Credit card question

[britfish]

I have always had a visa and an amex and I pay them off monthly. I have had the amex for about 2 years and the same visa for about 15 years. Recently I decided to open a Southwest Visa which is chase, the same as my visa that I've had forver. Is it bad to have three credit cards on your credit report? Should I cancel the one I have had for a long time or will it make a bad mark on my credit for cancelling it.
I thought about cancelling the Amex but it earns me lots of points and I use the bill pay so I end up with free airline tix yearly.

 

[dfchelbay]

Keep them all open. If there are no balances on them, it reflects positively on your credit report. Three credit cards is a reasonable amount of cards to have, and should not reflect negatively at all. It looks good when you have them and are not racking them up. Be sure to at least use them all one a year to keep them active and up to date. Some credit card companies will cancel your card if you don't use it after a certain amount of time...like 24 months, but could become less months with all these new guidelines effective February 22, 2010...who knows.

 

[dd50]

Keep them open. They help with FICO and do use them every few months to keep them open. I have one that I use most of the time and the others I will use every three months just to keep them open.

 

[disneyfan55]

I have always had a visa and an amex and I pay them off monthly. I have had the amex for about 2 years and the same visa for about 15 years. Recently I decided to open a Southwest Visa which is chase, the same as my visa that I've had forver. Is it bad to have three credit cards on your credit report? Should I cancel the one I have had for a long time or will it make a bad mark on my credit for cancelling it.
I thought about cancelling the Amex but it earns me lots of points and I use the bill pay so I end up with free airline tix yearly.

Now they say not to close them especially a long standing open credit card. Just keep them and use the one you are thinking about closing at least once per year and just pay it off.

 

[britfish]

I am so glad I asked, I will definitely keep it open. I may call and change it to a regular card with no fee instead of the rewards card I currently have because I think they can do that and keep the same number/account.

Since I now have the third card, is it a good idea to lower the limit on the long standing one since its pretty high? It seems like I have a lot of available credit if you know what I mean.