@keithbward wrote:So I've been a bit more active as of late because of my excitement of getting a handle and a vast understanding of this credit thing. Thanks again to all of you for your wisdom and sharing your own experiences. I have an arsenal of rebuilder cards. Some pure winners in this lot...lol. First Premier($300), Milestone($300), Verve($500), Credit One($500), Capital One Platinum Secured ($500) and Merrick Bank ($1200). My CapOne secured just recently gave me a $300 credit limit increase to make it $500 and I've gotten increases from Merrick Bank roughly every 3-4 months $300->$500->$700->$900->$1200. I rarely carry a balance on any of these cards but have used them to show usage and always PIF or leave like 5% on them. Merrick Bank is the longest credit card I carry with about a year and a half under it then it's the Milestone with about 10 months. Everyone else is 6 months of less (the time I started my rebuilding journey). I have since been approved for a NFCU cashRewards $10k which I divided between it and a Flagship Rewards so $5k each on those. A Discover IT (secured version) $500. Texaco/Chevron Visa $1200. Capital One Platinum $300. QuicksilverOne $300. Both on the credit steps program. My current revolving credit is $22k with a 2% utilization. This is across about 30+ cards. I'm pretty sure my secured CapOne is out of here in a year because I've read that it will never graduate so no point in continuing to keep it. My question is should I close all my other subprimes once they hit the year mark and avoid the annual fee, keep them open and let another year or so report then close, or just leave them open and SD them? Of course I love the steady increase from Merrick Bank, but other than the free TU score every month it offers me nothing. Now that I have the Discover that will graduate hopefully in a years time and my Walmart card I don't need the TU score from Merrick. I know closing them will affect my utilization, but I keep it so low and the limits aren't large at all I would feel any impact from it. Also my useless Comenity store cards with the $200-$300 limits to obscure stores I will never shop at will be closed after a year. Just want your take and any advice for me. Thanks again for everything and for even taking the time to read this and respond.
I would close the Credit one and Fire Premier ones since they have outlandish fees if i remember from all the Pre-approved letters i got in the mail lol
Close the cards with annual fees that don't benefit you or try to PC them
I'm in the same boat as you. I also have FP ($500), Credit One ($750), and Merrick ($500) and just got approved for the Capital One QuickSilver One and Capital One Platinum for $3,000 each. So right now I want to close my other 3 cards because the fees and rates are nuts. I always have 5% utilization and since my credit just increased 3.5 times my current lines my utilization is going to go down even more. The only thing that stinks is I've had the FP for 2 years now (and just got hit with their AF) but my AAoA is only 1.1 years old so it's not like it'll make a huge impact on my AAoA because I'm "young" in that category anyways. I'm going to go ahead and bite the bullet because those 3 cards will be useless to me now. Plus I'll save a lof of money in fees and such.
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