Can a person have too much credit? The answer depends on who you ask.

If you "ask" the FICO scoring system, the answer is generally no...at least for now. Current FICO scoring does not penalize a consumer for having a large number of open lines of credit. In fact, it penalizes you if you don't have enough revolving lines of credit. Go figure.

However, some believe that the new FICO scoring system, called "FICO '08" and slated to be rolled out later this year, may in fact assess a small score penalty for having many (as in over 15 to 20) lines of credit. As Fair Isaac is keeping details of FICO '08 close to the vest, this cannot be conclusively confirmed or denied.

Of course, every active, used line of credit has payment deadlines, and, unless you're an old-school Vulcan who never misses a beat, the more lines of credit you juggle, the more likely you are to miss a deadline. This likelihood can be reduced by using calendar software that pops up reminders of due dates, but the possibility still exists.

Another situation where having beaucoup lines of credit (especially with high limits) may come back to bite you is when applying for a mortgage. Mortgage lenders, like FICO itself, like to see you with some lines of credit featuring at least moderately high limits ($5,000 or more). However, there's a point of diminishing returns. If you have twelve credit cards with limits between $10,000 and $50,000, some mortgage lenders may become nervous and ask you to close some of those lines of credit, or lower the limits, even if your FICO is up there in the nosebleed 800s.

Whether you can have too much credit is debateable and dependent on context, but you can certainly have too much debt...