Once you succeed in getting a credit card, you might be hungry to apply for many more cards. Not so fast! Having too much credit may have contributed to your debt problems in the first place.

Ideally, you should carry one or two credit cards. Banks want to see that you can handle more than one credit account at a time, but too many spells risk to them! Use of credit cards should be limited to only what you can pay in full each month. You don’t want to build up interest charges on these cards.

Creditors may also frown on applicants who have a lot of open credit. So, keeping many cards may mean that you’ll be turned down in the future for other credit – perhaps credit you really need. And if your credit applications are turned down, your file will contain inquiries from the companies that rejected you. Your credit file will look like you were desperately trying to get credit, something lenders never like to see.