@Anonymous wrote:
....I just need advice on what to do next. I now have 5 cards..
BofA..13 mos open..$2500 high...0 balance
Orch..11mos open..$300 high.....0 balance
WaMu 4 mos open..$3500 high...$700 balance...0% till jan
CapOne..4 mos open...$1000 high...0 balance...0% till Dec
AND THE GRAND DAM....Discover...high not given on pre-approved site...0% till Mar 2009
My questionsare numerous but the big one is can anyone guess what my credit limit will be? I make about 100k a year, been on my job for 10 years. Also can anyone give me direction on what I should do next? I had decided not to apply for any more cards since we'll be buying a home within a year but the discover card was too hard to ignore. I need your help .
I'm terrible at guessing scores, CL's, and so forth, so I won't even try that one, but here a suggestion for the second:
You now have a great selection of cards. I would go into credit gardening phase at this point. By mortgage time, all accounts will be over a year old, and you'll be in wonderful shape. Your BofA card has the potential for CLI's, which will help increase your total CL. It's not a biggie, but it's useful.
Keep using the cards, to keep them alive, and PIF'ing them, as you're doing. Your scores should keep on rising, slowly but surely, as time goes by and more and more good history accumulates.
At some point, once the WaMu is paid off, I would experiment with allowing one card and then zero cards to post a balance of $20 or so, and see how it affects your scores. When you actually sit down to apply for the mortgage, it will be useful to know if a certain number of cards with balances might give you an extra 10 points or so.
Otherwise, garden your cards and start to save, save, save. It's all about the down payment now! Good luck
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007