[Porsche-O-Phile]

Again, I agree to a point, but not entirely.

The reality is we DO live in a world (fair or not) that only cares about one thing - your FICO score. The amount of financial leverage you can control, the types of financial credit lines and options available to you and ultimately your perceived value all boil down to that one number. It sucks, it's B.S., but that's how it is. As such, ANYTHING you can do to bolster your FICO number is worth doing - unless you're so independently well-off as to really not care or not need it (this applies to probably <1% of people out there).

I'll use myself as an example - I'm currently trying to position myself to take advantage of a real estate price crash, which I think will bottom out in about 2 years' time (and stay flat thereafter for a few years). As such, I see taking on a few extra credit lines right now as a positive thing. It might be a short-term FICO reduction since I'm opening credit lines and having inquiries done, but longer-term, when those cards have been open a couple of years and have very low utilization %ages, it will result in a net gain. This works to my benefit. FICO is everything - on a purchase like that, a few FICO points one way or the other means literally paying or saving THOUSANDS of dollars. So a few bucks here or there on a credit card is pretty much inconsequential.

Properly used and managed, credit can be a very powerful leverage tool. It's nothing to avoid completely "on principle". You can live a lot better and do a lot more for yourself if you tap it - but are careful to do so properly. If you're stupid and mismanage it (as a lot of people do) or are undisciplined, you can get burned. No risk, no reward. Credit is just one more example of this...