5 ms·

13% of Americans have 10 or more credit cards? Wow, that sounds serious. They should probably pass on the Protean Echo purchase, and figure out how to manage t

by scotth 13y ago

13% of Americans have 10 or more credit cards? Wow, that sounds serious. They should probably pass on the Protean Echo purchase, and figure out how to manage their money better.

tertius 13y ago
More credit lines give you a higher credit score. Yes it has relatively low impact, but the more lines you have, the better it is for your credit score. That's just the system.
- scotth 13y ago
  I only have one. My credit is excellent. I've never had a problem with anything. I'm not saying you're wrong, but clearly it isn't the only way.
  - tertius 13y ago
    Like I said, it's a low impact factor, but it still is. And I'm not saying this is "my experience" it's just one of the factors. Also credit lines could be anything from retail credit, mortgage, car loan etc. All apply. Compared to paying every month, utilization, past default etc. it's a low factor, but it still is.
- democracy 13y ago
  Not really. Every request from a credit provider is a hard request negatively impacting your score in most formulas. Providers not checking your score do not affect it anyways (improving it or making it worse). Plus it is harder to manage debt, adding risk of defaults and fraud operations.
  - tertius 13y ago
    I would agree that it is harder to manage debt. I suggest not having any debt in that case. And yes, hard requests negatively impact your score more than say having 10 lines of credit would positively impact your score. Hard requests do not last as long as credit lines though. Does this (low impact) factor suggest that you request to get a new card every month? No. I think the top range (for credit lines) is 15-22. Going above that would not affect your score any more positively. I think it's ridiculous but that's what it's become. The more you borrow (or technically "can borrow") the more lines you'll be able to get.
- jack-r-abbit 13y ago
  You do have to watch out for a bad "income to potential debt" ratio. Having a ton of open accounts (even if with $0 balances) can be a bad thing. You have the potential to go wild one weekend and find yourself with a ton of maxed out cards. Some lenders are not keen on that either.
runako 13y ago
I'd bet a significant percentage of those are store cards taken out for discounts. In case they don't do this in your country, retailers here often offer credit cards that: - offer instant, in-store acceptance - have no annual fees - give you discounts when used at the store So when you checkout at e.g. J.Crew, they might say "hey, if you take 5 minutes and apply for a J.Crew card, we'll knock $50 off your purchase right now."
hippich 13y ago
I came to USA 4 years ago and already accumulated probably 15-20 cards. Few of these are store-credit-cards (Kohls and Target) but others are just regular ones. Reason is simple - more credit cards - better credit score in the long run (it ruins your credit score in the very beginning tho) I am using 3-4 daily depending on current rewards and perks and never carry balance (and as a result, never pay interest.) Like I put electronics on my AMEX simply because these purchases are auto-protected from accidents for 90 days. I put gas purchases on card having 5% cash back on gas stations, etc. As additional bonus - I put not used cards into glovebox of each of my car and in case I forget/loose my wallet, I still have mean of payment with me.
- monkeynotes 13y ago
  So you get a heap of credit cards to make it easier to get more credit (cards)?
  - Adrock 13y ago
    Or to buy a house.
  - hippich 13y ago
    In my case I was working on my credit history to secure home mortgage. I had to wait 2 years till banks want to talk about mortgage with me (i had no credit history before coming to US) and I used this time to build up it.
- X-Istence 13y ago
  Amex also doubles the manufacturer's standard warranty, so purchasing Apple gear with Amex is a no-brainer, two years of warranty, means I don't necessarily need to pay for the extended Apple Care warranty. Amex is also exceptionally good when it comes to working with customers on its warranty stuff, mostly no questions asked which means there is almost no hassle compared to some of the other insurance plans offered by other companies.
  - tertius 13y ago
eob 13y ago
I suspect that this statistic is true and not true depending on how you look at the numbers. I have two credit cards, but when I pull my credit report, something like 8 credit cards come up. The other 6 have been closed long ago, and now they're listed as "account closed". But for a long time, they were listed as open accounts even though I no longer even had the cards. I had to call several times to get the account closure properly listed. I suspect many people, over their lives, change from card to card as new deals are offered (50,000 free miles!), with varying velocity, but most people probably don't bother to call and insist that their credit report get fixed when these old cards aren't officially listed as "account closed".
jack-r-abbit 13y ago
Wow... what a shitty, judgmental thing to say. Having 10 credit cards does not equal poor money management. Having 10 maxed out credit cards with a crap load of debt might be. Your credit rating might suffer a little by having a bad "income to potential debt" ratio, even if you have $0 balance on every card and always make your payments on time... but just having a bunch of cards is not the issue.

by scotth 13y ago

13% of Americans have 10 or more credit cards? Wow, that sounds serious. They should probably pass on the Protean Echo purchase, and figure out how to manage their money better.

tertius 13y ago

More credit lines give you a higher credit score. Yes it has relatively low impact, but the more lines you have, the better it is for your credit score. That's just the system.

scotth 13y ago
I only have one. My credit is excellent. I've never had a problem with anything. I'm not saying you're wrong, but clearly it isn't the only way.
- tertius 13y ago
  Like I said, it's a low impact factor, but it still is. And I'm not saying this is "my experience" it's just one of the factors. Also credit lines could be anything from retail credit, mortgage, car loan etc. All apply. Compared to paying every month, utilization, past default etc. it's a low factor, but it still is.
democracy 13y ago
Not really. Every request from a credit provider is a hard request negatively impacting your score in most formulas. Providers not checking your score do not affect it anyways (improving it or making it worse). Plus it is harder to manage debt, adding risk of defaults and fraud operations.
- tertius 13y ago
  I would agree that it is harder to manage debt. I suggest not having any debt in that case. And yes, hard requests negatively impact your score more than say having 10 lines of credit would positively impact your score. Hard requests do not last as long as credit lines though. Does this (low impact) factor suggest that you request to get a new card every month? No. I think the top range (for credit lines) is 15-22. Going above that would not affect your score any more positively. I think it's ridiculous but that's what it's become. The more you borrow (or technically "can borrow") the more lines you'll be able to get.
jack-r-abbit 13y ago
You do have to watch out for a bad "income to potential debt" ratio. Having a ton of open accounts (even if with $0 balances) can be a bad thing. You have the potential to go wild one weekend and find yourself with a ton of maxed out cards. Some lenders are not keen on that either.

runako 13y ago

I'd bet a significant percentage of those are store cards taken out for discounts. In case they don't do this in your country, retailers here often offer credit cards that: - offer instant, in-store acceptance - have no annual fees - give you discounts when used at the store So when you checkout at e.g. J.Crew, they might say "hey, if you take 5 minutes and apply for a J.Crew card, we'll knock $50 off your purchase right now."

hippich 13y ago

I came to USA 4 years ago and already accumulated probably 15-20 cards. Few of these are store-credit-cards (Kohls and Target) but others are just regular ones. Reason is simple - more credit cards - better credit score in the long run (it ruins your credit score in the very beginning tho) I am using 3-4 daily depending on current rewards and perks and never carry balance (and as a result, never pay interest.) Like I put electronics on my AMEX simply because these purchases are auto-protected from accidents for 90 days. I put gas purchases on card having 5% cash back on gas stations, etc. As additional bonus - I put not used cards into glovebox of each of my car and in case I forget/loose my wallet, I still have mean of payment with me.

monkeynotes 13y ago
So you get a heap of credit cards to make it easier to get more credit (cards)?
- Adrock 13y ago
  Or to buy a house.
- hippich 13y ago
  In my case I was working on my credit history to secure home mortgage. I had to wait 2 years till banks want to talk about mortgage with me (i had no credit history before coming to US) and I used this time to build up it.
X-Istence 13y ago
Amex also doubles the manufacturer's standard warranty, so purchasing Apple gear with Amex is a no-brainer, two years of warranty, means I don't necessarily need to pay for the extended Apple Care warranty. Amex is also exceptionally good when it comes to working with customers on its warranty stuff, mostly no questions asked which means there is almost no hassle compared to some of the other insurance plans offered by other companies.
- tertius 13y ago

eob 13y ago

I suspect that this statistic is true and not true depending on how you look at the numbers. I have two credit cards, but when I pull my credit report, something like 8 credit cards come up. The other 6 have been closed long ago, and now they're listed as "account closed". But for a long time, they were listed as open accounts even though I no longer even had the cards. I had to call several times to get the account closure properly listed. I suspect many people, over their lives, change from card to card as new deals are offered (50,000 free miles!), with varying velocity, but most people probably don't bother to call and insist that their credit report get fixed when these old cards aren't officially listed as "account closed".

jack-r-abbit 13y ago

Wow... what a shitty, judgmental thing to say. Having 10 credit cards does not equal poor money management. Having 10 maxed out credit cards with a crap load of debt might be. Your credit rating might suffer a little by having a bad "income to potential debt" ratio, even if you have $0 balance on every card and always make your payments on time... but just having a bunch of cards is not the issue.