Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Multiple Credit Cards and Credit Rating	SportsDoc	09/20/05
someone said that getting a lot of credit cards ruins your credit rating.... well even if u get say 10 credit cards, if they are all current, and none of them have been idle for say, for more than 2 months, and some dont even have any more balance on them because they were paid off right away, is it really possible for my credit to go DOWN??? And is it easy to just cancel and get rid of any card at any time then? I thought it would be nice to have a nice source of credit just in case of emergencies or just to have a little secure credit.
Clarification/Follow-up by rickj on 09/20/05 11:41 pm: Here's the real scoop: No one can show you or me the "formula" for determining credit score. Experts give advice that often conflicts: Some say lots of available credit is good, some say bad. Some say that if you have available credit that is X times your income you should close some of them...but others say closing accounts causes a decline. I look at credit reports and credit scores every single day - and have done so for 30 years. I can say that some that I think are better than others have lower scores. ...so just be sure that you continue to have everyone reporting that you are never late - and if you've already got a few credit cards, don't get more. That's the most any of us can do. Clarification/Follow-up by SportsDoc on 09/21/05 7:18 am: So lets say that the additional credit cards for some reason DO lower my credit.... can i then challenge that u are supposed to be able to, since there is no written rule that getting more cards and using them responsibly should lower anyone's score? Clarification/Follow-up by SportsDoc on 09/21/05 8:24 am: So basically u r saying that someone with 2 good standing credit cards can have worse credit than someone with 7 good standing cards, and vice versa depending on luck? So how can you make sure you have good credit besides not being late on any payments ever?
Answered By		Answered On
rickj		09/21/05
You are absolutely right. I could show you credit reports with scores side by side that would blow your mind. Some of the explanation of this is that the score not only takes info like known income, length at residence at job, # of creditors, amount of time with the creditor, credit limits, # of inquiries, etc...but it also takes into account what people in the past have LATER done who had the same facts on their report in the past. I bet the "formula" for determining the score is as lengty as a set of encyclopedias. It's nuts.

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