topic Re: ideal number of revolving tl's? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

ideal number of revolving tl's?

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:19:09 GMT

hi everyone. i am curious if anyone has a feel for the ideal number of revolving tradelines, or is utilization the only/most important factor? my utilization is below 10%, and i have a feeling that i shouldnt open any more accounts, but what do you guys think?

i have had the following for some time:

best buy reward zone mc: 300 cl

orchard bank : 800 cl

credit one bank visa: 600 cl

capital one: 500 cl

and added the following within the week:

cit/dell: 2000 cl

amex delta platinum: 2000 cl

amex hilton honors: ????? (app "in progress" according to amex website)

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:44:06 GMT

I usually recommend a minimum of 6. After that your golden. Adding more so far has not boosted my score. But I love my credit cards. The inquiries will sink you however. Try not to have more than 3 per credit report per year. On the other hand I apply like crazy and wait out a year for them to fall off so I don't have to apply later.

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:45:28 GMT

Where you are right now, I'd work on increasing credit lines before applying for new cards.

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

MidnightVoice — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 22:05:52 GMT

ilovepizza wrote:

I usually recommend a minimum of 6. .

I usually recommend a maximun of 6

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

fused — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:10:17 GMT

dog wrote:
hi everyone. i am curious if anyone has a feel for the ideal number of revolving tradelines, or is utilization the only/most important factor? my utilization is below 10%, and i have a feeling that i shouldnt open any more accounts, but what do you guys think?

i have had the following for some time:

best buy reward zone mc: 300 cl
orchard bank :                     800 cl
credit one bank visa:           600 cl
capital one:                          500 cl

and added the following within the week:

cit/dell:                               2000 cl
amex delta platinum:         2000 cl
amex hilton honors:           ????? (app "in progress" according to amex website)

Not sure there is a magic number. You might get a lot of different answers to your question. I have 5 cards and its perfect for me. I can easily manage them. Could never understand how someone can have more than 20 cards, whew that's a lot work. You have 6 and have an app in for the Amex Delta card. I think the question is do you need more credit? I think you are off to a good start, raising the cl's should be your goal.

Message Edited by fused111 on 06-15-2007 01:10 PM

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

Tuscani — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 22:54:30 GMT

The magic number is.............

Ready?

Here it comes..............

Can't wait...............

42 Cards!

JK.

The truth is there is no magic number. The real magic is keeping util low and paying on time.

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 05:58:02 GMT

While many of us have different opinions on the magic number I think we all agree using more than 4 at a time will lower your score. While you might have many, limit use to 4 or less when pulling your credit scores.

Too many cards with balances (CODE 05). That was always a neg on my scores until I reduced the number of cards with balances. I moved the balances to limit how many were in use. Negative message disappeared and was replaced with Length of time.... not long enough.

That and the FICO calculator on bankrate.com also shows fewer balances help.
link http://www.bankrate.com/brm/fico/calc.asp?lpid=BKRATE29

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 06-15-2007 10:58 PM

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

Tuscani — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:16:18 GMT

ilovepizza wrote:
While many of us have different opinions on the magic number I think we all agree using more than 4 at a time will lower your score. While you might have many, limit use to 4 or less when pulling your credit scores.

I woulnd't agree with that. What leaves you to believe this is true?

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

fused — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:16:48 GMT

ilovepizza wrote:
While many of us have different opinions on the magic number I think we all agree using more than 4 at a time will lower your score. While you might have many, limit use to 4 or less when pulling your credit scores.

How did you arrive to this conclusion?

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

MidnightVoice — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:18:44 GMT

@fused111 wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:
While many of us have different opinions on the magic number I think we all agree using more than 4 at a time will lower your score. While you might have many, limit use to 4 or less when pulling your credit scores.
How did you arrive to this conclusion?

Because it is the only way to deal with 42 cards?

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

fused — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:28:29 GMT

@MidnightVoice wrote:

@fused111 wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:
While many of us have different opinions on the magic number I think we all agree using more than 4 at a time will lower your score. While you might have many, limit use to 4 or less when pulling your credit scores.
How did you arrive to this conclusion?

Because it is the only way to deal with 42 cards?

HA!

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:58:24 GMT

i just applied for 35 more cards, so that i would have 42.....i was denied for all of them. should i get 35 secured cards?

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

fused — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:22:48 GMT

dog wrote:
i just applied for 35 more cards, so that i would have 42.....i was denied for all of them. should i get 35 secured cards?

When did you start applying for these 35 cards?

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 02:50:19 GMT

after tuscani said that is the right number to have.

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

fused — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 03:01:02 GMT

dog wrote:
after tuscani said that is the right number to have.

Oh my word, his post was a JOKE! Go back read the WHOLE post!

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

fused — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 03:05:34 GMT

You have actually applied for 35 cc's today? Not good! Hard to fix this problem. All of the ccc's had PP (permissable purpose) to pull your credit. Ouch!

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 03:10:53 GMT

gee, thanks a lot everyone. what kind of effect is that going to have on my scores??!???

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

smallfry — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 03:30:19 GMT

What scores?

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

fused — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 04:31:33 GMT

dog wrote:
gee, thanks a lot everyone. what kind of effect is that going to have on my scores??!???

Do you subscribe to any credit monitoring service? Personally, I suggest you go to Amex's website and site search for creditsecure and sign up and pull all three of your reports only because it is free. Then cancel. Later on sign up with TC. Then tell us how many many pulls you have on each of the CRA's. Never mind the scores you see there, they are FAKO's. By the way do you know your FICO scores?

Message Edited by fused111 on 06-15-2007 06:31 PM

Re: ideal number of revolving tl's?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 04:12:56 GMT

@Tuscani wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:
While many of us have different opinions on the magic number I think we all agree using more than 4 at a time will lower your score. While you might have many, limit use to 4 or less when pulling your credit scores.

I woulnd't agree with that. What leaves you to believe this is true?

Too many cards with balances (CODE 05). That was always a neg on my scores until I reduced the number of cards with balances. I moved the balances to limit how many were in use. Negative message disappeared and was replaced with Length of time.... not long enough.

That and the FICO calculator on bankrate.com also shows fewer balances help.
link http://www.bankrate.com/brm/fico/calc.asp?lpid=BKRATE29

Has this changed? Does it no longer matter how many cards have balances?