Quote Originally Posted by NaturalBornHustler View Post
Quote Originally Posted by BeerAndPoker View Post
You don't want to have too many credit cards but if you have a lot have them reduce your credit line if they will on the ones with shit comps. One of the things the card companies look at is credit available for you to spend and if it's too much then it can hurt your credit rating.

If a card gives you a $10k limit and you don't think you will ever come close to using that much for this card then tell them that is way too much and have it reduced to something like $2k.

I get these things in the mail all the time many of them from chase where you get $250 just for signing up and I don't know why I just pitch them but I do. Their is no annual fee on the one they keep sending me or amount I have to spend it's just the rewards credits aren't rewarded until 90 days.

Once the time is up cancel the cards with any fee or shitty rewards.

You can negotiate the fee on some cards. I've had annual fees removed a few times telling the company I'm not paying that and have other cards or will apply elsewhere if they won't remove it. Some of them will just waive the fee while others will give you the run around at which point you just tell them you want to cancel.
This is not true.

One of the biggest factors in your credit score is your debt to credit limit percentage. If you have 5 cards all run right up to the max, or lower existing lines that you are not using it will lower your score....sometimes by a lot. You always want to have credit lines that aren't being used if possible.

There is nothing better for the credit bureau's to see you have 100k in credit but are only using 10k of it. If you have 25k in lines and are using 24k of it, it is looked at as you being maxed out (which you are) and right on the edge of financial issues if anything ever goes wrong. That is a high risk person, while a person with say 5x debt credit available is looked at as in no real danger to default because they have so much access to other credit.

You never want to shut accounts down, or lower limits if you aren't forced to by the bank.
Not necessarily true.

Okay let me try to explain what I mean better.

If you have $100k in potential credit that you've only used up $10k but your net worth shows you could possibly hold up to $250k in lines of credit then in this case it will look good on a report but if your maxed to what they determine your financials allow you to have for open credit lines then it has a reverse effect.

Say you have 8 credit cards. Two of them have $15k limits, 4 have $10k limits, and the other 2 have 5k limits. You have $80k available to spend at any time. If your financials show this is a lot money in regards to your net worth when running a credit report check they might come back to you and say "We're sorry but we can't issue you a card" or we can only give you "$2k" because you have a lot of potential credit spending available. If you were to reply to them saying "Yes Mr. Smith, I understand I have these 8 credit cards but I currently have spent only $10k of the $80k available" it won't matter unless you cancel a card before they can issue you a bigger balance otherwise any John Doe in the world could go open bottomless amounts of credit not spending much of it then go all out crazy from doing so.

It's the same if your going to the bank to get a loan they will run a credit report and see if you have this $80k available in possible spending which they see is a lot of money in relation to the value of your current assets and what you make a year then they very well can decline giving you a loan.

Now lets say you get declined a few times whether it's for another credit card or for a loan even though your cards aren't maxed out but you simply have opened too much credit available to you then these declines of new lines of credit negatively hurt your credit rating on any credit report.

I'm not saying to open a card, get $10k, reduce the card to $2k and max it out but if your whole purpose is to open a few extra cards for bonus whoring if your financials won't allow you to have too much open credit and your just opening to get the bonus but barely ever use the card then you can get a few extra cards this way.