Deleting more than half my business accounts to help credit.

[Anonymous]

It's been 2 years working with business credit.

1 gas card $200 CL (canceled, didn't like the disclosure agreement)

4 gas cards $250 CL each $0 bal

2 gas cards $500 CL each $0 bal

1 gas card $1,500 CL $0 bal

3 office cards, $1,500 CL each $0 bal

1 mastercard,  $250 CL $150 reporting monthly on avg with PIF. (I'm sure I'll get a CLI to reduce UTL, hadn't gotten around to it yet)

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12 credit cards.

Mastercard buys gas now, one card, one bill. Considering canceling all gas cards trying not to look so subprime. What do you think?

[Anonymous]

Since I've had no responses I'll use my best judgment. One lender which stated I needed 10 or more tradelines as a minimum requirement just to apply for their credit. This has me worried; did they mean open tradelines or overall history on credit report? Responsibility of monitoring all these cards monthly for mistakes, fraud, ect is a lot of extra work. I believe they should remain on my Business CR for min 2 years in closed status allowing me to still show that I had them. Net 30 accounts are safer to carry but haven't been approved for any that are reporting so far, but credit cards with little fraud protection is a bit scary to fill in the gaps on my CR just to say I have x number of tradelines. Overall UTL will go up once I loose the credit lines, sure but lower balances will adjust that, or CLIs. Later as my CR ages I won't have as many older accounts on file to raise average age too, this I see as a negative so far. I don't know if this is the right choice but with out guidance I'll have to guess. I'm CLOSING all of them. At least from a liability point I'll have less to worry about on cards not used. I think closing them will help remove the appearance of SubPrime showing I don't need them anymore. Using all the cards now limited to 4 could hurt more because my % of balances goes up too. I only have personal credit to go on which is where I made my guess on what to do here. Here we go. Closing all my gas cards. I hope it was the right choice. My goal isn't to have the highest score, just to get credit to use. Maybe I would be better off just signing PG and then business credit won't be an issue? It's been a very tough road with no PG. Is it worth it? Please comment on my choice. Thanks.

[Creditaddict]

Is your business traveling or a fleet or something?

Why 11 Gas Cards? or however many you reported?

Any of these PG or all business?

[Anonymous]

I've been trying to do everything with no PG. I wanted a gas card but didn't want to be tied to one gas station. I tried to get a multi station card but was denied back then. Ended up getting cards at each station around town. My goal is to get a LOC and Business Credit Cards Visa/MC. They want to see millions in revenue to over look the credit reports or lack there of. I just need to build my credit reports then the revenues won't be much of a concern. The banks say why don't you pay the 2 letter credit agency to build you a credit profile. I don't want to pay all that money. So this is where I'm at. :-) I've learned now after 2 years payment responsibility doesn't go far in business credit. They want to see huge figures to give little bits of credit. It's amazes me how opposite it is from personal credit.

What if I start to PG on everything to get started, then in a year or so start trying to go with no PG again? Would that get me going or will they ignore all accounts that were PG when applying for no PG?

[Creditaddict]

I would not pay the VERY high cost of "Adding Accounts yourself" to D&B... but I would contact them and get them to tell you how many accounts are currently reporting to your D&B, If several of the gas cards are then you spend the lower end to "Confirm" accounts... D&B keeps a file for you as soon as the first net account, or credit card gets sent to them, but they will not confirm it and therefore issue a score for you until you pay this... I negotiated a bit for lower price and then did it...

If you don't confirm yourself with D&B it's not going to matter 5 years down the road how much credit you had with PG or not... Now Equifax and EX do provide report if they receive info from your creditors...

I had a couple good things show up that helped me obtain all my credit with no PG but that was before bad market but even then I had TONS of accounts that never reported to credit, in my case it was good because I had enough showing and high lines that lenders would lend more but in your case that would be bad for you...

[Anonymous]

I signed up for eupdate on D&B, there is an old account with no activity, no history many years back. I have one gas card reporting to D&B not sure which one. It's pretty empty there. I have many gas cards on EX and EQ. But that's pretty much my credit profile, all gas cards. I see from reading people whom have or had credit had pleanty of tradelines, seems as if 15 or more. Maybe I need more tradelines and some net 30s. I think I'll try another round and see if all the places that denied me back when I started will approve me now. But I guess I'm still starting from the bottom so I'll start there again. :-)