My boyfriend has 8 credit card accounts. I think this is too many. How do we reduce his accounts?

Answer 1

Well, the first thing is that you don't want to close any at this point. Doing that would do more harm than good. Reason I say that is that once you close an account, the payment history and available credit goes right along with it. It's hurts even more if he's had the accounts for quite some time. I'll give you an example. Let's say that the combined available credit on all his cards is $30,000. He's had 2 open for 6 years, 3 open for 3 years, and 3 for a year and a ½ each. The average age of the accounts would be slightly over 3 years. If you kill any of those cards at this point, you'd shorten the average age of the accounts as well.

Your best bet would be to pay off all the cards, and use each of them lightly to where the balance is no more than 30% of the combined available credit. So instead of loading the balance on one card, spread it out over the 8. I would designate the card with the highest balance as the "emergency plastic". I would however keep a small balance so that those cards can continue to build credit. Credit is designed with a "use it or lose it" principle. Your score suffers at first when you apply, it suffers when you overuse, it suffers when you don't use it all, and it suffers when you close it.

So in closing, pay the balances down, use all the cards lightly and PAY ON TIME!!!!

Answer 2

he doesn't need any. Tell him to cut them all up and use a debit card. pay cash or don't buy. Then, start a plan to pay off his cards. He will drown in debt if he uses 8 cards and charges them up. He can call the companies and close the accounts. 8 cards is ridiculous. Really, one is enough, for emergencies only. Cash is king.

Answer 3

It's not advisable to have too many credit cards if you don't know how to control your spending. Many have just pay the minmum amount. Should anything happen, such as out of job, the credit cards bill may caused consequences such as bankruptcy.

He should just keep about 2 cards (one Visa & one Master), and cancel the rest. He just have to call the credit card companies and request to cancel them.

Answer 4

As long as his balances are below 30% of his credit limit, it doe's not matter how many credit cards he has.

Your credit score is not based on how many cards you have it's based on how you pay them and what the debt to credit ratio is.

At one point I had 14 credit cards all with low or no balances and my score was over 800.

Answer 5

You can just call up the credit card company's and ask them to cancel the accounts (trusting they have no balance). Otherwise, you can consolidate them all into one loan and THEN contact the companies. Eight credit cards isn't necessarily bad, it is bad however if they all have significant balances or if they are never used. If he doesn't use them, just have him call the companies to cancel them.

Answer 6

Cancel all but one or two. Use one only for emergencies. Use the other as primary card, but pay it off in full each month. Make sure he cancels the other accounts (which means he'll have to pay them all off), and cuts up the cards.

Answer 7

ask the four credit card companies with lower interest rates to raise your credit limit, then transfer the balances from the other four cards to those cards, then you will only have 4 credit cards, all with lowest interest rate

Answer 8

Pay them off but leave them open, it increases your credit to debt ratio thus increasing your FICO score, by closing some of them you reduce your ratio, and reduce your credit score

Answer 9

tell him to pay all off in full, then pick 2 of them and only use those... having to much credit can hurt his score