damn, i didnt expect that. and i have 15 accounts open :doh:

 

:werd:

even with 12 accounts open tho, i had a FICO of 783.

so i started closing some accounts, hoping to get my score up even more

 

dont close the accounts that youve had for a long time. one thing that affects your score is the length of your credit history.

 

what if i dont use them?

 

Correct, the Visa can help. The check cards are cool. but the next time you apply for credit of any kind, an underwriter has to look at all the available credit you have and has to work under the assumption that any day you could take out every dollar available to you. That can really throw off an individuals debt-to-income ratio. I have denied many apps because of it. Also simply having an open card does not give you a better credit score. In fact new credit can initially bring your score down. Having an open card over an extended period of time while never missing a payment does help. This is just a little FYI for everyone here. (if anyone has a question, I would be happy to answer pm's. Credit education is kinda crusade of mine )

 

so sum it all up

in order to obtain "good" credit, one should:

have 3 cards max
etc...

 

Very true!
The area of trouble that people run into is all of that available credit can really mess with one's debt-to-income ratio.
The only reason I personally recommend no more than to lines of credit is b/c what does a person need that many accts for? If you need that much credit and your income supports it, great! But the more accts you have the higher your chances for fraud.

 

joey- even if you you dont keep those accounts active, just cut the cards up and let them be.

i have 15 accounts total, and 10 are still opened. i opened all those accounts because i was an idiot back then. i thought having credit was cool or some crap. but now, i tend to open cards that offers me 0% APR on balance transfer for X- amount of time just so i can pay off my debt slowly and not worry about paying interest. i dont know if there is a "con" side to doing this though.

 

I am not sure if you are being sarcastic or asking a genuine question so I will operate under the assumption you are asking a question.

Unfortunatley there really is no way to truly "sum up" good credit. There are many factors that go into different logarithmic [sp] equations that is created by the various credit reporting agencies and independant agencies. Heck I have had to deny people credit because they haven't been at their job long enough or their residence long enough.

Basically I would advise (from experience) not to have more than 25% of your gross annual income available in revolving debt. Of that percentage don't use more than 75%(maybe 80% depending on which score you are getting) of that available credit. If you have cards open and aren't using them and your credit is 700+ don't do anything.

Just to note, I am not some credit wizard or anything. I am simply speaking from 3+ years of banking experience.

 

i used to have both.... a 20k card and a 5k card..... both are done and over now :happysad:

now i just have a visa check card and a 1k visa cc.