Are There Too Many Credit Cards?

Posted On: December 30, 2005

Author: john
Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 2:36 pm
Post subject: Are There Too Many Credit Cards?
3/15/2002 0:05 am CDT

hi all.
my name is john. i just came in usa two years ago.i have 5 credit cards and one line of credit loan from mbna.my fico score is 657. my credit history is only 1 year 9 months old. now i wanna to know what i have to do if want high score like 780 or 800. how many credits cards can i keep open. what is the maximum number of credit account we should open in our credit profile

3/15/2002 4:43 am CDT

Fair Issac, says that 4-5 cards is the ideal (one of their reps told me this).

It takes time (and a little bit of luck) to reach 700 and 800. I should pass 800 by the middle of next yeat, but its complicated. There are three things that hurt you the most(this doesn’t include derogs, which of course hurt the worst) 1) inquires - keep down to a minimum (less than 1 every six months; 2) balances - keep them low; 3) aging of accounts (it takes years). My oldest account is 6 years old and this is the first reason factor on why my score isn’t higher - “credit history not established long enough”.
The only scores that I have seen surpass 800 is excellent credit that has been maintained for 10 years or more (so my dream of reaching 800 by next year, may be just that..a dream.

3/15/2002 7:11 am CDT

Hm… why would anybody need a fico score of 800?
Does it help anywhere if you have a score of 800 instead of 720 or 750? (ok, I can imagine that it is better to have 800 than 720

If it does help: How much does it help?

3/15/2002 7:27 am CDT

Anything over 750 is excellent and there really is no reason to go higher; 750 should get you approved for almost anything. At 800+ I just look at it as a game. Just gives me something to strive for; really has no purpose though.