Need help pruning my CC collection.

[Gunnar419]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:

I'm gonna go against some of the people here. You don't need anymore cards. This is not to sound mean or nasty, but with all those balances, the last thing you need is a new card (Ink) to rack up. I don't care if you PC or app -- honestly, a new card is the worst advice I could think of to give you (sign up bonuses are nice, but you can't ignore everything else). You don't need it right now, you need to pay down your debt and chill. I doubt you would get approved with that much utilization anyway.

I would pay down your debt and close some of the cards unless you are someone who enjoys having that many; I don't think so, given your thread title. Citi Simplicity and Chase Slate are easy to decide to close -- they offer no real rewards, other than the 0% interest period, so once they're paid off I would close them. If you are truly getting no use out of the Discover IT other than being available to rack up a balance, I'd close it. A free FICO score is nice, but I wouldn't keep an account just for that. Sallie Mae and Citi give you a free FICO score anyway and Sallie's is TU like Discover, so you really don't need the Discover just because of the score. Besides, Chase Freedom and Discover are basically the same card. You don't need both IMO. Redundant.

If you do some thinking into your spending patterns and needs, it is easy to pare down. You just have to decide what is more important. Almost everyone has some cards that overlap. If you don't care for the overlap, or the benefits are unnessecary, move on.

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Yes, but Barclay's has the occasional hiccup where they skip a month or two.

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It's not a hiccup, unfortunately. Barclays TU isn't designed to be monthly. It's designed to update when something significant (TO BARCLAYS) happens on your credit. If you don't have any inquiries, new accounts, or any other things Barclays is specifically watching for, then the score will update approximately every 10 weeks. This is according to both a statement from the company and my own experience.

Sorry if that's a little OT, but to bring it back on topic, OP, I agree that you should definitely lower your util before pruning.

[kdm31091]

That's interesting to note, Gunnar. Truthfully thought the Sallie was a monthly FICO update.

It's up to OP, of course, but I was just suggesting some of their cards that kind of overlap, that they could prune without much downside.

[Anonymous]

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@Gunnar419 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:

I'm gonna go against some of the people here. You don't need anymore cards. This is not to sound mean or nasty, but with all those balances, the last thing you need is a new card (Ink) to rack up. I don't care if you PC or app -- honestly, a new card is the worst advice I could think of to give you (sign up bonuses are nice, but you can't ignore everything else). You don't need it right now, you need to pay down your debt and chill. I doubt you would get approved with that much utilization anyway.

I would pay down your debt and close some of the cards unless you are someone who enjoys having that many; I don't think so, given your thread title. Citi Simplicity and Chase Slate are easy to decide to close -- they offer no real rewards, other than the 0% interest period, so once they're paid off I would close them. If you are truly getting no use out of the Discover IT other than being available to rack up a balance, I'd close it. A free FICO score is nice, but I wouldn't keep an account just for that. Sallie Mae and Citi give you a free FICO score anyway and Sallie's is TU like Discover, so you really don't need the Discover just because of the score. Besides, Chase Freedom and Discover are basically the same card. You don't need both IMO. Redundant.

If you do some thinking into your spending patterns and needs, it is easy to pare down. You just have to decide what is more important. Almost everyone has some cards that overlap. If you don't care for the overlap, or the benefits are unnessecary, move on.

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Yes, but Barclay's has the occasional hiccup where they skip a month or two.

---

It's not a hiccup, unfortunately. Barclays TU isn't designed to be monthly. It's designed to update when something significant (TO BARCLAYS) happens on your credit. If you don't have any inquiries, new accounts, or any other things Barclays is specifically watching for, then the score will update approximately every 10 weeks. This is according to both a statement from the company and my own experience.

Sorry if that's a little OT, but to bring it back on topic, OP, I agree that you should definitely lower your util before pruning.

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Good information to know. Thanks!

[bdhu2001]

Thanks Gunnar.  It's been suggested that I get Barclay, because the free FICO is the only reason I keep my Discover card.

OP, pay down/off your cards then prune. I notice that you don't mention interest rate on each card.  I would also factor in interest rate, especially for your emergency or go to cards.

Based on your title you would feel more comfortable with less card, follow your gut and pay off the card and then prune.  Based on my own experience, closing a card doesn't hurt your utilization because the full CL continues to report for utilization (until you pay it off).  However, it's better to be safe than sorry. Use the snowball method or whatever works best for you to pay your cards off.  Make a budget and be sure to pay the amount listed in your budget, toward each card, plus the full amount of any new charges.  

Don't fall into the charging up 0% interest card trap.  They are hoping that you'll charge up so much that you won't be able to pay it off during the introductory rate.  Also, charging up those cards hurts your utilization and credit score. It doesn't matter on an ongoing basis, but it'll be an excuse for why a company will close your card, not increase your CL or not decrease your interest rate.

[CarbonCard]

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@bdhu2001 wrote:

Thanks Gunnar.  It's been suggested that I get Barclay, because the free FICO is the only reason I keep my Discover card.

OP, pay down/off your cards then prune. I notice that you don't mention interest rate on each card.  I would also factor in interest rate, especially for your emergency or go to cards.

Based on your title you would feel more comfortable with less card, follow your gut and pay off the card and then prune.  Based on my own experience, closing a card doesn't hurt your utilization because the full CL continues to report for utilization (until you pay it off).  However, it's better to be safe than sorry. Use the snowball method or whatever works best for you to pay your cards off.  Make a budget and be sure to pay the amount listed in your budget, toward each card, plus the full amount of any new charges.  

Don't fall into the charging up 0% interest card trap.  They are hoping that you'll charge up so much that you won't be able to pay it off during the introductory rate.  Also, charging up those cards hurts your utilization and credit score. It doesn't matter on an ongoing basis, but it'll be an excuse for why a company will close your card, not increase your CL or not decrease your interest rate.

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Most of the cards that has a balance is 0% apr until a certain time. The card with the highest interest right now is the CSP at 16% apr. As far as handling many cards, I can handle all the cards, it's just that I feel like I'm not maximizing the benefits of the cards. I'll worry about the pruning later. For now I'll just pay off my debt.