How Many Credit Cards Should I Have?

Despite the bad reputation credit cards have received over the years as a result of people getting themselves into debt, credit cards can be quite useful and helpful. It is not the credit card itself that causes people to go into debt but rather how people use their credit cards that makes all the difference. With all the negative media and fear that people have for owning and using credit cards as a result, many people have questions such as how many credit cards should I have?

There is no right or wrong answer to this question. The important thing to consider is how many can you comfortably afford to maintain. By having and using a large number of credit cards, you have a responsibility to ensure that you are making the necessary payments to each credit card. Depending on the amount you have charged to each of them, the repayment amounts could be significantly greater than what you have budgeted for or even greater than your combined income.

Using credit cards to help you establish credit or repair your credit may require you to have more than one credit card. Again the key here is to only having as many as you can comfortably manage. Having more than one open lines of credit with credit cards can help you build credit faster but if they are used irresponsibly they can quickly damage your credit rating. Since you are trying to build credit and likely not wanting to get into debt, limit yourself to no more than three credit cards at a time while keeping usage of those to a bare minimum.

Having too many open lines of credit can sometimes do more harm than good. Credit cards can help build your credit rating and your credit rating plays a huge part in you obtaining a larger loan such as needed to buy a house or car. Lenders also look at how many lines of credit you have open when determining if you are capable or repaying a loan. Having too many open lines of credit can cause lenders to deny you a larger loan because they may feel your ability to pay back the loan would be hampered with the other lines of credit you have open.

To avoid finding yourself in this situation, it is important to keep the number of credit cards that you own to a minimum. Each credit card is an individual line of credit that lenders can see on your credit report. If you have a large amount of credit cards, then is probably a good idea that you reduce those down to a manageable size even if you are not using them. The fact that you are not using the credit card is not as important to lenders as the fact that you have the ability to use that line of credit which can take away from you repaying the loan they would extend to you.

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