My Credit Card Game Plan

[Anonymous]

I am looking open 12+ credit cards in the next 3-6 months. I will alternate in between using 4 cards a month until all cards hit their 1 year anniversery and let 9% of the CL report on 2 cards each month. Does this sound like a good plan? Any suggestions are highly recommended and appreceiated. Am I crazy for thinking I can gain over 100 fico points in a years time of do this? Ficos are: Tu 612 EQ 631

[Anonymous]

why 12? you don't need that many to boost your FICO...I would stick with 2, plus, it may get confusing when trying to manage all of them cards, and you definately do not want any late payments! Do you have any cc's now?

[Anonymous]

 I only have a credit line at the moment. i have never had a CC before and was going to try my luck at the CC game.

[DI]

Not a  good plan.  You're going to lower your AAoAs and your scores will dip to the 500s. 

[smc733]

Way too many, unnecessary and hard to manage.  I have a feeling you'd end up missing a payment somehow because you just can't keep track of that many cards.

Also, you'll never get to 12, too many inquiries.  Opening all of those new accounts will make you look desperate for credit and will scare creditors away.

Go for between 2-5 cards.  I'd recommend:

-Citi forward

-Amex Zync

-Chase +1 (if a student)

[haulingthescoreup]

Twelve is overkill. Three CC's seems to be the magic number for FICO scoring. Additional cards can eventually help after that, but they are initially hits to your scores. You don't automatically get 10 points for every new card or whatever.

Also, you'll go nuts trying to keep them all happy.

I opened about a half-dozen in a narrow time period purely in order to dilute bad history with good. It worked for that purpose, but there were definite duds in there, and now I'm closing rather than opening.

I'd look for a credit union card first. It might have to be secured, since you don't have any current revolving credit track usage, but that's OK. If they insist on a secured card, find one that will let it switch to unsecured after X period of time and keep the history. Then add two more cards, each from different banks (one of them can be another CU, but you'd probably do better with banks for scoring purposes, alas.)

Try reading this: Expanded "FICO High Achievers (760 and above) characteristics list. We've collected comments from members' myFICO score reports in an attempt to paint a picture of a strong credit profile. You won't be able to match it exactly, and there are some factors on there that I'll bet are obsolete, but the closer you get to it, the better you'll wind up.

eta: smc733 out-typed me!

[vanillabean]

There's also an entertaining thread entitled Understanding Re-Bucketing...

Let's say your most recent inquiry exits the year gone by on the same day your AAoA enters the 5 year scoring bucket.

Would you apply for a card the day before or the day after?

[Wolf3]

What happens in a year that you need the +100 points for?

Just for fun, what 12 cards did you plan to apply for.

[xchap]

Excuse me but that plan is more like a suicide.

With the interest rate on 12+ card even if you PIF it too many card at one time.

Stick to 2-3 even 4 if need be ...Let them age and never be late on the payment.........Let them age like a fine wine.

[Anonymous]

What wanted to do was use a lot good history to overlook the fact that I had a short credit history. I figured I would get a decent boost in points at the 1 year mark, by showing I can keep the CCs PIF every month and a UTL below 9%.