How many cc's is too many?

[Anonymous]

Hi all, new to the forum, read through some of the FAQ, but didn't see this one on there:

How many credit cards are too many?

I have three cc's to my name, and just recently got married to someone who had 2 of her own cards.

Does the number of cards affect your FICO score? Or just the UTL? She spoke with some finance guy at her bank who told her 5 cards was too many for her and I and that we should close three of them. While I agree that we don't need to use all 5, it flew right in the face of everything I knew, since if I close the card, my UTL would increase, which would only lower my FICO score. Do Lenders look at the amount of credit that your allowed or the number of cards you have? Would that influence their decision to offer me a mortgage or my interest rates more than my FICO score would?

For reference I have 0 bal on one card, and a 44% UTL rate for all of them, though they'll all be paid off by the end of the summer. If I close the one with 0 bal now, UTL rate jumps to 53%. Of course as these balances drop, the UTL is going to be a lot better, so closing one would affect it a lot less. So if it's going to help to have less credit, I should wait until closing it affects it less. If it's not going to help, I may as well just cut it up and leave it open.

[Anonymous]

Oh no, don't close them! Keep reading here there are lots of reasons not to do this.

There are so many things that go into your fico score. As best I can tell, 5 is not too many.

To get the best scores, UTL should be at or below 9%. Half of all open tradelines reporting a zero balance. It's always a good thing to have an extra one or two open in case you have installation loans, other cards that you may want to carry a balance on.

Certainly keep reading.

I'm still learning myself.

And welcome to the forums!!

edit because I am rude

Message Edited by stef37 on 06-27-2008 06:15 PM

[Anonymous]

A must read!!

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654

[thrasher865]

5 is probably not too many, but you don't even have 5, you have 3...

It seems like he should know better, given his job, that her 2 cards are not combined with your 3 on your report.

[jmbfl]

The WORST of all possible advice. DO NOT CLOSE ANYTHING! Pay down your balances and you will be rewarded with a higher FICO score. There is no need to close any of your accounts. The person issuing advice to you should... well... not be issuing advice. BTW - accounts are only joint if they are opened in joint name or converted to joint ownership. Otherwise they are his or hers. Accounts cannot be converted from joint to individual. You must close the account and open a new one. Avoid joint accounts at all costs.

[USC08]

what is UTL?

[Anonymous]

---

USC08 wrote:

what is UTL?

---

Utility -- as in the percentage of your credit limit that you are using.

Sample:

Card 1 = 100/2000 =  5 percent

Card 2 = 660/1000 =  66 percent

Total Util = 760/3000 =  25.33333 percent

[USC08]

thank you

[jmbfl]

UTL = utilization expressed as a percentage of TL used on either an individual or collective basis. Lower number is better for your FICO. Another factor is how many of your accounts are reporting a balance relative to how may accounts you have open.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes those banker type people just don't know what they're talking about. My mortgage lady told me all kinds of bad information, including telling me that checking my FICO score "dings" my credit and puts me on telemarketer lists for junk mail and stuff. I asked her if she was talking about hard pulls or if she was talking about me checking my reports and she confirmed that checking my own reports hurts my credit. Riiiiiight.....