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Income : 61.3K
Oldest Card : 18 months
AAoA : 10 months
TU Inqs : 5 ( T-Mobile 5/2013, Amex 7/2013, Discover, 7/2013, GE Amazon 7/2013, GE Paypal 1/2014 )
New Accounts : Chase Freedom and Paypal Extras MC from 1/1/2014
Current Accounts :
Chase Freedom [ 3500/7000 ] 3 months
Amex BCP [ 0/7500 ] 15 months opened 1/2014 backdated to 1/2013
Amazon [ 0/2000 ] 9 months
Paypal [ 0/2000 ] 3 months
Discover It [ 0/2500 ] 9 months
Amex Green [ 0/NPSL ] 9 months
Amex PRG [ 0/NPSL ] 15 months opened 1/2014 backdated to 1/2013
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Shortly after I opened the Freedom, I was 'forced' to do a BT to cover an unexpected expense of $6700, statement cut immediately after the BT posted and my score took a major plunge - I didn't even bother trying the Amex 61 day CLI. As of today, I've reduced the utilization on the Freedom to 50%. My last Discover TU FICO was 683 but I've paid $3.35K and reduced overall utilization by about 15% since then, cards carrying a balance has gone from three to just one.
I don't 'need' credit per se, but I have to pay tuition and I have dental issues that need to be sorted out and can't be put off any longer. None of my cards reward non-category spending at more than 1%. I feel like I'm missing out on free money, and I don't want to mess around with MS to squeeze more value out of my cards.
I probably should have applied for the Arrival in january, instead of the Paypal. But I didn't expect to get huge starting limits from Amex and Chase that make GE utilization padding unnecessary...
From personal experience, I know what low utilization and letting accounts age at least 6 months can do for starting limits But ... July is soooo far away, and Barclays has pretty good recon from what I've heard...
@kaskuli wrote:Income : 61.3K
Oldest Card : 18 months
AAoA : 10 months
TU Inqs : 5 ( T-Mobile 5/2013, Amex 7/2013, Discover, 7/2013, GE Amazon 7/2013, GE Paypal 1/2014 )
New Accounts : Chase Freedom and Paypal Extras MC from 1/1/2014
Current Accounts :
Chase Freedom [ 3500/7000 ] 3 months
Amex BCP [ 0/7500 ] 15 months opened 1/2014 backdated to 1/2013
Amazon [ 0/2000 ] 9 months
Paypal [ 0/2000 ] 9 months
Discover It [ 0/2500 ] 9 months
Amex Green [ 0/NPSL ] 9 months
Amex PRG [ 0/NPSL ] 15 months opened 1/2014 backdated to 1/2013
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shortly after I opened the Freedom, I was 'forced' to do a BT to cover an unexpected expense of $6700, statement cut immediately after the BT posted and my score took a major plunge - I didn't even bother trying the Amex 61 day CLI. As of today, I've reduced the utilization on the Freedom to 50%. My last Discover TU FICO was 683 but I've paid $3.35K and reduced overall utilization by about 15% since then, cards carrying a balance has gone from three to just one.
I don't 'need' credit per se, but I have to pay tuition and I have dental issues that need to be sorted out and can't be put off any longer. None of my cards reward non-category spending at more than 1%. I feel like I'm missing out on free money, and I don't want to mess around with MS to squeeze more value out of my cards.
I probably should have applied for the Arrival in january, instead of the Paypal. But I didn't expect to get huge starting limits from Amex and Chase that make GE utilization padding unnecessary...
From personal experience, I know what low utilization and letting accounts age at least 6 months can do for starting limits But ... July is soooo far away, and Barclays has pretty good recon from what I've heard...
I'm not too familiar with that card. Here is a link for reviews on it: https://www.creditkarma.com/reviews/credit-card/single/id/CCBarclays1245?originEvent=797065745 I've heard Barclays doesn't like to see to many inquiries, so if you have a lot I would wait.
@kaskuli wrote:Income : 61.3K
Oldest Card : 18 months
AAoA : 10 months
TU Inqs : 5 ( T-Mobile 5/2013, Amex 7/2013, Discover, 7/2013, GE Amazon 7/2013, GE Paypal 1/2014 )
New Accounts : Chase Freedom and Paypal Extras MC from 1/1/2014
Current Accounts :
Chase Freedom [ 3500/7000 ] 3 months
Amex BCP [ 0/7500 ] 15 months opened 1/2014 backdated to 1/2013
Amazon [ 0/2000 ] 9 months
Paypal [ 0/2000 ] 9 months
Discover It [ 0/2500 ] 9 months
Amex Green [ 0/NPSL ] 9 months
Amex PRG [ 0/NPSL ] 15 months opened 1/2014 backdated to 1/2013
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shortly after I opened the Freedom, I was 'forced' to do a BT to cover an unexpected expense of $6700, statement cut immediately after the BT posted and my score took a major plunge - I didn't even bother trying the Amex 61 day CLI. As of today, I've reduced the utilization on the Freedom to 50%. My last Discover TU FICO was 683 but I've paid $3.35K and reduced overall utilization by about 15% since then, cards carrying a balance has gone from three to just one.
I don't 'need' credit per se, but I have to pay tuition and I have dental issues that need to be sorted out and can't be put off any longer. None of my cards reward non-category spending at more than 1%. I feel like I'm missing out on free money, and I don't want to mess around with MS to squeeze more value out of my cards.
I probably should have applied for the Arrival in january, instead of the Paypal. But I didn't expect to get huge starting limits from Amex and Chase that make GE utilization padding unnecessary...
From personal experience, I know what low utilization and letting accounts age at least 6 months can do for starting limits But ... July is soooo far away, and Barclays has pretty good recon from what I've heard...
Depending on how you value American Express Member rewards points your PRG charge card may pay >1%. For example there is a short hall flight that I regularly take that normally costs $70 each way or 4500 member rewards points + $2.50. By transferring member reward points to British Airways you can book short hall domestic flights on American airlines very affordably. So $70 – $2.50 = $67.50 . $67.50 / 4500 = 1.5 cents of value per member reward point. As such every dollar I put on PRG is actually paying me back at 1.5%.
This could work out better or worse for you depending on your travel needs but I would encourage you to run the numbers for yourself because there is a lot of value in the member rewards program when points are transferred to frequent flyer programs.