Here's How Many Credit Cards People with Excellent Credit Score Have. . . (2 min read)

How many credit cards should you have if you want an excellent credit score? According to Ethan Dornhelm, vice president of FICO Scores and predictive analysis, there's no perfect number.

A credit score is a personal rating that determines the interest you pay for a loan, or whether you qualify for a loan at all.  The sheer number of credit card accounts that a consumer has is much less important to the credit score than how the consumer is managing those accounts.

So, how many credit cards do people with an excellent credit score have?

In a recent analysis, FICO found that cardholders with scores above 800 — the excellent range is 750 to 850 — had an average of three open cards.

As a rule, you should try to keep your utilization ratio below 30 percent. You can figure out what it is by adding up your monthly balances on all your cards — and dividing that number by the sum of your credit limits.

For example: 

• If you have 3 credit cards and each card has a $1,000 credit limit (total credit =$3,000)
• Your monthly carrying a balance on each card is $100 (total monthly balance =$300)

Utilization Rate = total monthly balance / total credit

• Your Utilization Rate =10%  ($300/$3,000) 

Source: CNBC Money