the best a person should have for best score? I am thinking about trimming some of my cards. I guess the better question is do lenders care about Store cards?
100.
That's just nonsense. My aunt's best friend's nephew has just 99 cards and he has 850 on all three CRAs.

99'll do.

Re: How many cards is best?

VirtualCuriosity — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:23:31 GMT

There isn't a best amount. Too many variables. However, I am superstitious enough that if I were you, I would take a HP or just about anything to change that TU score ASAP, lol.

Re: How many cards is best?

TRC_WA — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:26:14 GMT

@VirtualCuriosity wrote:
There isn't a best amount. Too many variables. However, I am superstitious enough that if I were you, I would take a HP or just about anything to change that TU score ASAP, lol.

Haha... my TU was 666 till this morning when I got a new account alert from my spree last week.... 672.

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:28:14 GMT

Nice.

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:44:18 GMT

27.4.

This has been rigorously tested. Congrats on your increase!

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 03:19:13 GMT

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 03:26:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
42

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy lol.

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 03:28:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
42
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy lol.

42 may be the answer, but it only applies if we don't know the question :-P

Re: How many cards is best?

lg8302ch — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 03:34:00 GMT

That probably depends on your file. For me the magic figure was 3. With two cards and a much higher AAoA there was no way to pass 750 and as soon as I added the 3rd card even with the cut of the AAoA my score moved upwards. And no it was not due to utilizaton as this has always been pretty much the same. Now with 11 on my report it still shows the same results as with 3 even with further cutting AAoA . Curious to see the next cut as soon as my last card reports.

Re: How many cards is best?

NRB525 — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 03:41:26 GMT

@Skye12329 wrote:
Just wondering on how many cards is considerd the best a person should have for best score? I am thinking about trimming some of my cards. I guess the better question is do lenders care about Store cards?

A few months ago I used the Free Credit Score Estimator on here, not the one linked to your credit score, but the plain one where you enter several key factors. After multiple iterations on that, the best combination I could come up with (which still wasn't at 850 on the high end, it was 830) included letting only 0-4 cards be active. This however is distinctly a different variable than number of cards on hand, which had 5+ as the top limit. And this aligns with the general principal of FICO, it is an anti-risk model meaning the more credit you have active, and potentially creating a risk, it dings your score. Long payment history boosts the starting point and is necessary for max scoring, but reduced amounts outstanding, reduced numbers of active cards are necessary to lower that risk, raise that FICO.

So this leads me to think open cards beyond 5 is not relevant, but keeping only a few active, less than 4 active, is best.

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 05:34:05 GMT

Perfect profile? Once upon a time, TransUnion had information on their website that indicated what a perfect credit score profile might look like. Please remember that nobody has verified this for us, but we thought you might like to see it. Here goes:

A few (say, 3 or 4) revolving credit cards, each with very high lines of credit ($10,000+), and very low balances on only one (or maybe two) of them at a time.

At least one charge card (American Express, Diners Club, etc.).

All tradelines (information about each account) at least six months old, and at least one more than three years old.

No derogatory notations.

Very few inquiries -- no more than one to three in a six-month period.

At least one "installment" tradeline in good standing, i.e., a mortgage, auto loan, or student loan.

You need 4 or more credit cards with 10k+ CL (Bank calls "Premium Card") to achieve highest possible FICO

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 05:35:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Perfect profile? Once upon a time, TransUnion had information on their website that indicated what a perfect credit score profile might look like. Please remember that nobody has verified this for us, but we thought you might like to see it. Here goes:

A few (say, 3 or 4) revolving credit cards, each with very high lines of credit ($10,000+), and very low balances on only one (or maybe two) of them at a time.

At least one charge card (American Express, Diners Club, etc.).

All tradelines (information about each account) at least six months old, and at least one more than three years old.

No derogatory notations.

Very few inquiries -- no more than one to three in a six-month period.

At least one "installment" tradeline in good standing, i.e., a mortgage, auto loan, or student loan.

You need 4 or more credit cards with 10k+ CL (Bank calls "Premium Card") to achieve highest possible FICO

I can achieve this within the next year.

Re: How many cards is best?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 05:36:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:

Perfect profile? Once upon a time, TransUnion had information on their website that indicated what a perfect credit score profile might look like. Please remember that nobody has verified this for us, but we thought you might like to see it. Here goes:

A few (say, 3 or 4) revolving credit cards, each with very high lines of credit ($10,000+), and very low balances on only one (or maybe two) of them at a time.

At least one charge card (American Express, Diners Club, etc.).

All tradelines (information about each account) at least six months old, and at least one more than three years old.

No derogatory notations.

Very few inquiries -- no more than one to three in a six-month period.

At least one "installment" tradeline in good standing, i.e., a mortgage, auto loan, or student loan.

You need 4 or more credit cards with 10k+ CL (Bank calls "Premium Card") to achieve highest possible FICO

I can achieve this within the next year.

You are already there pretty much just need to combine few cards