One of the most often asked questions about credit cards is 'what's the ideal number of credit cards to have?' The question is asked as if there is a magic number that will tell lenders that you're credit-worthy without hacking away at your credit rating because you have too many credit cards. The reality is not that simple.

The ideal number of credit cards is a very individual thing. It depends on a combination of factors, including what type of credit card each one is, your monthly income, the amount of credit available to you and your history of making payments on your credit cards. According to the NS&I Quarterly Savings report issued in June, the credit card UK market is doing booming business, with 4.1 credit cards for every adult in the UK. So is 4.1 the magic number?

In most cases, say financial experts, the right number of credit cards is between 2 and 6. Of those, you should have at least one major credit card - Mastercard, Visa or American Express - as those are accepted nearly everywhere you go and are the most genuinely helpful in the case of an emergency. Other credit cards you may carry include a store credit card - which generally charge interest at whopping rates close to 30% - and a gasoline card. More important than how many cards you're carrying, though, is how much you owe on them.

One of the things that factors into your credit score is your debt/credit ratio. The credit bureaus compare how much credit you have available to you in relation to how much you're currently using. If you have one credit card with a credit limit of