What's the ideal quantity of major credit cards a person should have in order to maximize his credit rating?

about 3

What's the ideal quantity of major credit cards a person should have in order to maximize his credit rating?
1
Reply:The ideal number to have is 2 but no more than four. In some instances you can have four and still have excellent credit. The key is not to have any department store cards as they actually do not help your credit. In the mortgage industry, lenders look for people to have 3 active tradeline that are atleast 24 months old. In simple terms a tradeline is an type of account that is reported on your credit report. Credit Cards, Auto loans, Mortgages are the most common types of tradelines reported on your credit. For more information, feel free to email me at info@adpsac.com
Reply:Several of the answers are not quite correct.





Lets begin by going to the site of the folks who developed the FICO scoreing method. http://www.myfico.com





This site has lots of consumer information on how to improve your credit scores.





Lets keep in mind that there are several major components to your score.





Credit history is MAJOR! The longer the history of credit, and the number of sources, tell the creditor what sort of payment history you have. By having 3-5 cards (recommended by MYFICO) you are developing a very good history. Try to get 2-3 major cards, and a couple of store/gas station cards.





Debt/credit ratio is also major. That means how much debt do you have, and how much of a credit limit do you have. If you get too much credit, creditors get nervous. So try to keep the credit limits on these cards low. And keep the card balances low! Too much debt makes creditors think you can't control your spending.





So to answer your question, get about 3 cards (1 major, 2 store/gas station), and maybe a total credit limit of $10k.





This of course depends on your income and how you intend to use your credit. But this will be a good start.
Reply:It's not the number that counts, it's the balance on the account that matters. The creditors look at how much credit you have available, and the more you have the better. for example, if you have a total credit limit of 10,000 on all your cards but oinly have a total balnce of 1,000 on all of them, you have 90%, or 9,000 available. the same would be true if you had a total credit limit of 1,000 and a balance of 100. So no matter how many cards you have, keep the balances low and make your payments on time.(Don't overpay because that doesn't help your score, and it my hurt because it shows you don't make regular payments)
Reply:There is no ideal, one that is it
Reply:No, you have that wrong, it's not the QUANTITY of cards, it's the QUALITY of your payment history.





You could have a long history, good record of payment and own one or two cards and be great.





The more cards you own, the worse off you are because even with a great payment history, they look at just how much you could go into debt by the limits on each card. For example; let's say you go nuts one day, you have 4 cards all with a limit of $5K each, that's a total of $20K you go in debt. You can't pay it. Ouch!





I just closed 3 cards I no longer use because on had a limit of $20K that was affecting my rating even though I have a perfect credit history.
Reply:All you need is one.
Reply:You can get by with two or three if you use them frequently and make payments on time.
Reply:I would say 3 but dont keep the balances to high and always pay on time