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
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.
Started Gardening 4/3/2014
@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
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.