How Often to Apply for a New Credit Card

[FlaDude]

I've got 10 cards, some almost 25 years old, with total limit of around 90k. I agree with those that I would not get new cards for the sake of it. My main reasons for getting cards would be SUBs and 0% BT offers to get the interest down on my balances. If I can keep with my debt reduction plan, I'll have my balances down low enough in a couple of years so that I can close 2 or 3 without impacting UTI and plan to do just that. At that point I'll probably get more active on churning for SUB and might get a couple new ones a year, and close some that I got only for SUB or BT purposes. 

Edit to add that I might also add 2-3 airline and hotel cards for the travel benefits once I get the balances down and my score up.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

From my understanding that is you should apply for new card every 6 months at minimum? My question is how many card should i apply every 6 month then?

Thanks for your help

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You should not apply for new card every 6 months.  Do you have a reason to need that particular credit card?  If so, then apply.  If not, I'd suggest not to.  Mine, I applied every 6 months and the cards I have are very useful to me (Gas CC, Food CC, General puchase CC, Cap1 QS will be PCed to Savor after paying BT on PenFed).

[joltdude]

If there are multiple cards you want and could use..... picking them up one at a time with 6mo between app pace is not a bad idea.. But as others have mentioned picking them up just for the sake of picking them up to pad utilization.. Not a good idea.. Picking a card up for a SUB or rewards/benefits, a good idea. Picking up a card or two for diversification .. saying this if you have only one or two cards is also not a bad idea.  There is supposedly a score benefit having at least 3 credit cards but other than that... you dont NEED a fistfull of cards to have good credit... 

[kdm31091]

I think the idea of adding more cards just for utilization purposes is not a great one. If your utilization is low, it's going to be low regardless, and if it's not, you should be focusing on getting it down. I understand a certain buffer zone for emergencies, but it can also become a slippery slope into the abyss of CC debt that you can't climb out of. If your utilization runs high for a certain reason, and you start relying on your "padding" cards, you can just end up in over your head.

Apply for cards with benefits you will actually need and use, and no more. There's no need to do x amounts of applicatons in y amount of time or to collect cards just for the sake of it.

[blindambition]

You should only be applying when their is a true need. Padding utilization is knot a good strategy. Your income also must justify the amount of credit you have available.
When you have too much credit, the following will happen... Closed accounts, lowered limits, and denials. Not being responsible, I guarantee you will lose more than you win.