Hai there, I don't really have anything to say about your current situation. If it were me I would thinking twice about GW (if you do it) saliie mae about the acquired Citi account, for I'm afraid it might leak the lates from the other sallie mae account from the system.
My purpose here is: there's a signup bonus of $200 after $500 spent in 3 months from Citi for the Dividend Visa out there, and here's the link, one more thing for you to consider I guess? 
Starting Score (08/11/11): TU08: 643
@DarkScythe wrote:Hello everyone,
I'd like to begin by thanking all the members of this community for the extremely helpful posts. I registered a while ago, but simply stuck around and lurked, reading the posts and working up a plan for my situation.
Now, I'm looking for suggestions and advice as to how to proceed.
I'm looking to purchase new parts for a PC upgrade (and a new lens for my dSLR) in a few months time. The purchasing timeline is contingent on when Intel finally releases their new Ivy Bridge CPU's, currently projected at April or so. As this will be a rather large purchase, I have been thinking of softening the blow (to the wallet) a little bit by applying for some new cards and using their sign-on bonuses. Because of the April release, I would say the earliest I will do my app spree is mid-January or February. This is where I'm stuck.
What are some good cards to apply for?
Some background:
I currently only have 2 credit cards.
Chase Freedom ($1500 CL) **
Capital One No Hassle Cash ($1500)
I am also an authorized user of 2 of my dad's cards:
Chase Freedom #1 ($2500)
Chase Freedom #2 ($15000 / NPSL)
** My Chase Freedom card was actually a converted WaMu card. I opened a WaMu Platinum MC in June 2008. It was my first ever CC with a CL of $1000. When Chase absorbed my WaMu accounts, I asked them if there was anything I could do about the card. The CS rep told me that I could "add on" a "rewards package" to my card. She offered to add the Freedom package, and that's how I got it. At the time, I definitely would not have been approved for the card applying separately.
The Capital One card I applied for last year with help from the information on this board. I was approved for $1000, with a note that I was in Credit Steps, which bumped me up to $1500 in July or August. At the same time I applied for the Capital One, I called Chase to request a CLI on my card (still $1000 at the time) and was approved for $1500.
My dad's Freedom #1 card is listed as my oldest account (2003.) It's why I haven't closed it yet, despite his requests to do so. His Freedom #2 is one of thos Signature Visa cards with "no limit" but I saw $15000 for a long time. Only recently did it start reporting properly, and that drove my utilization down by a large degree.
Currently, my utilization is anywhere between 2-5% on average.
I always PIF my cards for the full statement balance (though I leave the remaining balance on the cards to pay next month.)
However, I still have a major problem that haunts me.
I have several student loans. 2007 was a particularly bad year for me, as I was unemployed, and had no real source of income. The loan bills slid, and of course, lates accured on my reports. Curiously, Sallie Mae never reported anything, or if they did, they removed them when I got current. My Stafford loans from Citibank, however, show numerous lates throughout that year. In 2008, I found employment, and got current on payments, and aggressively worked to stay on top of my bills. That said, the damage had been done; The worst on the list is a 120-day late at the very end of 2007 (November, according to EQ.) I say think, because my own records show me having trouble remembering to send payments on time for the first half of 2008, but they never reported any more baddies after the 2007 streak.
Now that it's nearly 2012, I imagine they should have less of an impact, but I'm still very paranoid of them. I tried a GW letter to Citibank earlier this year, but it took them a while to reply asking for more documentation, and by then I was too busy to respond in a timely manner. The accounts became listed as under dispute. A few months ago, Citibank sold those accounts to Sallie Mae (my other sevicer who never reported any baddies on my accounts in 2007.) The Citibank accounts are now listed as closed, but still with a comment about being in dispute and the baddies persist. Sallie Mae's newly created accounts seem to have gotten backdated to 2004 and show no baddies at all. Would this still give me problems?
I've been completely on top of my payments since 2008 and have not missed anything. There was one instance a few months ago where I was late with a CC payment to both Chase and Capital One, because Labor Day weekend messed up the timing of my online payments, and Chase didn't get the funds out of my account quickly enough. It was only late by 2-3 days at most, and I quickly called both companies up. I explained the situation and both agreed to immediately refund all the charges and fees, and assured me nothing would be reported to the CRA's (which is true.)
Sorry for the lengthy post, but here's my plan so far:
I'm looking at getting a few new cards to help subsidize my upcoming large PC/camera purchases.
In addition to the 2 cards I already have, I have been looking at:
Capital One Cash Rewards (The new one with 50% bonus. Only amounts to 1.5%, but that's better than 1%) It also comes with a $100 signing bonus, but I'm not entirely sure if it'd work, considering I already have a CapOne card.
Chase Freedom (I already have one, but because I was converted, I never had a chance to get any bonuses.) I found a link to the app for the $300 bonus, though again I'm not sure if it'd work for the same reason above.
AMEX Blue Cash Everyday - I've been getting pre-approval letters from them for a while now. Normally comes with a $100 sign-on bonus, but I have one that offered $150 for 1k spent that expires 12/20 (tomorrow.) Unfortunately, there's nothing I can buy for 1k right now.
Citibank ?? - No idea what would be good.
Discover ?? - No idea if this would really be useful either, considering Discover's low number of accepted locations.
What other cards would I be able to apply for? Should I even bother with these?
I'm looking mainly for general cashback or points reward cards. I don't care how it comes, as long as I can redeem in cash in one way or another. I'm also looking for sign-on bonuses for this round. After this app spree, I'll go into garden mode; either for a year (if I don't get everything) or indefinitely (if I miraculously get approved for everything.)
Again, I PIF every month, and I treat cards like debit cards now - I only charge onto them when I have enough money to pay it off completely.
I don't really have any scores, but CreditKarma's FAKO pegs me at 711. When I applied for my Capital one last year, I had used MyFico's trial and I believe my FICO scores were in the 630 range. It's been a year since then, and I haven't added any baddies.. Capital One pulled all 3 reports when I applied last time, and Chase pulled EX to give me my CLI, so all reports have 1 inq, EX has 2. However, they were all pulled on 12/7/10 so it's been over a year.
Sorry again for the super long post, but I tried to give any useful information.
Thanks everyone again!
Have you thought about getting a BillMeLater account such as Newegg Preferred? Tigerdirect also have one. If you buy a lot of computer hardware like myself you will find these lines of credit to be very useful, yes you will have a initial hard inquiry however you dont have to worry so much about the balance as it does not report to any of the 3 CRA's! a BIG advantage in my opinion. Obviously this only works if you buy mostly from one supplier but I tend to find that Newegg tend to have the best deals most of the time anyways.
I have to agree with TnTexans72 for the most part. Esp with getting in with AMEX early. Even if it's only the AMEX Zync, it will hold your member since date for any future products you get with them (it's a big plus later in life). You also don't want to over app, sometimes companies will grant you credit, review you, see a ton of INQ's and new small accounts and possibly CLD or Close what they issued you.
You have a few things going for you (IMHO), low INQ's, and decent AAoA from what I can see (and remember lol) and your lates are older. TnT is kind of hinting at what I would consider to be researching what offers are best for you and pick a few, not "a bunch" that you seriously would like to get and keep. Discover and Amex both tend to dislike too many INQ's from what I've read, if you're interested in either of those you might want to try for them first (personally, I'd go for AMEX first and see what they say, they usually pull EX, did for me). Discover pulled EQ for me in the Dakotas, which was my worst (so I thought) and gave me my highest individual CL.
Spacing this out over time will achieve more for you (a couple apps or so maybe per year and an additional account or 2, as little as 6 months once in a while) than a ton of apps at once. And it will not lower your AAoA much later. Remember, these new cards will review you at some point, most likely 6 months, you want them too still be happy with what they see. I'm guessing you're in your early 20's so you have time on your side, it just doesn't feel like it right now 
Use the info here and elsewhere (google) to research what you intend to apply for before you apply. You don't want to add the wrong product to your file (I goofed and accepted a CreditOne offer because I didn't look into it first, so I warn others so they can avoid that). You wouldn't buy a car without knowing something about it first, the same goes for CC's.
