re: Any negative for having too many CCs open?

Depends a lot on your current credit, but overall not a huge deal. If you're going to do it hurry up and do it now, otherwise wait till after. I would stay away from applying for anything a min. 6 months. I would hate to see you lose 10 points and pay thousands more in interest on your house.

Google App-O-Rama or AOR and you'll get some good insight on how to do it once the house is closed on and you don't have any other major applications coming up. You can bank some great rewards doing quick app sprees. I just did a 3 card AOR for some 15 month 0% offers/cash/cashback/airline miles.

If you fly American or USair its a good time to double up and score bonuses on both programs' credit cards before they merge the FF programs. Then you can combine those bonus miles for some big $ tickets.

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The ideal amount of credit cards to have open is 3. Anything more than that you take a hit. You want your balances to be no more than 60% of the limits.

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What in the......

I don't claim to be an expert but that is absurd.

Utilization has always been around 17 percent to 19 percent for me and I would never let get above 30

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If 10 points on his score does that he shouldn't be applying for credit cards in the first place. Anyone with a solid credit score isn't going to be phased at all by a temporary 10 point drop.

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It really depends if you are close to a "breakpoint" as I would call it for the lender you are working with. For any type of loan from any lender there is always a hard number where a rate changes.

In the most common range of scores though, mid 600's through mid 700's there could be 5 or more number breaks. A drop from 725 to 715 could be a big deal where a drop from 780 to 770 wouldn't matter much at all.

Balance / credit limit = utilization.

300/4000= 7.5%

You're fine. Anything between 1% and 20% is where you're looking to be.

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Can someone explain what utilization, percentage, and all that crap means for cc? Explain it in laymen terms not money talk terms

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Most people on the MyFico Forums say that you want a zero balance on all cards but one. On that card you want between 1% and 9% utilization (statement balance/credit limit). I have FICO ScoreWatch where I can see what my score does when I play around with my utilization and that seems to ring true for me. My score has been highest when all cards except one are at zero balance and the last one having utilization of less than 10%.

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760 and up is all the same as far as mortgage rates go. You sound like you're in great shape.

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Yep. Pretty much anything over 750 is lagniappe. You don't get an award for having the highest credit score. Might as well utilize it.

Mine seems to bounce between 730-780 and I have a fairly extensive credit history and 8 lines of revolving credit open(2 of which are business cards).

If I wanted to buy a house, since I'm already playing the CC game, I'd just hang up the apps 1 year before purchasing.

Like I said earlier, if you only have 3 lines of revolving credit open, score of 800+, and a history of solid credit, 1 CC won't hurt you one bit and will probably even tack on a few points by the time 8 months rolls around.

So all I do is sign up for credit karma with a username? No credit card needed on file? Is it REALLY free?

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But the score you get on Credit Karma will not be an accurate score with what lenders use. However you will be able to monitor any sharp changes in your score and be able to monitor any potential fraud on your account (see balances on accounts that are not yours). It is a great free resource, but do not treat the score they give you as the gospel.

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Yep, it's good information but ignore the score. It uses a different scoring model than FICO so your score may or may not be close to your actual FICO score. I have the app and the Credit Sesame app as well. Credit Karma is TransUnion and I think Credit Sesame is Experian.

A lot of opinions on here are based upon individual credit situations (i.e. this is what I see, I did, and what changed for me).

The reality is that there are about 7-10 credit buckets that people fall into. Different factors affect each bucket differently (i.e. opening up a card, utilization, length of time opened).

What places people into the different buckets?
A lot of things. If you are 18 years old with limited credit history, you are in a particular bucket and your score changes differently than other people.

If you have had installment accounts opened and closed several times, then you are in a different bucket. And what affects you is absolutely different than that 18 year old.

If you have had a mortgage history for 15 years, you could be in a different bucket.

The point being that credit repositories do not apply a 1 size fits all approach to scoring.
They have developed a highly complex system to help anticipate the likelihood that someone could get 90 days past due on one of their accounts. As I said... factors that affect an 18 year old score differently than they would someone in their mid 30s (several installment loans paid as agreed and closed) or someone who has discharged a bankruptcy and is rebuilding credit.

All of the premises for good credit are the same. But the weight that they affect someone could be entirely different based upon the credit bucket that the individual falls into.

I think you have a good grasp of credit. And that you will be fine. If anymore questions pop up, don't hesitate to ask.