How many credit cards to keep?

I carry four myself and pay in full every month.They are used enough to get my credit report updated.

Used to have 4. Now I just have Discover Card, an HSBC/Best Buy Card, and my bank/debit card.

HSBC conned me with their Best Buy Card. I swear when then sent my pre-approval letter, I read over the disclosure and didn't see anything about an annual fee. So I signed up, they sent card, I put a few charges on it; then I looked at their website and seen $59.95 yearly fee tacked on my account. Mad as hell, I went back and read the original paperwork they sent; low and behold it was on there and I missed it. So I paid their darn fee. Now I'm just using the card for small purchases and pay it off every month to build a little credit. When my year is up, I'm going to cancel the card before they charge me another annual fee.

My Discover card has about an $800 balance left over from some car repairs last year. I haven't put any new charges on it for about 9 months. Every month I get the statement and I send them $50 + whatever interest they charged for the month.

I have several, so I make sure that the payments are done within the due dates. I have an excel file in which I list down all the transactions done on the particular card along with payment due dates. I keep everything systematic and make sure not to default. This does good to my credit.

I got jipped on the annual fee before too. I learned my lesson and always check that. And I watch the % because I have had them raise it on me without warning.

I only want to keep one--and that is just for emergencies. I want to limit my credit.

I have one, and it is solely for building credit. I swore I'd never have another credit card, but in this day and age, they are a necessary evil, unfortunately. (My parents never had one until about 10 years ago, when they got stranded when their vehicle broke down, and no one would take cash to rent a car!)

Mine is, unfortunately, one that has an annual fee - but since I need to rebuild my credit to refinance my home, I've obtained this card on the advice of a refinance lender. I had no open lines of credit showing on my credit report, which was hurting me.

i just settled with bank of america,i still have a credit card with them that i never used,can i use this card or will that void my settlement?

We have one home improvement store one, and one major card for emergencies. Pretty much everything else was chopped up. I think I also have a hidden emergency gas card, but hopefully will never have to touch it.

There are no set standards for how many credit cards one can keep. The only thing that matters is the ratio of credit used to the credit available.

If you have 2-3 credit cards, your credit score will shoot up a bit as this will show that creditors are willing to take a risk on you. But if you have 4 or more credit cards, you will lose a few points off your credit score because you will have too much credit available and this could lead you into trouble.

The number of credit cards is irrelevant in regards to your Fico score. The two most important catagories it looks at in regards to this are payment history and utilization of each card. You want to never be late and keep utilization below 30% on each account.