Q: Do having department store cards affect your credit report? How many of these cards are too much?
A: Department store cards can help or hurt your credit, depending on whether they are reported to the major credit bureaus and whether you pay on time/avoid maxing them out. There is no single number of how many cards are too many. FICO scores don’t work that way. Try to just be smart about it. Open the ones you really need, pay them in full as soon as you can and you should avoid problems. If you have a bunch on your report you don’t use anymore, FICO recommends generally you just leave them alone rather than closing them.
