Thread: How Many Credit Cards Should You Have?

" Capital One" is my provider.
I do have a question, But I don't want to go off topic so I'll take it to another thead or open a new one.

My experience has taught me to always read the fine print for things like credit cards. When I first started to use them as one of my tools to build credit up my credit ... those introductory offers really fooled me. Same with the balance transfer offers, which I do take advantage of often, but now know to watch for those transfer fees. Sometimes they are so much, the transfer isn't doing you any good in the end. But my credit score keeps going up & up so I must be doing something right.
Sam

I have 3 credit cards. I would probably be to scared to get any more. I have excellent credit because I always pay them off completely. I never only pay a minimum payment because, I'll only be paying interest

In approving mortgages for years the magic number is two. Too many and it affects your score. It's the average balance versus that individual credit card's available credit line NOT all added together. So if you've gor a limit of 5k and you've charged 3k it's going to hurt. If that one limit is 10k and you've charged 3k it will help your score.

I've never seen 7-8 card holders with credit scores over 850 unless they've had lots of credit for decades. Those with fewer tend to be higher. I'm going off those I've seen with scored above 800 and how they do it. Since I made it my business to get my score over 800, it's worked.

All of them are cashback with no annual fee. I only use 2-4 during any particular month and only carry 2 in my wallet. All are major credit cards (Visa, MC, Amex, Discover). Credit limits for each range from $5k to more than $40k. I pay balances in full every month. There are five that I don't use at all. If I tailor my usage to optimize cashback I can get roughly a nominal 2.5% cashback. For large or non-everyday purchases I check the websites to see if any of the cards offer coupons, etc. for the seller I'll be using.

I just have only one visa card.

I have 8 Credit cards good scores but all new since Jan. who knows