Actually you need to reduce the balance down to zero on all of them except for one. But you can of course use all of them as you wish as long as you PIF before statement cuts.
@Anonymous wrote:
Trying to figure out if I need to make use of my cards to increase my score. I have the following cards:
Belk $0 limit $850 Store card
New York n company $0 limit $1100 Store card
Credit One $0 limit $600 If you use it, pay it quickly, but carefully. Or don't use it is probably best.
Credit union card $0 limit $500 Yes, use
Bank credit card $0 limit $500 Which bank? Yes, use
Lowes $0 limit $4800 joint account Store card
The following cards have balances I'm working on paying down to zero!
Express $547 limit $1300 I went a lil coo coo for my birthday Store card
Victoria Secret $50 limit $350 Store card
Capital One $500 limit $1500 Yes, use
Kay Jewlers $460 limit $1300 Store card
The store cards and Credit One should all be paid to zero as soon as you can. These cards all have terrible interest rates, and they encourage you to buy things you might not really need. These can be kept in a sock drawer indefinitely, and only brought out if there is something you absolutely positively cannot do without, or there's a 50% price reduction bonus for using the card.
The Credit One can be (should be) closed as soon as you can.
When talking about "credit cards" always put the store cards and Credit One is a special place in your commentary, to make sure everyone knows you understand they are not real credit.
The real credit cards, you only have three, for a total available credit limit of $2,500. These should be used for regular daily spend, groceries, gasoline, pharmacy, if you have room on the card. Because the available credit is so low, you likely will be getting near the credit limit on each. Be sure to pay the statement balance by the payment due date, and earlier if you are approaching the available $500 or $1,500 limit, depending on the card. The comment about letting only one card report, well, that is for times when you really want to groom your FICO score for some major application, not for every day. For typical months? these card limits are so low it is not much of an issue right now if you let balances report on them. You want to build credit. You do that by reporting balances on the cards you do have, using them, and getting credit limit increases on these three real credit cards.
You should check on the Capital One website for your account, to request a Soft Pull Credit Limit Increase. There may or may not be one for this card. If there is, it will grant it immediately. If not, try again after 3 months.
You should check at your Credit Union about getting a CLI on that card. If you have any sort of history (ideally you've been using the card and paying in full? It hasn't always been zero? Tell me it hasn't always been zero... please? ) then you may have enough history to get a credit limit increase.
Same with the bank credit card. Hopefully it has not been at zero forever?
Do you have any late payments of any kind in your history?
You should consider applying for the Chase Freedom card. It has quarterly rotating categories of 5% cash back which includes things like groceries, gasoline and restaurants. It is one of the basic no annual fee cards that provides good rewards.
If you have not yet, you should try to find your FICO credit score. One place is to pay for it here, to get an accurate reading. From that, you can get a good idea where you stand in your likely credit applications.
Are you planning on any purchases such as a car or mortage in the future? Those plans should be considered as you look at your credit history and plan next steps in working with these cards and potentially applying for new credit cards.
Finally, before applying for other cards, it's a good ideal to search and ask questions around here to get a better perspective on what is available, benefits and gotchas with any cards (like Credit One gotchas).
Good luck!
