Credit Card Portfolio organization

[saving_grace16]

I've been reading a lot of threads lately that I must say have been pretty helpful!   

I am currently in a place where I've been able to pay down all of my cards (yay!) and am looking to reorganize my credit portfolio (let's just say I didn't understand credit during my college years nearly as well as I do now - and have a lot of cards to ditch!)  My credit score has gone up exponentially over the last few months!

Here's my rundown - 

Ones I want to keep:

US Cash Rewards - 4.5k (cli in process to hopefuly upgrade to Cash+)

GAP Visa - 4.2k 

FNBO College Edition - 2.7k (oldest card in portfolio)

These are the ones I want to toss - 

VS Store card - 2k

Macys store - 1.4k

Jcrew - 1.3k 

Wells Fargo - 2.3k

Macy AmEx - 1.8k

Nordstrom - 2k

Limited - 1.1k

Banana Republic - 1k

Helzberg - 1.2k

Amazon - 400 

Citibank - 2.6k 

Cap1 - 500

Discover - 1k 

As you can I see I have waaay more accounts open than I would like to have open.  I am planning to close all the ones I don't plan on using, listed above.  Any recommendatons for or against that?  Also - are there any types of cards that I might be missing that I could add to my keep pile  that I would need to apply for?

Also - with the exception of my Gap card,  and combining two of my US Bank cards to get that limit on the Cash Rewards, it's been hard for me to break that 4k-5k mark on credit limits.  Does this have to do with how many accounts I have open?  Can anyone shed any light on this?

Thanks everyone - I look forward to your thoughts!

Fico Scores - 720 EX/765 TU/788 EQ, AAoA  4yr 10mo

[user5387]

For some of the non-store cards that you are planning to close, e.g. Discover, I think I'd first see if you can get soft pull CLIs on them, or PC them.

If not, then maybe go ahead and close them.

[grinlikechelsea]

What I personally recommend is keeping the cards you don't like open until they get closed for being inactive. That way you keep your available credit high to pad your utilization. I also would see if you can get a CLI on the Discover; it is a good card to have.

[saving_grace16]

Thanks for the suggestion.  I just did that with the Citibank card today - SP CLI from 1.2k to 2.6k.  Not sure if I want a PC to another Citi card though.  Any suggestions of a good citi card?

[grinlikechelsea]

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@saving_grace16 wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion.  I just did that with the Citibank card today - SP CLI from 1.2k to 2.6k.  Not sure if I want a PC to another Citi card though.  Any suggestions of a good citi card?

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Citi is tough with PC'ing cards sometimes. Which Citi card do you have currently?

[saving_grace16]

I have the Citi Platinum Select.  I originally got it to consolidate some CC debt back in the day.  When I talked to a rep over phone, she didn't seem sure what I could upgrade to - just that I could upgrade. Made me hesitent.  

This is why I am seeing if it might be in my best interest to look for a completely different type of card (AMEX Blue Cash or Travel preferred, Chase Sapphire, Barclays Arrival, etc...) to help with my credit card portfolio organization.

[grinlikechelsea]

Well it depends on what your objective is. Do you want travel rewards, cash back, low APR, etc? Once you have an idea of the kind of card you want, then it becomes much easier to find a card that will suit you the best.

One Citi card that looks appealing is the Citi Dividend. If they let you go co-branded, the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select is good if you fly with American Airlines.

[saving_grace16]

I am hoping the cash rewards will be able to upgrade to Cash+ soon.  If not, then I'd be in the market for a good cash rewards card.  I like the GAP visa since I use the rewards on clothes quite a bit.  Only keeping the FNBO open to keep credit history long, since it's oldest card (has some rewards to it)  It would be great to have a travel rewards card. 

Thanks for the suggestions! 

[user5387]

Another comment that comes to mind has to do with breadth vs. depth.

You said that you have trouble getting bigger CLs.  One possible reason might be that if you keep adding low-CL cards, not only do you hurt your score by the hard pulls, new TLs, and lowered AAoA, but you may appear to be unstable and risky in the eyes of creditors.

In my experience it's better to have a few high-CL cards, rather than a lot of low-CL ones.  This requires a lot of discipline, and not applying for the latest cards that come along.

My credit is such that I can go out and get nearly any CC that I want.  But I wouldn't have use for most of them, and they won't get me anywhere in the long run.  So I try to think through carefully what I'm after, and only occasionally add a new CC.

[saving_grace16]

I would LOVE to have fewer cards, with much higher limits.  Most of those store cards are ones I opened in college when I had basically no idea what I was doing when it came to credit.  

In the last couple years, I have began to realize that if I could  - I wouldn't have applied for all those cards back in the day.  How do you suggest building more depth in my credit line up?  WIll closing those smaller store cards help?