According to an article on Moneycentral on MSN, Experian has released a study of credit card usage in the U.S. 

 

Among the key findings :

The average American holds 4 credit cards

14.3% of Americans are utilizing more than 50% of their available credit

14.1% of Americans carry 10 or more cards

 

More details can be found at :

 

 

Part of the blame for the high number of credit cards rests on the FICO scoring system.  Since one of the factors in the FICO score is the percentage of available credit being utilized, there is some incentive to having open, untapped credit lines.  What the article does not say is how many of the people with 10 credit cards actually have balances on all ten cards.  Hopefully, the percentage is small.

 

Generally, the simpler your financial management system, the better.  If you use a credit card, you should generally stick to putting all of your charges on one card and paying that card off at the end of the month.  When you use more than one card, the more difficult it becomes to manage your finances.  You are also tempted to "borrow from Peter to pay Paul".  Finally, when you are using multiple credit cards, ensuring that you are not a victim of identify theft becomes more difficult, as you have more accounts to track.