topic Re: Necessary to have over five credit cards? in General Credit Topics

Necessary to have over five credit cards?

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 08:37:22 GMT

Hello, I'm kinda new to this community ...

Well, I see lots of you have over 10 credit cards, and I'm just wondering: is it really necessary?

Will the creditors stop granting you credit when your total credit >= your total annual income?

Also, would having too many credit cards affect the chances getting a mortgage/auto loan?

Thanks! No offense!

Re: Necessary to have over five credit cards?

adavis425 — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 13:43:34 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello, I'm kinda new to this community ...

Well, I see lots of you have over 10 credit cards, and I'm just wondering: is it really necessary?
Will the creditors stop granting you credit when your total credit >= your total annual income?

Also, would having too many credit cards affect the chances getting a mortgage/auto loan?

Thanks! No offense!

Hello and welcome!

Always remember it's not how many you have, it's how well you handle them. You can have great credit with twenty as well as with one. Different credit cards have different jobs so personally, I need more than one. At this point, my CLs are more than double my income and I still get CLIs. As for new credit, I'm not certain that I would be denied because I haven't tried (I have all the cards I set out to get). Multiple cards will not affect auto loans, AFAIK. Mortgages may be a different story, but my cards were gained post-mortgage so someone else will have to chime in on that.

Re: Necessary to have over five credit cards?

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 13:55:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello, I'm kinda new to this community ...

Well, I see lots of you have over 10 credit cards, and I'm just wondering: is it really necessary?
Will the creditors stop granting you credit when your total credit >= your total annual income?

Also, would having too many credit cards affect the chances getting a mortgage/auto loan?

Thanks! No offense!

There is nothing about your question that is offensive.

Some people want multiple cards because they do different things: discounts, cash back, FICO scores, point/reward systems etc, and you pretty much can not get all of those "wants" met on just one or two cards. You can probably get the majority of them, but in general, people always want more.

Having "too many" could affect your loan chances, if those cards are newer. Generally, when you see someone with 5+ cards all in the 5 digit range, etc.. they have had those cards for many, many years, and have shown themselves to be responsible with debt.

It is all a matter of working your way up the ladder slowly, and cautiously. (as I wish I had done) Try to limit your inquiries on your credit reports, and make sure that you don't take on more debt than you can handle, or more cards than you can manage. I'm getting to the point where I had to learn to put some cards away because I wanted to make sure I kept them active, but I was terrified that I would miss a payment date. I hope that made sense.

Re: Necessary to have over five credit cards?

youdontkillmoney — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 15:09:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello, I'm kinda new to this community ...

Well, I see lots of you have over 10 credit cards, and I'm just wondering: is it really necessary?
Will the creditors stop granting you credit when your total credit >= your total annual income?

Also, would having too many credit cards affect the chances getting a mortgage/auto loan?

Thanks! No offense!

You got a lot of good, lengthly advice from others here already so I'll keep mine short:

1. No, 10+ is not necessary, you can prob. get by with 2-3 depending on your spending habits and income

2. No, my total credit line is more than my income

3. Yes, especially if they are recent and more so if you do not show a responsbile payment pattern

Re: Necessary to have over five credit cards?

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 16:09:49 GMT

You typically want at least three revolving accounts to optimize scoring.

I personally wouldn't worry about whether you have too much credit or whether it's more than your income, etc.

What I'd focus on instead is keeping your reports clean and your scores high.

Re: Necessary to have over five credit cards?

takeshi74 — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 17:44:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Well, I see lots of you have over 10 credit cards, and I'm just wondering: is it really necessary?

Necessary for what? For scoring purposes at least 2-3 are recommended. However, some find that more cards are useful to them. It's not really a matter of the specific number. I have 10 and I find them all useful but it really has nothing to do with the number 10. It was all about evaluating the usefulness of each individual card to me nees/wants. It may be entirely different for you. You may find a different number useful. You may find that you can only manage a different number.

@Anonymous wrote:
Will the creditors stop granting you credit when your total credit >= your total annual income?

Not necessarily. Limits aren't just based on income. Many other factors are involved as well. I'm at 1.7x my income,

@Anonymous wrote:
Also, would having too many credit cards affect the chances getting a mortgage/auto loan?

Doubtful based on number of cards. However, a given creditor may have concern with amount of available credit and debt to income ratio. It really depends on the creditor and one's credit.

Re: Necessary to have over five credit cards?

chalupaman — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 23:14:12 GMT

I have a lot right now but don't use them regularly all the time. Kinda gotten into the habit of switching between cards and paying them off to show utilization and so they won't get closed especially with the store cards. FICOS last time I checked were approaching the 700s.

Re: Necessary to have over five credit cards?

TitaniumCash — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 00:43:18 GMT

For me, I don't think it's a necessity but rather a luxury to have that number of cards. I like rotating them and using them for different purposes. I can see a problem if you start losing track of payment schedules and get late on one because you can't juggle so many credit cards. Some lenders are hesitant to grant more credit if you already have too much but that tends to happen with people who have newer credit. I know of some people with longer history of credit who just keep collecting more without any problems.