Nearly one year in the garden...

[tcbofade]

08 August of 12, I refinanced DW's car. 

That was my last app.

I'm almost certainly going to leave the garden next month...refi MY car?  New CC? 

My util is still pretty high (54.06% overall), but I have ZERO accounts maxed out...still waiting for a few statements to cut so that the CRA's know that...

After some family upheavel over the last few weeks, I am STRONGLY considering Barclay's Best Western Rewards card...after two nights, you get a free one and I have spent more than three nights at Best Western in the last three weeks...the next three weeks look calmer so far, but my phone could ring at any second.

TU and EX are both spotless and in the high 600's, EQ still has some inaccurate information that I'm having a devil of a time getting fixed...low to mid 600's.  No REAL baddies on any of them, no lates ever.

Any particular cards that I should look at or avoid?

[Creditaddict]

Who do you currently have and limits vs balance?

[tcbofade]

That'll take more time than I have...I've got 43 active TL's.

Credit one, Capital one (times 5), Cortrust Bank, Merrick Bank (x2), Blaze Mastercard, Nationwide Bank, HSBC Direct Rewards, Kay Jewelers, Nebraska Furniture Mart, Macy's, Walmart (x2), Firestone, Dell, Victoria Secret, Paypal, Credit Union, Banana Republic, Amazon, Kohls, JCPenney.

$29,028.16 balance / $53,700.00 credit line = 54.06 % util.

[Creditaddict]

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@tcbofade wrote:

That'll take more time than I have...I've got 43 active TL's.

Credit one, Capital one (times 5), Cortrust Bank, Merrick Bank (x2), Blaze Mastercard, Nationwide Bank, HSBC Direct Rewards, Kay Jewelers, Nebraska Furniture Mart, Macy's, Walmart (x2), Firestone, Dell, Victoria Secret, Paypal, Credit Union, Banana Republic, Amazon, Kohls, JCPenney.

$29,028.16 balance / $53,700.00 credit line = 54.06 % util.

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looking at that list of cards, you are paying a LOT in interest I have a feeling... consolidate!!!

I would work towards getting rid of these high fee cards:

Credit One

Consolidate or EO all the Cap1 about removing AF, adding rewards, and CLI - all via a SP

Close cortrust

Merrick x2

Blaze I only imagine to be bad

direct rewards as far as I know was a card that was not able to CLI and has fees..

you have tons of GE... those you can CLI via sp online every 4 statements and also over phone manual review via sp through credit solutions

Now I understand at 54% util. you don't want to close available credit, that's why i say look to consolidate and then close when you replace the CL's... you are wasting a lot of money that could pay debt down!

[tcbofade]

Thank you, I agree on all counts.

(Blaze Mastercard is roughly the equivilant of Cortrust Bank...)

Consolidate balances and eliminate interest and fees.  Gotcha.  I agree again.

How?

My thoughts were to open a zero percent balance transfer card, transfer balances and close the more expensive credit lines...

In my experience and the lessons provided on myfico.com, those "prime" zero percent transfer cards are not an option for me...mostly due to number of inquires and high utilization...as I posted at the beginning of the thread, I am 11 and a half months app free, those inquiries are falling off quickly...yay!  Utilization is still too high and I'm nearly certain that I'll still be denied for the "better cards" and I certainly don't want to WASTE inquiries...

[Creditaddict]

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@tcbofade wrote:

Thank you, I agree on all counts.

(Blaze Mastercard is roughly the equivilant of Cortrust Bank...)

Consolidate balances and eliminate interest and fees.  Gotcha.  I agree again.

How?

My thoughts were to open a zero percent balance transfer card, transfer balances and close the more expensive credit lines...

In my experience and the lessons provided on myfico.com, those "prime" zero percent transfer cards are not an option for me...mostly due to number of inquires and high utilization...as I posted at the beginning of the thread, I am 11 and a half months app free, those inquiries are falling off quickly...yay!  Utilization is still too high and I'm nearly certain that I'll still be denied for the "better cards" and I certainly don't want to WASTE inquiries...

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okay lets ignore the ones I talk about closing and store cards for a minute.

What are your limits and balances on the "good" cards?

Capital One x5

Nationwide

you have any others?

[tcbofade]

Oops.  Cap One times seven.  (I forgot that I'm a joint account holder on DW's Cap One cards...)

Cap One:

527/600

709/800

649/750

641/750

658/750

415/500

550/750

Nationwide:

1945/2250

Credit Union:

1781/2000

The Nationwide card and the Credit Union card are the only two that I would consider "good".

[Creditaddict]

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@tcbofade wrote:

Oops.  Cap One times seven.  (I forgot that I'm a joint account holder on DW's Cap One cards...)

Cap One:

527/600

709/800

649/750

641/750

658/750

415/500

550/750

Nationwide:

1945/2250

Credit Union:

1781/2000

The Nationwide card and the Credit Union card are the only two that I would consider "good".

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would you do me a favor and run the pre-qual at lendingclub.com - it's a SP and it's INSTANT.... run it for a full $30k just to see.

i know you are trying ot wait for all the INQ and what not to drop off... but if you end up finding they are not a terrible option, you can get it reset to re-run another SP next month after all inq's have dropped to get a hopefully lower rate... but im interested to see if they will offer something now and what rate they offer it at.

[_jb_]

Honestly (and you don't want to hear this I am sure), I would forget opening new lines of credit for the time being, and just concentrate on paying down what you have on the cards already. While none of your cards are "maxed" right now, the Capital One cards you listed are all in the high 80's percentage wise, which isn't good (and makes those cards essentially worthless, as any more spending will make them "maxed out"). After paying down the balances on those Capital One cards for instance, I would try and consolidate those CL into 1-2 cards, which will show banks that you have a some higher limits for when you do start applying again (Inqs. age over 1 year, balances down should lead to a nice CS bump).

[tcbofade]

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@Creditaddict wrote:

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@tcbofade wrote:

Oops.  Cap One times seven.  (I forgot that I'm a joint account holder on DW's Cap One cards...)

Cap One:

527/600

709/800

649/750

641/750

658/750

415/500

550/750

Nationwide:

1945/2250

Credit Union:

1781/2000

The Nationwide card and the Credit Union card are the only two that I would consider "good".

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would you do me a favor and run the pre-qual at lendingclub.com - it's a SP and it's INSTANT.... run it for a full $30k just to see.

i know you are trying ot wait for all the INQ and what not to drop off... but if you end up finding they are not a terrible option, you can get it reset to re-run another SP next month after all inq's have dropped to get a hopefully lower rate... but im interested to see if they will offer something now and what rate they offer it at.

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After carefully reviewing your application, we are sorry to advise you that we cannot approve your loan request for the following reasons:

     Excessive obligations in relation to income.

Your credit Score: 678

Date of Credit report Pull: Saturday, Jul 20, 2013