Hello everyone,
This is my first post so please have a little patience with me. I am 24 years old and looking to get rid of some credit card debt that I have. I am not sure how I am suppose to start off but I have a total of 5 credit cards, actually 4 because I called to cancel the card today. It only had a credit limit of $750 with a $0 balance. The other cards I have are a CITI Platinum card I've had since 2002. The line of credit is $6300 with a $0 balance. The next card I have is a Credit Union Visa (2003) card with a Credit Limit of $5000 and a balance of $967. 2 more cards to go. I have a Bank of America American Express (2006) card with a credit limit of $6000 and a balance of 5300. The last card I have is a Bank of America Visa Card (2007) with a credit limit of $4000 and a balance of $2050. I think that I have too many open lines of credit and that it could potentially harm me in the future when I want to maybe apply for a mortgage, etc. I want to end of with a total of 2 or 3 cards and pay them off. What would be recommended in order to not hurt my credit score and to cancel the cards. My Transunion score is 737, Experian is 691, and Equifax is 723. I was thinking about applying for the CLEAR American Express Card that has no fees and take advantage of the 0% interest for 12 months and no charges on balance transfers to get my card balances down. Please give me any advice you may have regarding my situation. The only other debt I have is a car payment. The balance on that is 3K and I will be done with my 5 years next August.
Here is my interest rates I currently pay on my cards.
Citi Platinum - 11% (it varies)
Credit Union Visa - 10.99% fixed
Bank of America American Express - 0% until October 07, then will be 7.9% fixed
Bank of America Visa - 0% until Janruary 08, then will be 13.99%
Thank you all in advance and sorry for my rambling!