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What people that have more than one or two CC are in denial about is that the credit limit on each card is viewed as already owing the whole limit...because you can with just one charge!
More that one person have been turned down for a loan 'cause the banker looked at your CC history and saw all that......potential....debt hanging out there in your future.
So OK, some of you have skated by with no troubles or worries. BUT that doesn't mean that you will always live a worry free life as long as you nurse the CC industry with your blind faith in what they say or tell you.
One thing in life will always be true..... money has no friends nor any owners. Borrowed (CC) money has even less..........
I had about $40-60k of "available" credit card credit when I bought my home and a CONSISTENT track record of paying in full every month whenever I did charge something.....no prob at all getting approved for a loan!
People run into problems when the've used more than 25-30% (and really over 50%) of their available credit...that's when the "red flags" go up in the loan offices. AS IT SHOULD!
OP, to answer your actual question, I have a few dept store cards (Bloomingdale's, Saks, and Barneys) and I got around 10% off to open the card- great for a big purchase like $500 shoes or a new wardrobe when I got my first "dressy" office job.
BUT- for me, the biggest "perk" is that each of those stores has their version of "private night" at the beginning of the fall & spring fashion seasons where card-holders can shop early AND get a bigger discount (save 20% on $500 purchase, save 30% on $1,000). Plus, we get invited to special events to meet designers as cardholders.
When I was in banking they looked at the amount you charged on your cards AND the amount you could charge and said this person doesn't use all his credit and therefore is a good risk. At the time a few credit card companies were looked down upon as causing problems on a credit report, like Capital One -- because Capital One would give you a 20K credit line, but then only report what you used as a credit limit, so the second you charged on your CapOne card you looked as if you were charged to the hilt.
And I know for a fact that our credit rating was in the 815 range, and we easily got a home loan and a car loan AND our credit report listed available credit via credit cards at three times what we earned in a year.
We might be going back that way again -- in which case it would make sense to close lines you don't use versus leaving the lines open and destroying the card so you don't lose track of it. I've had several credit cards that we haven't used in years mail us letters thanking us for our past business, but since we hadn't used the card in years, it must no longer meet our critieria for use, and they closed it. BUT -- I haven't had a letter like that since like 2008.... so it looks like the credit card companies have stopped doing that.
At times the loan criteria varies from bank to bank & region to region so what you say may be true for where you worked and how long ago you worked there. My post is based on a fresh current attempt to get a loan and the banks I polled did not like large untapped CC limits.
If you are shopping in a store and they ask you if you would like to open a CC what makes you say yes? What are the reasons that you would like to open this credit card....would the fact that I can save you 40% on an initial purchase help?
I've fallen into this trap in the past, but after the experiences I've had with some of these cards, you can't make me open one even if you promise me 100% off!
What people that have more than one or two CC are in denial about is that the credit limit on each card is viewed as already owing the whole limit...because you can with just one charge!
More that one person have been turned down for a loan 'cause the banker looked at your CC history and saw all that......potential....debt hanging out there in your future.
Actually, the only time I had any problem getting a loan it was because I didn't have ENOUGH credit. All I had was a car loan, and I was told to go out and open a couple of cards, charge on them, pay them right off, and then stop using them. I did that, and got my mortgage.
As a landlord, I look at people with a large amount of available credit and a small amount of debt as very good risks because they are obviously smart with their money.
So while having a ton of open credit lines may fall into the "negative" category to some lenders, it is a tiny tiny negative that is far outweighed by the positive of being responsible enough with money to not actually NEED that credit.
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