topic Re: How many cards to have? in Credit Cards

How many cards to have?

GomerPyle — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:39:25 GMT

After reading on this forum and others I have become concerned about maybe losing some

of my cards.(I have three) due to some of the crazy things card companies are doing.

My scores are very good and I do not want to jeopardize

anything. Seriously, how many credit cards does a person really need? Should I have more

to protect myself? If so what should I apply for?

Re: How many cards to have?

Creditaddict — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:42:49 GMT

3 with a store card is a pretty good number for scoring, but I have WAY MORE. it's really personal preference in the end and what your comfortable with and what you feel you need.

Re: How many cards to have?

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:02:53 GMT

How much is too much is really a personal preference, as long as you are disciplined enough not to run up a huge util and you don't pay AF for any of the cards and their limits are reasonable, keeping them in a healthy state will not hurt you because they provide history and credit ratio for you. I know people who use and have like 4 cards and they have super high scores and the same have low ones and others who have 15-20 cards and have super high score and others who don't, I think it comes ultimately down to HOW you use your credit and how well.

Re: How many cards to have?

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:34:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
How much is too much is really a personal preference,

Just curioous?? Can you be denied credit for having to many open cc accts? I have 16 accts open now but i would like to close 2 in june and open 3.

Re: How many cards to have?

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:15:37 GMT

cartercorp wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:
How much is too much is really a personal preference,
Just curioous?? Can you be denied credit for having to many open cc accts? I have 16 accts open now but i would like to close 2 in june and open 3.

This is completely up to the lender. PenFed, for instance, will deny you if they think that you've been doing a lot of recent apping to increase your total CL without paying down your real debt. (They call this "pyramiding", so around here, we say this means that you're an Egyptian.)

It doesn't affect your FICO score, though, as long as you don't have debt reporting on lots of cards.

Re: How many cards to have?

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:18:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
How much is too much is really a personal preference,
Just curioous?? Can you be denied credit for having to many open cc accts? I have 16 accts open now but i would like to close 2 in june and open 3.

Thanks for asking Well I know for HSBC for example, they have a cap on how many cards you can have "through" them, I think its 7 at last check. So this is a small indicator that some do care how much you have and they don't like to have too much but then again that could just indicate that a single company likes to limit it, no way to know for absolute certain.

Before my BK almost a lifetime ago, won't bore you with the reasons that were health related, I had stellar credit. I mean easily 800 club and I could point to anything and I would be granted no questions asked. I had tons of credit, I mean TONS. But my score was stellar and I was a very disciplined and sort of boring, **bleep** retentive user of credit, I don't overuse, I don't like owing people, no matter who they are.

I think the key to my success despite the huge number of credit cards was that I was using them responsibly, not overdoing it, not getting over my head too much, I hedged my bets with equal amount of REAL assets, like liquid assets to offset the unsecured revolving credit and had it not been for some unethical people around me when I was hospitalized, the health matter alone probably wouldn't have sunk me but by the time I was back in charge of my things, 90k plus and no way to salvage it although I tried for nearly 18 months.

So in hindsight I guess, if I didn't have so much credit, I would have taken a smaller hit and probably been able to recover and restore it much faster and much more effectively than having to declare the BK, thank god it was under the old rule not the new, my student loans stuck around which didn't help because they count for 100% util against my available credit, so the only reason I have lots of large CLs now is to offset that a bit in my scoring and I keep the usage mellow and fairly steady and low if I can help it.

This time around, I limited myself to no more than 10 cards (revolving credit MC/Visa/Amex/Discover/etc.) and only keep the highest CLs, which means if a card drops to a certain level, I might keep it until I can replace it with something better and then cut it loose or just let it ride depending. No more than 3-5 store cards (Oldnavy/Carecredit/lenscrafters/etc.) and keep a steady amount of stable core assets (Savings/CDs/Money market/etc) that are not touched or rare touched as emergency funds and then some regular daily accounts (checking) with enough funds budgeted tightly to ensure maximum usability, and regular contributions of sizable amount to retirement/investment funds (IRAs/matched pension/retirement funds/well mixed stable/medium/aggressive investments/etc) for long term future planning mostly and plenty of life insurance for my wife/kids/family/any debts I might leave behind to ensure they are protected and provided for should I kick the bucket before expected.

Anyway, sorry didn't mean to go on so long but ultimately that's what I mean by personal preference, do you use credit to play the system in your favor or do you use it as a dependance and are at its mercy? This question for me a no brainer and protects me from every putting any more faith in it than it deserves. As long as it serves its purpose, I am happy and don't go beyond that. Hope that was a sufficiently complete answer to your question. But ultimately, to each their own

Re: How many cards to have?

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:56:52 GMT

@haulingthescoreup wrote:

This is completely up to the lender. PenFed, for instance, will deny you if they think that you've been doing a lot of recent apping to increase your total CL without paying down your real debt. (They call this "pyramiding", so around here, we say this means that you're an Egyptian.)
LOL No Egyptian here. I just want to be in a great position in June to app for Sears/H Depot/Costco Amex.

Re: How many cards to have?

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:05:19 GMT

Guardian wrote:
do you use credit to play the system in your favor or do you use it as a dependance and are at its mercy? This question for me a no brainer and protects me from every putting any more faith in it than it deserves. As long as it serves its purpose,

Great Question for me. I have about a 3 % ulti today and im far from being dependant on them. I have a few cards that i will never use (NEVER). And i will close them on there 1 yr B-day.

Re: How many cards to have?

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:19:25 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
do you use credit to play the system in your favor or do you use it as a dependance and are at its mercy? This question for me a no brainer and protects me from every putting any more faith in it than it deserves. As long as it serves its purpose,
Great Question for me. I have about a 3 % ulti today and im far from being dependant on them. I have a few cards that i will never use (NEVER). And i will close them on there 1 yr B-day.

Good for you, the less you depend on them, the less power they have to screw you over and destroy your hard earned progress.

Re: How many cards to have?

favor4me2 — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:21:31 GMT

Hi Guardian, my question is how long ago was your BK and how did you get Amex and Discover after a Bk. Is it still showing on your credit reports? and what kind of BK was it?

Re: How many cards to have?

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:32:55 GMT

@favor4me2 wrote:
Hi Guardian, my question is how long ago was your BK and how did you get Amex and Discover after a Bk. Is it still showing on your credit reports? and what kind of BK was it?

Hello, it was discharged in 2001 and I Amex is not a BK friendly creditor, however, we have been business clients of Costco for more than, oh god 20 years when it was still Price Club, and I had the mutated Amex/HSBC card and it was converted over. Does that help? The discover, they didn't care, my score was good, they pulled EQ and they gave it to me, I guess somehow they didn't realize I had an account with them in the past that was BK-ed or didn't care given my current standing, don't know. Plus you have to keep in mind, I have gotten my BK removed from TU and EQ after 2 and 3 years respectively, it only still shows up on EX and that has luckily not been the one most of them have pulled for me, so gotten lucky in that department. It was a Ch. 7. Let me know if I can give you anything more.

Re: How many cards to have?

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:27:41 GMT

I have 37 - Wife has 16. For us it is not a question of need - we PIF everything but the 0%ers every month.

Couple of reasons to increase FICO and then app and then increase FICO and then app again. Having a lot of cards allows a lot of flexibility on rewards. Discover may be offering 5% back on resturants for 3 mths. Fine - it doesn't change our spending habits, but if we happen to be going to a resturant, I will take a 5% discount. Or Chase offers a $25 gift card if you spend $750 or more in 3 months on there card. Fine - I will take an extra 3%. Or Sovereign Bank will allow you to open up a checking account using a CC and charge it as a purchace. Fine - I will max out the rewards on a card. Lots of cards = lots of flexibility.

Also - most of those cards had some sign-up bonus. 12000 miles, an amazon gift card, $100, something. Always look for a sign-up reward.

Finally, and most importantly, having lots of cards (and using responsibly) will allow you to build CL at prime CC companies. So you build up your CL at BOA, and when they approve you for a 0%, 0 fee BT for 6 months - you can transfer most of your CL balances to that card - and take a big balance transfer and make some real interest. Same thing with Chase, or Discover. More cards usually means more CL. Then when you pay back the 0%ers, and app for the next 0%er, you will be able to do it all over again with an even bigger number.

Work the system, don't let it work you.

Re: How many cards to have?

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:15:32 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have 37 - Wife has 16.
Work the system, don't let it work you.

WOW. Now that really sums it up for me.

Re: How many cards to have?

GomerPyle — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:29:25 GMT

I am going to stay with the five cards I have. I believe this should be just right.

Re: How many cards to have?

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:38:07 GMT

@GomerPyle wrote:
I am going to stay with the five cards I have. I believe this should be just right.

Sounds about right. Do you have a good mix? If you do, then you are set, you can work on increase your AAoA, building history with good payments, get CLIs and you should be served pretty well. Good luck.

Re: How many cards to have?

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:21:10 GMT

25 cards plus 1 store card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: How many cards to have?

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:57:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
25 cards plus 1 store card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I myself have 6 visa/mc cards, 3 store cards and I am doing ok, but not everyone uses credit the same, so they have to find their own "happy place" if you will