I am not misunderstanding anything...opening a bunch of new cards is completely different then closing out cards that you alrady have

i think maybe you should go back and reread your own posts...i am not trying to manipulate what you are saying...you act like i am trying to attack you...

you said closing out your old cards is a good thing, when it, in fact, is not...how does that have anything to do with people applying for tons of cards to better their credit score?

 

i think that is inevitable...but what does that have to do with anything being discussed here?

they will have a bad beacon b/c more than likely they will blow up all 6 credit cards b/c they are young and inexperienced...most cases of bad debt and bad credit start at an early age...it has nothing to do with how many cards you give them...it is their age and inexperience that will create the bad beacons

 

You're misconstruing my statement. I never mentioned dropping a bunch of CCs to just one or two.

I believe the norm amount of CCs is about 3-4 per person, not family. 6 is a gamble if one has the flexibility. 10-12 CCs, one must have tons of money to back it up. If one has just 1 or 2 within a period of time, the person has a lot of spending discpline or just lack any desire to spend on anything.

I had worked for 2 mortgage companies within a year. I worked in the dept concerning rejected Beacon score. You'll be amazed how much rejection that fell into my lap within a week. After I'm done with it, I'll process the ones that passed w/ calculating the max loan value.



The arguing started this "opening a bunch of account vs closing some". Then, what age does a person "will become smart" w/ their FICO.

I'm not saying not opening CCs to expand your horizon when a person gets more income. That was my original premise, not mass extinction of personal CCs.

 

Round and round and round we go.......round and round and round we go.

If I collected $200 for every time I passed "GO," I'd be rich.

What I said, for the 100th time, is that "IF A TON OF CREDIT CARDS RAISED YOUR CREDIT SCORE THAN EVERYONE WOULD BE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF EVERY OFFER THEY WERE GIVEN!"

AGAIN, what aren't you understanding? At this point, I really can't think of any easier way to explain this to you.

 

i understand exactly what you are saying...you said that in order to better your credit score, you should drop unused credit cards, correct?? however, that can, in fact, hurt your credit score....applying for every new card application that you receive in the mail will not help or hurt your credit score for the most part...

you are trying to compare apples to oranges...again, cancelling out old cards has NOTHING to do with opening new cards...as soon as you can understand that these are two different things, then you will understand what i am saying

you are trying to tell me that if keeping your old cards is good for your credit score, then why wouldnt opening new cards be good for your credit score, correct?

again, no one has said that having a ton of cards will raise your credit score...PLEASE SHOW ME WHERE I SAID THAT...i said closing out old cards WILL NOT HELP your credit score

the end

 

i agree...and was not saying your statement was false...in most cases, yes...if you give a bunch of 16-25 year olds 6 credit cards with low paying jobs, the majority of them will end up ruining their credit

there is no distinguishable age that a person will be mature enough to handle their own credit...however, i bet from your social experiment, out of the 16-25 year olds, i would be willing to bet if you split those people up into their own groups by age, the 16 year old group would have a higher percentage of bad credit beacons than the 25 year olds...more than likely b/c the 25 year olds can be more responsible with their available credit...would you disagree??

if you ran the same experiment with 30-35 year olds, i bet your pecentage of low beacon scores would be less...that is all the point i was trying to make

 

you guys are making such a big deal about haveing credit cards get good credit. i have never owned a visa or master card or anything like that. the only cards i have is my visa bank card and i used to have a bestbuy card. thats it. nothing more. my credit score is a 754. and i dont intend on getting a credit card anytime soon.

 

This is not a fair argument. We don't have access to your credit report, and therefore cannot agree or disagree with your ideas.

 

Ok, what I am saying is that by having TOO MANY open accounts, it CAN have a negative effect on your credit score. What I am saying is that by having too many open cards, it CAN be viewed as an opportunity to get further into debt. I didn't say it WILL be viewed as such.

Now, as you stated, if you take someone between 18-25, and let's say you give them 6 cards, their beacon scores are going to be seriously low. If you close out 3 of those cards, their scores are surely going to raise. Keep in mind, that there is a "debt to income" ratio, as has previously been discussed, and if you have a ton of cards that for example, that tally up to a "combined maximum" of $40,000, and you make $25,000 per year, your credit score is going to be hurting. By closing some of those cards, you may lower your "combined maximum credit" to approximately $15,000, for example. By doing this, your "debt to income" ratio would be a maximum credit limit of $15,000, while you are making $25,000 per year. By doing so, your score is surely not going to be damaged by closing out cards, and if anything, it WILL h elp. THAT is what I am saying.

 

Ok, I'll tell ya what. I will go ahead and contact the credit bureau and get a copy of my credit report. I will come back here, and post my credit score. Fair?

 

this can be true...only b/c in most cases, a 16-25 year old will not have a gross income equal to the credit limit of 6 credit cards...

but theres a catch....most credit card companies are not going to approve a 16 year old with little to no income..ESPECIALLY up to your $40,000 example...when i was 17, i got approved for ONE credit card that had a $500 limit....i am now 25 and still have this card...it now has a $6000 limit...i have that card as well as two other cards...one with a $2000 limit and a $1500 limit...

now, i am a 25 year old college grad with a relatively good income for my age...do you think a 16-25 year old with little to no income and little to no credit history would be put into a credit risk such as this?? There is a reason for that as i described earlier...with no credit history, you have to build up credit...even without a high available credit, a 16 year old is going to be a high credit risk...which is why a 16 year old wont be allowed the available credit to risk

there are two sides to every coin...while the point you just made is a very valid point, you have to think realistically...telling people that they need to close out credit cards and only keep 2 or 3 only applies in certain circumstances...and even those circumstances will be few and far between

tell you what...lets have another experiment...lets get a group of 16-25 year olds with little to no income and have them apply for 6 credit cards equalling an available credit of $40,000 and see how many of them actually accomplish that feat

we should try this experiment before we merit the previously mentioned one, no?

 

You neglected to mention their percent utilization. If they had a total of $40,000 available credit, with $15,000 charged up, their % utilization would be at 37.5%. If they closed out three of the cards as you suggested, that figure would double! THAT action would hurt their score.

On the flip side, if they had nothing charged up on those cards, closing three of them would have either no effect, or possibly hurt their score if they close a card that had a long history.

You are mixing up debt to income ratios with percent utilization.

Yes, high debt to income will hurt you.

Percent utilization (of available credit) should always be kept low.

 

100% correct

 

That is correct. By having a larger amount of credit cards it will help IF those cards carry low balances. For instance, you could have 6 cards that tally up to $10,000 in debt, or you could have 3 cards that tally up to $10,000 in debt. In this case, LESS cards are more likely to look like a liability risk on your report.

That is correct, and I totally agree with you.


Under this circumstance, it seems that we haven't been on the same page, hence the long debate.

Again, this is correct, and I totally agree with you.

 

guys after reading this thread some of you need to take some time to learn more about your credit, the only one here that seems 100% corect is binarysleep.