Hello everyone!
I posted here a few days about detailing my credit story, but a short recap is: ran up credit cards in college (never late, but had a ton of debt) and wasn't able to pay them off until I graduated. During the time period my credit score took a nosedive since I had little history (like 1-2 years average) and a ton of debt. Almost all my cards were affected in some way: my first credit card (a capital one card) I had to close because they said I had to start paying a $30 AF. A few others had their limit cut down quite a bit, and my chase amazon visa was closed by chase. Fast forward a to 1 year post-graduation and I've paid off everything, and while I still use my CCs for every purchase, I don't carry a balance and pay no interest at all. My credit score has gone up, and my last creditkarma check had it at 750ish (from 580ish during college).
Since cleaning up my act and having my scores go up, I hadn't applied for any cards at all (I wanted some of the inquiries to fall off so my score could keep going up). All of my limits have stayed at the level they dropped them too, as I was too scared to request an increase due to hard inquiries. The only card that went up was my Barclay card, which had an online CLI request that I tried - about 10 months ago I requested it and they boosted me from $1,250 to $2,200. Here is what I have:
1. Discover CL $1750
2. Citi MTVu (which is being switch to a Forward according to a letter I recieved): $2800 (plus low interest at only 11%)
3. Barclay Card with iTunes $2200
4. Neiman Marcus $400 (Formerly $8000 but I moved away from Neiman and they cut the CL...)
5. Walmart Card $800
6. Macy's $700
7. Chase Slate $2000
8. Bank of America Platinum Plus Visa $3000
So overall, no good cards. All starters really. Now that I have bills, gas, etc, I wanted a card that would give me cash back, points, or miles. I've been using my Discover Card for gas (5% cashback until April) but now that's ended I wanted something better, so I applied for the American Express Blue Cash Everyday - I wanted an American Express and this one gives cashback for gas and other purchases that I won't have to sign up for anymore. I was approved with a $12,500 credit limit, my largest by far. Now I have some questions:
1. Is AMEX Blue Cash Everyday one of the better cards? I really want to be able to recieve good cashback, etc. without an AF. After looking around this one seemed the best since it has no AF and all the perks of an AMEX. But perhaps there's a better AMEX card I could go for?
2. Would it be bad to close some of my old store cards? Mainly the Neiman and the Wal-mart cards. I don't use them at all and I'm surprised they haven't closed them yet.
Thanks in advance!!
Starting Score: 583 (CreditKarma, 2009)
@BlueHusky wrote:Hello everyone!
I posted here a few days about detailing my credit story, but a short recap is: ran up credit cards in college (never late, but had a ton of debt) and wasn't able to pay them off until I graduated. During the time period my credit score took a nosedive since I had little history (like 1-2 years average) and a ton of debt. Almost all my cards were affected in some way: my first credit card (a capital one card) I had to close because they said I had to start paying a $30 AF. A few others had their limit cut down quite a bit, and my chase amazon visa was closed by chase. Fast forward a to 1 year post-graduation and I've paid off everything, and while I still use my CCs for every purchase, I don't carry a balance and pay no interest at all. My credit score has gone up, and my last creditkarma check had it at 750ish (from 580ish during college).
Since cleaning up my act and having my scores go up, I hadn't applied for any cards at all (I wanted some of the inquiries to fall off so my score could keep going up). All of my limits have stayed at the level they dropped them too, as I was too scared to request an increase due to hard inquiries. The only card that went up was my Barclay card, which had an online CLI request that I tried - about 10 months ago I requested it and they boosted me from $1,250 to $2,200. Here is what I have:
1. Discover CL $1750
2. Citi MTVu (which is being switch to a Forward according to a letter I recieved): $2800 (plus low interest at only 11%)
3. Barclay Card with iTunes $2200
4. Neiman Marcus $400 (Formerly $8000 but I moved away from Neiman and they cut the CL...)
5. Walmart Card $800
6. Macy's $700
7. Chase Slate $2000
8. Bank of America Platinum Plus Visa $3000
So overall, no good cards. All starters really. Now that I have bills, gas, etc, I wanted a card that would give me cash back, points, or miles. I've been using my Discover Card for gas (5% cashback until April) but now that's ended I wanted something better, so I applied for the American Express Blue Cash Everyday - I wanted an American Express and this one gives cashback for gas and other purchases that I won't have to sign up for anymore. I was approved with a $12,500 credit limit, my largest by far. Now I have some questions:
1. Is AMEX Blue Cash Everyday one of the better cards? I really want to be able to recieve good cashback, etc. without an AF. After looking around this one seemed the best since it has no AF and all the perks of an AMEX. But perhaps there's a better AMEX card I could go for?
2. Would it be bad to close some of my old store cards? Mainly the Neiman and the Wal-mart cards. I don't use them at all and I'm surprised they haven't closed them yet.
Thanks in advance!!
What you currently have are not bad cards at all.
-The BCE is one of their better cards. Use it heavily and PIF and AMEX will treat you nicely!!
-How old are all of your cards? List that and your AAoA.
AAoA: 3 years, 1 month. It was almost 4 years back in January, but I was added as an AU on someone else's account and I think it brought down the avg.
All of my cards are about 3-4 years old. I don't know the exact dates. Walmart is 2 years old.
@BlueHusky wrote:AAoA: 3 years, 1 month. It was almost 4 years back in January, but I was added as an AU on someone else's account and I think it brought down the avg.
All of my cards are about 3-4 years old. I don't know the exact dates. Walmart is 2 years old.
I would axe the cards if they are of no use to you. Also, if the AU account is young, I would drop off of that as well as it may be hurting you more than helping you.
Thanks for the advice!
The reason I wanted to close them is because I really don't use them and I feel like the store is going to close my account due to inactivity if I don't use them soon. Wouldn't it be better if I closed them before they did?