Having too many credit cards does not necessarily hurt your credit. In fact, having a few credit cards and keeping balances manageable can help your credit score because it improves your credit utilization ratio. ... New credit cards also lower your average account age, which can have a negative effect on your score.
As with almost every question about credit reports and credit scores, the answer depends on your unique credit history and the scoring system your lender is using. "Too many" credit cards for someone else might not be too many for you. There is no specific number of credit cards considered right for all consumers.
That is a common concern, but having more than one credit card can actually help your credit score by making it easier to keep your debt utilization ratio low. FICO cautions that opening accounts that you don't need just to increase your total available credit can backfire and lower your score.
Heard advises most people to keep no more than three to five credit cards total in their wallets.
The Centurion® Card from American Express (Review) is generally considered the most expensive credit card; it charges a $10,000 initiation fee and a $5,000 annual fee. It's only available by invitation. The Mastercard® Gold Card™ (Review) is the priciest card that anyone can apply to thanks to an annual fee of $995.
“Having a zero balance helps to lower your overall utilization rate; however, if you leave a card with a zero balance for too long, the issuer may close your account, which would negatively affect your score by reducing your average age of accounts.”
In general, it's best to keep unused credit cards open so that you benefit from a longer average credit history and a larger amount of available credit. Credit scoring models reward you for having long-standing credit accounts, and for using only a small portion of your credit limit.
Although it goes against general credit advice, in certain circumstances closing a credit card account is necessary. A credit card can be canceled without harming your credit score—paying off your balances first is key. Closing a credit card will not impact your credit history, which factors into your score.
The standard advice is to keep unused accounts with zero balances open. The reason is that closing the accounts reduces your available credit, which makes it appear that your utilization rate, or balance-to-limit ratio, has suddenly increased.
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The average American has two to three credit cards, and Credit Karma members have nearly five.
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