Are too many CLI's a problem

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@Anonymous wrote:

I don't see how CLIs could be anything but positive. They increase your available credit, and lower your utilization, which FICO loves.

The only potential negative could be if the increase in available credit is too tempting for someone who's new to financial responsibility or new to credit?

It's like opening a rabbit hole. The rabbit hole is only dangerous if you fall into it..

Read the forumns some and you will see how too much of an increase in credit can be in some instances be negative. Lenders have taken AA against people for too much credit, far more people have been denied cards for that very reason. How much is too much credit is going to vary widely from person to person, but if you have enough credit for your needs it can be counterproductive to keep pushing for increases. 

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[Chris679]

Personally I like to get each card up to the $10000-$20000 range depending on how much I'm using it. That way you can spend away without worrying about utilization %. As always I think the people reporting denials or AA due to too much credit are not telling the whole story. That or they are the folks that are just trying for CLI that they don't need because they are trying to reach some target number of available CL.

[Anonymous]

All the better reason for me to keep within 5-8 cards. I'd rather have that number with good quality lenders than have 20 cards with a majority of store cards or subprime cards.