Many people think that credit cards are like cars, the more you have the better. However, this is far from the truth. Credit cards do help your credit, there is no doubt about that, but there is a delicate balance that you have to maintain with your credit cards if you want to maintain a good credit score above 700 on the FICO scale.

If you have no credit cards, you are at no risk for credit card debt. That low risk comes with a lower credit rating as well. The reason for this is that credit lenders will see you have no credit card and they will feel you have very little credit history. Your FICO credit score also takes this into account, and it will lower your credit score because of the lack of credit cards, and the lack of diversification of your credit history.

One credit card may seem like it is a better option, but it is not. One credit card does give you more credit history, but it does not give you enough of a credit history to raise your credit score. Creditors will still look at you as if you were new credit and your credit score will reflect that.

The perfect number of credit cards to have is roughly two to three. Two to three credit cards show the creditor that you have established credit, but you have not gone overboard with your credit cards. If you have keep it to a decent number it will help you keep from gaining more credit that you need. A nice balance between no credit cards and too many cards is the best for your credit score.

If you have four or more credit cards, then you have a lot of credit, but you can be seen as trying to extend your credit too far. The creditor, and FICO, will see it as you really only need a few credit cards, and if you have five or six credit cards, then you may be extending yourself too far. This hurts your credit rating, so you should try to not have more than three credit cards.

If you do have problems with your credit cards, then it may be time that you contact The Debt Relief Place. We will help you settle your credit card debt through negotiating with credit card companies to create a fixed fee settlement. We can help you reduce your debt by up to 50 percent, and help you keep your credit cards under control.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.