How do lenders view you if you have too many open accounts. Is 6-7 accounts an acceptable amount of accounts to have open, or would it be better to have only 2-3?
What's your personal opinion on it though, would it be better to have just a couple cards, or would 6-7 be ok too as long as you use them responsibly?
I use cards for SPECIFIC reasons...I have 1 card with 0.00% BT and PURCHASES...99.9% used...why not? I used DISCOVERCARD and PAID IN FULL for CASH BACK... I have other cards under 6% for BT'S...can't use them for purchases... WHATEVER WORKS FOR YOU...I couldn't do it with only 2...
Hello.. I just pulled hubby's transunion report 2. TOO MANY ACCOUNTS WITH A BALANCE Cap One $6 Lowes $80 Sears $0 BofA $26.00 MBNA 12,402 Juniper $0 Chase $5100 Citi Bank has not reported
I have 9 open credit card accounts. For what it's worth, creditexpert says this number of accounts is helping my score. I use some for balance transfers, two for rewards, one for cash if I need it for my business and the others are dormant most of the time.
matty61184, Too many accounts with balances doesn't mean the person doesn't have money to pay his bills. It is a poor excuse to turn down people's credit application. I pay it in full monthly to all my credit card accounts. Ron.
JUST F.Y.I. since credit scores are based on statiscal models it sorta works like this: If you have 17 open trade lines and 4 with balances 24% of your cards have balances. a major positive if you have 5 open tradelines and 4 accounts with balances you are looking at 80% of your cards have balances. a major negative. You cant have too many open accounts. just the percentage of accounts you have open with balances must be relative to the amount of accounts you have. also remember in the new generation FICO alot of accounts without balances may hurt you also. another example is if you have 2 open accounts and one has late payments 50% of your accounts are negative. a major negative. if you 17 accounts and 1 has a late payment then only 5% of your accounts have negatives making the late payment not worth as much in your scoring. another example is if you credit score is in the mid 600's and you 20000 in revolving debt that may be more than what other people owe in the mid 600's thus lowering your score more.... I hope that explains some things a bit.. though I am not the best at explaining.. Kevdog
2. TOO MANY ACCOUNTS WITH A BALANCE Cap One $6 Lowes $80 Sears $0 BofA $26.00 MBNA $12,402 Juniper $0 Chase $5100 So next month when our Cap One, Lowes, and BofA show a total 0 balance, the credit score will rise quite a bit? What's the ratio of 2 of 7? Any idea why CITI-BANK has not reported had the account since June/July ?
Great, thanks for all your advice guys. It sounds like if you have more open accounts, you have more options to get better rates, etc, and your ratios will be helped too. Of course, I wouldn't want to have like 20 something cards or like the one man "Mr Plastic Fantastic" with like 1,100 cards, loL! I would like to have between 5-7 cards ideally.
I agree with the above- especially with George- it's a catch-all phrase. I think at last count I have 42 positive trade lines reporting (26 are open). Based on ratios and income (where factored in) it's never a problem. The only time it can get sticky is when you go for a mortgage - open accounts with $0 balances still count as "available" and you could be viewed as having too much "available" credit. I've heard loan officers actually conditionally approve a mortgage with the stipulation that accounts be closed. -mj
