how many credit cards is right

[Jacob]

i have heard some conflicting information lately about credit cards and credit scores and i dont know what to make of it so maybe someone can help me with this one...

it is clearly written that you should have 3 credit cards to optimize your credit activity and increase your credit score. but i also see that many sources are saying 4-6 open credit lines.

when it comes to credit scores, it seems like any little thing can make you or break you so i want to be careful. (i have 4 cards by the way) so should i drop a card or add a card or 2?

[mycreditgroup]

Hi Jacob,

What the credit bureaus consider a "perfect credit profile" is certainly a mystery. However, we've worked on over 100,000 credit reports and we've found that 3 cards is the magic number for us. That being said, we've seen some great credit scores where there was only 1 small credit card, and we've seen great credit scores where a person has 6 cards.

We're just very comfortable saying 3 is a good number. it's not enough to make you look high risk and its enough to show you can responsibly manage credit lines.