The number of credit cards you should have depends on how good are you at managing your credit. The more cards you have the more bills you have to pay and you have to make sure that you pay your bills on time.
It’s definitely good to have more than one credit card. If you have more than one credit card they should be different, MasterCard, VISA, American Express and Discover Card. One of your cards will be accepted no matter where you travel. Another reason to have more than one card is that if they close one of your accounts due to fraud you can still use your other cards. Some people use a separate card for groceries, another for gas and another one for online shopping. Department store cards make sense too if you want to take advantage of special discounts and special deals.
To keep your credit score high you have to keep an eye on your credit utilization which is your total credit card debt divided by your total credit limit. Keep this number under 30%. If your total credit limit is $10,000 then your balance shouldn’t be more than $3,000.
It’s better to have fewer credit cards with higher credit limit than more cards with lower credit limit. If you don’t use certain cards you should use them at least twice a year so your credit card company will see that you are using your card.
For most people having 5 credit cards is probably the best. If you have more cards and you want to close some of them leave your older accounts open since they influence your credit score more.
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