Good Morning. Insights Welcome re: App & CLs

[Dhani76]

Last app was last week while booking vacation. (Barclays Hawaiian Air MC $1500 approved). CLs all pretty low (see signature if it worked when I added). Utilization higher than I'd like (39% ish....went up with above purchase) but have been diligently bringing balances down. Any advice on how to bring CLs up besides just laying low & paying down? Shall I call in? Try to apply for something with a potentially higher CL? Looks like Citi gives me some options on their pre-qual page but Chase won't touch me with a 10 foot pole  I had done the Disover pre-qual & it appeared I might have a go at the "IT" card but opted not to submit.
Any input would be great. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I burned Chase less than 10 years ago but they recently let me back in -- make sure to use Chase Credit Journey (ignore their FAKO score) which may give you a pre-qualification that seems pretty strong because I was blacklisted with them forever but recently that site gave me a prequal and I apped and was approved.

I would say your #1 goal right now is to stop buying anything you don't need to live on.  Maybe put your cable bill on "vacation pause" and do the same with your home internet and rely on mobile for now.  Get your spending down, start attacking high utilization cards and bring all your cards below 39% -- see my spreadsheet in my signature to help you manage pay off totals.

Paying down high utilization cards will boost your scores, and getting everything paid down will boost them again.

Adding more credit right now might only lead you to spend things up again needlessly.

[Dhani76]

I was considering putting cable/wifi on vacation mode. Funny you should mention. Sage advice! Thank you! Will take what I've got ATM & work with it  Kind of figured that's what I needed to do anyway. I"m a lot further along than I was a few months ago!

[Anonymous]

Don't forget to go over your last 3 months of ALL statements and highlight anything you don't need to live on.  One of my neighbors is working to get out of debt and I showed her she had close to $700 in crazy stuff over 4 months! Netflix, Hulu, some xbox subscription she hadn't used in years (her kid moved to college!) and other stuff like that.  She was STUNNED that close to $2100 a year was slipping through her fingers in small $9.99 increments here and there.

Print your statements from every bank, credit card, etc and get 4 highlighter pens: green for NEEDED, yellow for WANTED, red for NOT NEEDED and a fourth color for income, refunds, etc.

Then start striking out the red things first, and the yellow things in a month.  It might be a huge savings.

When I put cable on vacation mode 10 years ago, I canceled it after 3 months.  I realized it was just an anchor in my life -- in 10 years I've probably saved over $20,000 not having it (gulp!).  Bought myself a tiny sail boat on the local lake with the savings.  Going out there today on it, actually.

[SouthJamaica]

---

@Dhani76 wrote:

Last app was last week while booking vacation. (Barclays Hawaiian Air MC $1500 approved). CLs all pretty low (see signature if it worked when I added). Utilization higher than I'd like (39% ish....went up with above purchase) but have been diligently bringing balances down. Any advice on how to bring CLs up besides just laying low & paying down? Shall I call in? Try to apply for something with a potentially higher CL? Looks like Citi gives me some options on their pre-qual page but Chase won't touch me with a 10 foot pole  I had done the Disover pre-qual & it appeared I might have a go at the "IT" card but opted not to submit.
Any input would be great. Thanks!

---

Each of your cards has a different story.

When was your last Amex CLI grant or denial? When was the card issued?

Cap One & Walmart are soft pulls so no harm in pulling the luv button.

I have no experience with Amazon Store or Credit One cards.

[Dhani76]

Did not realize those are soft pulls. Thanks. Just got the AMEX last month.