@Swapmeet wrote:Why don't you bt all of your debt to one or two cards? Also, it is not that big of a deal, but 5 store cards is kind of a lot. I keep one pure store card around (wal mart) for diversification purposes, and one co-branded card that is my "hey, I want to try the shopping cart trick at least once" card (sportsman's guide visa). I know it gets annoying for everyone to tell you to pay your balances down, so I won't, but I will reiterate my suggestion to consolidate as much debt as you can so that you do have several 0 balances reporting, then 2-3 reporting substantial balances. This is just my $.02 worth. Everyone should do what is right for them.
+1
That's the route I decided to take months ago. I have 7 of 9 cards reporting a $0 balance with pretty much all my UTI being 0 % purchases split between 2 cards (BB and CU card) that I will pay down in the coming months.
Just doing that (instead of carrying balances) has raised my EQ score 22 points... EX and TU slightly less due to the fact all my INQs are TU and are dragging that score down til the end of the year when they age past 1 year.
@TRC_WA wrote:
@Swapmeet wrote:Why don't you bt all of your debt to one or two cards? Also, it is not that big of a deal, but 5 store cards is kind of a lot. I keep one pure store card around (wal mart) for diversification purposes, and one co-branded card that is my "hey, I want to try the shopping cart trick at least once" card (sportsman's guide visa). I know it gets annoying for everyone to tell you to pay your balances down, so I won't, but I will reiterate my suggestion to consolidate as much debt as you can so that you do have several 0 balances reporting, then 2-3 reporting substantial balances. This is just my $.02 worth. Everyone should do what is right for them.
+1
That's the route I decided to take months ago. I have 7 of 9 cards reporting a $0 balance with pretty much all my UTI being 0 % purchases split between 2 cards (BB and CU card) that I will pay down in the coming months.
Just doing that (instead of carrying balances) has raised my EQ score 22 points... EX and TU slightly less due to the fact all my INQs are TU and are dragging that score down til the end of the year when they age past 1 year.
That's exactly what I am trying to do by apping for a BT card first and foremost. I mean, sure I could try to stuff my existing balances onto a card I already have but it's really counter-intuitive, given the state of my current profile. All my cards are 20% except for my old CapOne's whole CL's are too low to be of use. The balances on Best Buy, VCF, and Amex are under 0% promo terms, so it doesn't make sense to move them (though the Amex promo expires in a couple months, it moves to 15.9%, so why would I move that?). I don't have the resources to pay down a huge balance quickly, so I'd likely end up parking a bunch of BT onto my Freedom at 25% for who-knows-how-long while bringing its util back into the undesirable range and incurring 3% BT fees at the same time (not to mention undoing all the hard work it took to bring the Freedom balance down from near-max levels this year)... and THEN I'd have to BT again at 3% fee to a non-Chase card that I would have to get approved for because I can't BT from Freedom to a Slate. Plus, in the span of time it would take for me to do all that, I could also just stay the course and pay things down as I have been while not making expensive moves all so I can have a couple cards report zero balances?
Sorry for the mini-rant; the short version is that the suggested approach may work out for some people, but it's not tenable in my situation.
@Swapmeet wrote:
Well.....it seems that you know what is best....Although you are getting hurt, thereby lessening your odds of approval for any new card, by letting more balances report. And why can't you bt from freedom to slate? you know what? You do not need to answer me--I wish you good luck bro.
Well, know that your advice didn't fall upon deaf ears... maybe just a pair of cranky ones for that early in the morning 
I'm still not 100% sold on moving around balances among my current cards rather than to a new card that would be geared for such a move, but I'm definitely considering how I might be able to fit such a strategy into my plan on a smaller scale.
Re: Freedom-to-Slate transfers, you can't do it because they are from the same lender, and most (all?) lenders don't allow BTs across their own products. I had a Chase CSR verify this for me a couple months ago.
So, I haven't apped anything yet... checked Experian this morning and Amazon still hadn't reported, even though the statement cut late last night (and here I was thinking that GE/Synch was good about timely reporting!). But, I went ahead and started a myFICO subscription so I could finally see my current standings....
760 EQ 742 TU 750 EX !!!!!
Apologies for the font size, but I had to express my elation... I never paid much attention to FICO scores back when I was an irresponsible 20-something, so I've never actually seen my own scores this high! I know they aren't such great scores for some of you elites, but this pretty much makes my day 
The broad negative factors listed are:
- Heavy use of available revolving credit (26% across the board, since they don't have the Amazon update yet)
- Balance on installment loans is too high (just my student loans... not much I can do about this one, they're being paid as agreed)
- Short credit history (EX rates slightly lower than TU/EQ: AAoA 6yrs vs 7 yrs, oldest account 13yrs vs 14.5 yrs
I was honestly expecting low-700 ranges, so this is a big surprise. Makes the wish list cards seem a little more in reach!