I was told closing them would hurt my credit score but I also heard that too many open accounts counts against my credit score. I am confused. What should I do? Open or close?
2007-03-30 02:06:41 · 11 answers · asked by HMH 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Personal Finance
You should not close all of them... part of your credit score is based on your credit to debt ratio. So, you would need open credit to help this.
2007-03-30 02:10:51 · answer #1 · answered by 17_peppers 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Are you wanting to take out a mortgage or something that this could be a factor of? Yes, closing them could hurt your credit, and yes, having more than a couple also hurts your credit, but it also depends on several other factors. What are your available credit limits? If these are high credit limits, then you may want to close a few of them, or request that the credit limit be lowered. This is key if you are looking at buying a house, because it is your debt potential that would hurt you. Also your payment history is key. If all of the accounts have a satisfactory payment history when they've had a balance, then it is up to the individual or financial institutions standards whether or not they are going to give you a loan. But ultimately, it depends on what you are worried about. If you are doing it for a loan, talk to the banker at the institution you are going through, and they will tell you what their standards are and what they recommend doing.
2007-03-30 09:15:04 · answer #2 · answered by ALFimzadi 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Keep only a couple open - 8 is spreading yourself too thin and could get tricky. Having a 0 balance is great, but if you want to look better with your credit score, USE them once and a while. Don't rack up a bunch of debt of course, but it looks better if it look like you can afford to use them then pay that off in one or two payments, as opposed to never using them. Also, if you don't make any purchases for a certain length of time and owe nothing, the companies will consider it a dead account and close it.
2007-03-30 09:22:51 · answer #3 · answered by loganj1203 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No.
You cannot have too many open accounts.
The more credit cards you have the higher your credit score will go.
I suggest you to apply for more credit cards.
People always says too many credit cards hurt your credt because they are using their credit cads.
There is a thing called Debt Ratio.
If you have a Credit Card for $1,000.00 and you have a $500 debt then you have a 50% Debt Ratio.
Companies want people with 50% Debt Ratio or less.
If you have 2 Credit Cards for $2,000.00 each ad you have $500.00 debt on each one of them you have a 25% Debt Ratio.
You could have 100 Credit Cards for $10,000.00 each and if you only have a $10,000.00 debt in one of them then you have a 1% Debt Ratio.
That would give you an excellent credit score.
Remember, always keep your Debt Ratio below 50%
2007-03-30 15:20:40 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You should leave open 2 or 3, whichever have been open the longest. The longer the credit has been open, the higher your score, and the lower the balance owing, the better. If the account has a balance, then just leave it open, at least until its paid off.
2007-03-30 09:22:21 · answer #5 · answered by hello 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You definitely should not have eight credit cards. Even though they have a zero balance, the loan officer will have to take into account that you COULD run up these credit cards, and it will count against you.
If they all have low limits, it's probably not a problem, but if they each have the potential for thousands of dollars of charges, get rid of all but three.
.
2007-03-30 09:15:02 · answer #6 · answered by FozzieBear 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I have seen 700 plus scores with near perfect credit have a little note about overextended credit so it may help to close some that you are not using. Or all if you have a mortgage or something substantial....you definitely want to be making some type of monthly payments somewhere.
2007-03-30 09:13:44 · answer #7 · answered by HonestBizPro 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No one needs 8 credit cards. For practical and security reasons, I'd close 1/2 of them today and probably 2 more next month after I tried it.
2007-03-30 09:11:21 · answer #8 · answered by wizjp 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you should really only have 2-3 credit cards.....8 is a bit much
close some of them, but make sure that you close the ones with the lower limits
credit bureaus and lenders like seeing high lines of credit with low balances.....shows you're responsible with credit
2007-03-30 09:10:54 · answer #9 · answered by Greg O 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you needed financing at some time, your credit will be based on the "amount of credit" available to you.
8 cards are too much.
2007-03-30 09:16:11 · answer #10 · answered by ed 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋