how much credit is too much?

[FLA]

Having become disabled, somehow my Discover card company realized I was not working and lowered my credit line, when I called to complain (customer for 25 yrs) and explained I have disability income, they raised my limit by 5k. I was afraid I would start getting the same letters from every company, never happened.

I am a pay your bill in full every month person, my last credit score was 816. Credit card offers just keep on coming. I just took out 5k on Slate because it has 0% interest on charges for 15 months, I always like to have a card like that on hand for emergencies and then cancel when the 15 mos are up or just not use it.

This prompted me to check my credit limit on all my cards as there is a chance I will have high medical costs again this year and I am, per his usual, dealing with legal wranglings that won't be cheap.

I have 40k in regular credit card credit limits, 5k in the store cards I actually use. Right now I'm getting $2900 a month pre-tax from long term disability, but when I get SSDI, I have to pay them back $1800 a month for every month they covered me. So in reality, I get $1100 pre-tax to actually keep. But the credit card companies do not know that part.

Anyway, is this much credit going to hurt me in some way? I want it for the security of emergencies. I will still just plod along charging everything to Discover and paying in full monthly. The rest is back up for if the very worst happens. And most likely I would use my Roth IRA principle if there was an emergency. But I want that feeling of extra security.

[snafu]

Your credit score is typically made up of credit utilization ratio. I suggest using some of your cards in rotation as appropriate. If you have a Visa or MC that gives 2%-5% cash back for groceries or gas, using once in a while it keeps it current. Target Red card gives 5% cash back for their merchandise for example.

If you think tracking might be troublesome, I suggest using your MAC calendar [event] to note $s spent, based on account due dates, paying electronically with a few clicks at your keyboard. The system is super secure, more reliable than other forms of payment.

[FLA]

for some reason, I do not forget bills. I pay them the day they come in through my online bank acct or put them in a letter holder always in the same place and pay them once a week.

I guess I really should start rotating cards. When I called Marshall's store card company, they told me they had changed banks 5 yrs ago thus making my card invalid as of 2010. I used it so little that in 5 yrs I never even knew it was canceled, lol.

[Fishindude77]

Why not set up a line of credit with your bank?
Doesn't cost anything if you don't use it, and available if / when you need it.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I don't see why there would be such a thing as too much credit, as long as you are not using much of that credit. High limits with low usage helps increase the credit score, as snafu points out.

Historic note:

However, back when we were preparing to buy a house in the early 1990's we were told that in the pre-approval & approval process there was such a thing as too much credit. The thought was that you could charge up all the credit you have on your cards therefor getting yourself in too much debt to afford everything (cards, regular expenses, mortage). So, supposedly, the mortgage lenders looked at credit cards as existing debt, even if they were all paid off.

If that was ever true, I think the practice of treating available credit as existing debt must have been discontinued shortly after we bought our house. ' Cause god knows the lenders were practically breaking down the doors to give out loans!

[FLA]

Historic note:

However, back when we were preparing to buy a house in the early 1990's we were told that in the pre-approval & approval process there was such a thing as too much credit.

I heard that as well when we bought our first house in the 90s. I plan on no house buying for many years if this is still true, so I'm safe on that aspect.

[corn18]

I have over $200,000 of credit available (credit cards and lines of credit) and have a credit score of 829, so I don't think having a lot of credit available is detrimental.

[FLA]

good to know!