is it bad to cancel a card after having it for 8 years? my at&t platinum mastercard i got in college has $hitty benefits, only soso rates and i wonder if i should just cancel it and get a citibank dividend platinum. however i think i heard that keeping one card for a long time helps improve your credit score??

also, is it bad on your credit report to have too many credit cards? how many is too many? i have the at&t mastercard & amex blue.

 

I read recently that credit bureau have sort of recently changed their stance on this. It used to be, it was a good idea to cut down the number of cards you have. But then it's not always good to cut down your available credit number, by cutting out extra cards. I would say that if you have low-ish balance on two cards, that's not too many. Maybe call your credit card company, and provided that you have been a good customer for them, ask them to offer you something to keep your business. Perhaps the same company has another card that would be better for you and might not look bad on a credit report. But since you have such a history with the AT&T card, I would say try to keep it if you can. But I'd only really worry about it, if you're about to apply for a home loan. You won't take a big credit score hit, if you switch cards, and it will go back up over time.

 

Having a line of credit open for a long time is a positive!

I still have my original something like 13 years.

It shows your consistant, so I wouldn't get rid of it.

I've called my credit card companies in the past and had them lower my rate successfully many times.

I have two one visa one mastercard.6% and 10%

I need to badger the company again.

it's no so much having too many credit cards but too high of a combined credit lines.

They don't want you to be able to go out and charge a whole house tommorrow.

To dodge this pitfall you can ask your credit card company to lower your credit limit on the cards.

This is help inprove your rating a little but the most important is consistantly paying the balance. (no lates bankruptcys judgements etc...)

Income/debt ratio.

Lenght of credit history.

Revolving credit limits.

 

But don't you want to be careful how low you lower your limit, so you don't look like you're charging close to your credit limit?
How are you supposed to know the "ideal" ratio on revolving credit (credit cards)? Is there one?

 

The most evil girl I ever met in my life told me that 3 credit cards is "ideal." 1 credit card makes you a tightwad, and 4 or more means you're probably living beyond your means.

 

That's a good question. Unfortunatly I don't know the formula. I wouls say that you shouldn't have more than a $2000 balance or $15,000 credit line if you make 40-100k. I belive the norm is somewhere around $3-4k balance and $20,000. I personally have $750 and $15k but used to keep around a 2k balance. I just had enough of paying on the card so now I just use it for convienece. My income to debt ratio is very low I have approx 795-825 credit rating depending on the reporting company. I only have 2 CC but 3 would probably be okay however I'm sure I would lose some points if my credit limit was $25k. My rating makes lenders beg for me to borrow from them. I just don't. Funny that's why it is so high. Get a free credit report from equifax You'll have to cancel the service after 3 months or pay. They will give you loads of helpful hints on how to raise you rateing. I would keep the old card and beg for them to lower the rate and the limit then decide if you need another.

 

As long as the AT&T card doesn