Originally Posted by
BeerAndPoker
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.
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.
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