topic Re: Too many credit cards? in Credit Cards

Too many credit cards?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:00:26 GMT

My question is can you have too many credit cards,,

some Ive had for over 10 years , most I dont use at all.

Just because I have so many can it affect my credit score

by having I believe they call it too much open credit?

Should I close some of the accounts in good standing(the ones I dont use)?

Thanks In advance

Re: Too many credit cards?

Creditaddict — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:20:15 GMT

I say no. It's all in the mix and what is really considered to much, I think if you are not maxing them out all the time then no one is going to view what you have as to much for you to handle.

Re: Too many credit cards?

fused — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:30:40 GMT

Having too many CCs should not have a negative affect on your scores. Having too many CCs with balances, especially high balances will though. Here's a good rule of thumb:

- have less than half of your open CCs reporting any balance

- the ones that do report a balance, make sure they do not report balances more than 1-9% of their available credit limits

- never, ever let a CC close with a balance reporting.

In FICO scoring, it's not how many CCs you have, but how well you manage them

Re: Too many credit cards?

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:01:51 GMT

I would like to add this ... If there is any annual fee is involved, it may be good idea to close the account with annual fee to not waste your money.

Re: Too many credit cards?

haulingthescoreup — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:12:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

My question is can you have too many credit cards,,
some Ive had for over 10 years , most I dont use at all.
Just because I have so many can it affect my credit score
by having I believe they call it too much open credit?
Should I close some of the accounts in good standing(the ones I dont use)?

Thanks In advance

Hi, frybuilt, welcome to the forums! If you're getting an actual message of "too much open credit", you're probably looking at FAKO scores and advice. FICO has no problem at all with total available credit. Just make sure that as many as possible are paid off, showing a balance of $0.

You probably have a great credit profile, with these older CC's lying around. Pull each one out every 3-4 months, put a tank of gas on it, pay it off immediately, and put it away again. You don't want them to be closed down for non-use.

In some very, very rare situations, such as applying for a mortgage, the lender might worry out loud that you have too much available credit. If you're lucky, you can do a nod-nod, wink-wink arrangement with a lender to temporarily reduce your credit limit to an acceptable limit, and then raise it again without a hard inquiry or other penalty.

But if you ever have to actually close an account, pick the most recent account that you can spare. Never, ever, ever close an old account--this will hurt your history something fierce. Always go for the most recent, most expendable account.

Re: Too many credit cards?

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:36:06 GMT

30 is too many in my opinion. hehe. Current FICO model doesn't like people having over 29 total accounts opened and closed combined of any kind. Closing your credit cards does not make them go away. And they probably will change / increase the total number of accounts to greater than 30 is my guess with FICO 08.

For the most part, scoring takes in to count all accounts with balances! Zero balance does not effect you negatively to too many zero balances. If they all had $1 on them, yes having too many more than likely would hurt in my opinion.

Many of us have lots of credit cards put away in the sock drawer with $0 balances. They help you more to have open and active than closed!

Re: Too many credit cards?

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:44:46 GMT

I agree -

My TU is at 31 accounts (I have not pulled a score- nor a need too)

2 accounts drop off this year- so a short term min hit.

ilovepizza wrote:
30 is too many in my opinion. hehe. Current FICO model doesn't like people having over 29 total accounts opened and closed combined of any kind. Closing your credit cards does not make them go away. And they probably will change / increase the total number of accounts to greater than 30 is my guess with FICO 08.

For the most part, scoring takes in to count all accounts with balances! Zero balance does not effect you negatively to too many zero balances. If they all had $1 on them, yes having too many more than likely would hurt in my opinion.

Many of us have lots of credit cards put away in the sock drawer with $0 balances. They help you more to have open and active than closed!

Re: Too many credit cards?

fused — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:45:46 GMT

ilovepizza wrote:
30 is too many in my opinion. hehe. Current FICO model doesn't like people having over 29 total accounts opened and closed combined of any kind. Closing your credit cards does not make them go away. And they probably will change / increase the total number of accounts to greater than 30 is my guess with FICO 08.

For the most part, scoring takes in to count all accounts with balances! Zero balance does not effect you negatively to too many zero balances. If they all had $1 on them, yes having too many more than likely would hurt in my opinion.

Many of us have lots of credit cards put away in the sock drawer with $0 balances. They help you more to have open and active than closed!

I respectfully disagree with most of what you posted.

- having 30 or more TLs has not been proven to cause a ngeative affect to scores

- zero balances on all accounts can cause some to lose points

- open and closed credit card accounts are weighted equally