How Many Credit Cards? Another Angle ...

[AndySoCal]

It is not so much the CLI(s)  or new credit themselves that cause creditors to pause but how the consumer utililizes their credit.  Using myself as an example in the last two years I have received 10K total in auto CLI's same creditor each time. This may give someone pause but on the other hand I have a decades long history of PIF each month. If that pattern were to change that would cause some creditors concern. I also do not have credit cards that need to be used every six months just to keep them alive.

Another pattern is you have a consumer who has a longish history of carrying  let's say a 20 to 30 percent credit utilization rate on their cards. The consumer,er rarely brings the balance on a credit card to zero amd just owing what is charged on the card each month. The consumer applies and receives an additional credit card. The consumer now starts to carry a balance on that card. Depending on the total debit and the income for the consumer this could cause a problem for a lender. This consumer is what I call treading water and is one unexpected event like job loss that causes several potential negative events like collections and charge offs and a BK.

[FICOdawg]

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@AndySoCal wrote:

It is not so much the CLI(s)  or new credit themselves that cause creditors to pause but how the consumer utililizes their credit.  Using myself as an example in the last two years I have received 10K total in auto CLI's same creditor each time. This may give someone pause but on the other hand I have a decades long history of PIF each month. If that pattern were to change that would cause some creditors concern. I also do not have credit cards that need to be used every six months just to keep them alive.

Another pattern is you have a consumer who has a longish history of carrying  let's say a 20 to 30 percent credit utilization rate on their cards. The consumer,er rarely brings the balance on a credit card to zero amd just owing what is charged on the card each month. The consumer applies and receives an additional credit card. The consumer now starts to carry a balance on that card. Depending on the total debit and the income for the consumer this could cause a problem for a lender. This consumer is what I call treading water and is one unexpected event like job loss that causes several potential negative events like collections and charge offs and a BK.

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This is how banks make money.     The minimum payment should be 10% of a card balance.    Banks don't do this because the interest they make from smaller payments means huge $$ from interest.    As I wrote above, the defaults are the cost of doing business.      Consumers are treading water in far more than CC payments.   The average car payment hovers around $750 for a new car.    

[Realist]

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@FICOdawg wrote:

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@Realist wrote:

As many as you can reasonably manage.

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At what point do banks/CC companies start closing out accounts.       Annual fees start catching up to you as well.

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I'm not sure there's a one size fits all on this criteria.   Each card is going to have it's own metrics, even outside of balance chasing.

We have a number of no bonus and percentage back cash cards, and some of these have sat idle for nearly a half decade and approaching a decade.  Still no letters, nothing closed.  I'll pull a few out here and there with some age, just to put something on them, but I don't think it's going to matter.  Then you have a few like Synchrony (Lowes card I think), that want to close you two weeks after you open it.   Not true, but kinda true.  These are our no fee cards.   I guess I take that back, there was a measely US bank card that I opened with a 2k limit.  Not even sure why.  No bonus, no much of anything.  No use after a year and they said use it, or we close, so I let them close it.

For our hotel rewards cards that come with an annual fees, there's been no indication of these ones wanting to close, but most of them are limited in shelf life after the welcome rewards are used.   We do have a few that are permenant keepers.  Additionally, we do have two rewards card with no annual fees, they sent notice of use or lose after receiving the welcome bonus, and sitting idle for about six months after, which is fine.   We're about to use up the welcome rewards within this month or next, and then drop the cards.   Will reset the two year timer for next application. 

[1lifeisworthit]

Both Experian.com and CreditKarma push me to apply for cards and installment loans.

It's the modern world. Don't let it bother you as if you aren't in charge of what you apply for?

Don't apply for credit you don't want. Don't get a loan you don't want and don't get a CC you don't want.

Just having 3 CCs is just fine. Don't give yourself hard pulls and get a CC that you don't like.

Start being choosy now. Choosy for me means only no-annual-fee, only-cashback, only in categories I'll actually buy stuff in..... so since I get a lot of groceries, I want grocery rewards. I don't want netflix rewards. You know where you want to spend... so choose a card that rewards where you already spend.

I have 8 CCs. I'm going to let my Discover go from inactivity whenever they decide to close it, because I hate those rotating categories and I no longer need the credit limit.  You know what specifics are important to you. Choose because of that. Internet strangers don't know your needs and wants. But you do.

[Realist]

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@1lifeisworthit wrote:

Both Experian.com and CreditKarma push me to apply for cards and installment loans.

It's the modern world. Don't let it bother you as if you aren't in charge of what you apply for?

Don't apply for credit you don't want. Don't get a loan you don't want and don't get a CC you don't want.

Just having 3 CCs is just fine. Don't give yourself hard pulls and get a CC that you don't like.

Start being choosy now. Choosy for me means only no-annual-fee, only-cashback, only in categories I'll actually buy stuff in..... so since I get a lot of groceries, I want grocery rewards. I don't want netflix rewards. You know where you want to spend... so choose a card that rewards where you already spend.

I have 8 CCs. I'm going to let my Discover go from inactivity whenever they decide to close it, because I hate those rotating categories and I no longer need the credit limit.  You know what specifics are important to you. Choose because of that. Internet strangers don't know your needs and wants. But you do.

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These places push you based upon qualifications that they think you fit into.  Like you've mentioned, they don't know what you need or want.

You mentioned 3 CC's are fine.  Many on this forum know I consider this to be a light FICO credit profile (regardless what they think), unless you are holding tremendous credit lines.  I will stand in opposition to this always.  The truth is we don't actually know what is the ideal credit profile situation, and there are more promising results popping up outside of only holding three credit cards.

The 5% category return is the nonsense among all credit cards.  It's a temporary boon, until it no longer is in that temporary moment.  The average person doesn't want to hop from one category to the next, one credit card to the next, to the next payment, to the next.  Instead, find yourself a nice rewards card that averages around the 4x or 4% range, and let time do it's thing.  You still get to pick and choose, but you may have to shop around.

[FICOdawg]

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@Realist wrote:

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@1lifeisworthit wrote:

Both Experian.com and CreditKarma push me to apply for cards and installment loans.

It's the modern world. Don't let it bother you as if you aren't in charge of what you apply for?

Don't apply for credit you don't want. Don't get a loan you don't want and don't get a CC you don't want.

Just having 3 CCs is just fine. Don't give yourself hard pulls and get a CC that you don't like.

Start being choosy now. Choosy for me means only no-annual-fee, only-cashback, only in categories I'll actually buy stuff in..... so since I get a lot of groceries, I want grocery rewards. I don't want netflix rewards. You know where you want to spend... so choose a card that rewards where you already spend.

I have 8 CCs. I'm going to let my Discover go from inactivity whenever they decide to close it, because I hate those rotating categories and I no longer need the credit limit.  You know what specifics are important to you. Choose because of that. Internet strangers don't know your needs and wants. But you do.

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These places push you based upon qualifications that they think you fit into.  Like you've mentioned, they don't know what you need or want.

You mentioned 3 CC's are fine.  Many on this forum know I consider this to be a light FICO credit profile (regardless what they think), unless you are holding tremendous credit lines.  I will stand in opposition to this always.  The truth is we don't actually know what is the ideal credit profile situation, and there are more promising results popping up outside of only holding three credit cards.

The 5% category return is the nonsense among all credit cards.  It's a temporary boon, until it no longer is in that temporary moment.  The average person doesn't want to hop from one category to the next, one credit card to the next, to the next payment, to the next.  Instead, find yourself a nice rewards card that averages around the 4x or 4% range, and let time do it's thing.  You still get to pick and choose, but you may have to shop around.

You control your credit, by understanding the nonsense tossed at you, the consumer, and navigate accordingly.  At some point in your life, you realize it's all BS.

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According to this Experian article, the average consumer with an 800-850 FICO has 4.8 credit cards.....   https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/how-many-americans-have-800-credit-score/

[Zoostation1]

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@1lifeisworthit wrote:

Both Experian.com and CreditKarma push me to apply for cards and installment loans.

It's the modern world. Don't let it bother you as if you aren't in charge of what you apply for?

Don't apply for credit you don't want. Don't get a loan you don't want and don't get a CC you don't want.

Just having 3 CCs is just fine. Don't give yourself hard pulls and get a CC that you don't like.

Start being choosy now. Choosy for me means only no-annual-fee, only-cashback, only in categories I'll actually buy stuff in..... so since I get a lot of groceries, I want grocery rewards. I don't want netflix rewards. You know where you want to spend... so choose a card that rewards where you already spend.

I have 8 CCs. I'm going to let my Discover go from inactivity whenever they decide to close it, because I hate those rotating categories and I no longer need the credit limit.  You know what specifics are important to you. Choose because of that. Internet strangers don't know your needs and wants. But you do.

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CK already had limited usefulness, but once Intuit started making changes not too long after they bough it, things got far worse.  There used to be some functional tools that were useful, but some of those are broken and support has flat out told me they have no plans to fix the broken tools/calculators, nor do they plan to remove them either.  Their current slogan says it all -   "better credit through cards."  They're not even trying to hide that they just want to shill for affiliate links. I want to vomit every time I read that.

Funny you mention closing Discover cause of hating the rotating categories.  I would actually use my Discover more if mine was the It Cashback with the rotating categories.  I've got the crappy It Chrome that's only 2% on gas and dining, with 1% on everything else.  I have no real reason to use it at all anymore.  I just keep it open to help pad my total CL a little.