Optimizing my Credit Card Profile

[ashjt2011]

I have been reading the credit card forums on here lately and people talk a lot about combining CL's and doing all sorts of crazy stuff with their credit cards. So I wanted to post my credit cards here and see what you guys think and see if there is anything I could create a more optimal blend of credit cards.

Current Cards:

Overstock Comenity: Owe 0, CL is 750 1 year old

Capital One QS1 - Owe 0, Credit line 3,300 2 years old

Capital One QS1 - Owe 0, Credit line 3,250 1.5 years old

Capital One Venture - Owe 1,400, Credit Line 3,000. 2 months old - 0% interest

Barclay Rewards Card - Owe 700, Credit line 2,550. 1.5 years old 

Barclay Arrival+ - Owe 1,100, Credit line 2,500 - 2 months old. 0% interest

Barclay Apple Rewards - Owe 1700, Credit line 2,000 (desperatly needed a new computer) - 1 month old. 18 months deferred interest

Discover It - Owe 700, Credit Line 6,500 - 2 months old 0% interest

I also have an AU card from CapitalOne - its a world elite mastercard. I owe 2k, with a credit line of 5,500. I am only an authorized signer on this. This one was opened a little over 3 years ago.

That being said - I don't want to go messing with combining credit lines or doing really anything without some advice. I know credit bureaus can be quite sensitive with this kind of stuff. I have also heard of people upgrading their Cap1 QS1's to other things.

Other background:

Income is between 55-57k before taxes, been at the same job since out of high school, so 6 years.

I had a Ch.7 bankruptcy 2.5 years ago - this was because some stuff from my parents divorce when I was 16. LONG STORY. But I wasn't about to pay back 15k of their debts. 

No lates, not derogatory since then. 

Fico8 Scores are about 650-665, took a hit with some balances and inquiries lately.

Let me know any advice or if you have additional questions!

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

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@ashjt2011 wrote:

I have been reading the credit card forums on here lately and people talk a lot about combining CL's and doing all sorts of crazy stuff with their credit cards. So I wanted to post my credit cards here and see what you guys think and see if there is anything I could create a more optimal blend of credit cards.

Current Cards:

Overstock Comenity: Owe 0, CL is 750 1 year old

Capital One QS1 - Owe 0, Credit line 3,300 2 years old

Capital One QS1 - Owe 0, Credit line 3,250 1.5 years old

Capital One Venture - Owe 1,400, Credit Line 3,000. 2 months old - 0% interest

Barclay Rewards Card - Owe 700, Credit line 2,550. 1.5 years old 

Barclay Arrival+ - Owe 1,100, Credit line 2,500 - 2 months old. 0% interest

Barclay Apple Rewards - Owe 1700, Credit line 2,000 (desperatly needed a new computer) - 1 month old. 18 months deferred interest

Discover It - Owe 700, Credit Line 6,500 - 2 months old 0% interest

I also have an AU card from CapitalOne - its a world elite mastercard. I owe 2k, with a credit line of 5,500. I am only an authorized signer on this. This one was opened a little over 3 years ago.

That being said - I don't want to go messing with combining credit lines or doing really anything without some advice. I know credit bureaus can be quite sensitive with this kind of stuff. I have also heard of people upgrading their Cap1 QS1's to other things.

Other background:

Income is between 55-57k before taxes, been at the same job since out of high school, so 6 years.

I had a Ch.7 bankruptcy 2.5 years ago - this was because some stuff from my parents divorce when I was 16. LONG STORY. But I wasn't about to pay back 15k of their debts. 

No lates, not derogatory since then. 

Fico8 Scores are about 650-665, took a hit with some balances and inquiries lately.

Let me know any advice or if you have additional questions!

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I would just worry about paying off that debt.  You owe $5600, which is 10% of your gross annual income.

The other stuff can wait.  Those of us with recent BK's should be be carrying any balances .... ever.

[ashjt2011]

Like I said, I could pay off all that debt without a problem. It's at 0% so I have a plan to pay it all off within a year without touching my savings. I have about 20k sitting in my savings, and growing - for anything unforeseen. I seem to get a lot of heat for my balances, but they are at 0% so I guess I've seen no reason to rush to pay them off.

[Anonymous]

I would definitely look at pc'ing those QS1 cards to QS and get rid of the AF. You could also combine them and have one QS with a higher limit

[ashjt2011]

I thought about combining the two since they both do have a 39 dollar annual fee. And I barely use them due to them having an interested charge. Would it show as one being closed on my credit profile? Therefore, I should come the newer into my older?

[SouthJamaica]

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@ashjt2011 wrote:

I have been reading the credit card forums on here lately and people talk a lot about combining CL's and doing all sorts of crazy stuff with their credit cards. So I wanted to post my credit cards here and see what you guys think and see if there is anything I could create a more optimal blend of credit cards.

Current Cards:

Overstock Comenity: Owe 0, CL is 750 1 year old

Capital One QS1 - Owe 0, Credit line 3,300 2 years old

Capital One QS1 - Owe 0, Credit line 3,250 1.5 years old

Capital One Venture - Owe 1,400, Credit Line 3,000. 2 months old - 0% interest

Barclay Rewards Card - Owe 700, Credit line 2,550. 1.5 years old 

Barclay Arrival+ - Owe 1,100, Credit line 2,500 - 2 months old. 0% interest

Barclay Apple Rewards - Owe 1700, Credit line 2,000 (desperatly needed a new computer) - 1 month old. 18 months deferred interest

Discover It - Owe 700, Credit Line 6,500 - 2 months old 0% interest

I also have an AU card from CapitalOne - its a world elite mastercard. I owe 2k, with a credit line of 5,500. I am only an authorized signer on this. This one was opened a little over 3 years ago.

That being said - I don't want to go messing with combining credit lines or doing really anything without some advice. I know credit bureaus can be quite sensitive with this kind of stuff. I have also heard of people upgrading their Cap1 QS1's to other things.

Other background:

Income is between 55-57k before taxes, been at the same job since out of high school, so 6 years.

I had a Ch.7 bankruptcy 2.5 years ago - this was because some stuff from my parents divorce when I was 16. LONG STORY. But I wasn't about to pay back 15k of their debts. 

No lates, not derogatory since then. 

Fico8 Scores are about 650-665, took a hit with some balances and inquiries lately.

Let me know any advice or if you have additional questions!

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Sorry to disappoint you, but you have an optimal blend of cards. If you want to make them more optimal, leave them alone and pay them down, and don't add any.

[SouthJamaica]

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@ashjt2011 wrote:
Like I said, I could pay off all that debt without a problem. It's at 0% so I have a plan to pay it all off within a year without touching my savings. I have about 20k sitting in my savings, and growing - for anything unforeseen. I seem to get a lot of heat for my balances, but they are at 0% so I guess I've seen no reason to rush to pay them off.

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I on the other hand see very good reasons for paying them off.

1. They're depressing your credit scores.

2. It's not good to owe money; it's much better not to owe money.

[EmmaGolden]

Only advise I can give you is to make sure when you PC or combine your QS1's, that you make sure you do not lose the age of your cards to a new one. They are your oldest & I can tell you from experience AAoA matters. 

[Kevin86475391]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@ashjt2011 wrote:
Like I said, I could pay off all that debt without a problem. It's at 0% so I have a plan to pay it all off within a year without touching my savings. I have about 20k sitting in my savings, and growing - for anything unforeseen. I seem to get a lot of heat for my balances, but they are at 0% so I guess I've seen no reason to rush to pay them off.

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I on the other hand see very good reasons for paying them off.

1. They're depressing your credit scores.

2. It's not good to owe money; it's much better not to owe money.

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Everyone has a different philosophy and approach to this sort of thing, but personally I don't see too much of a problem with carrying balances under 50% utilization at 0% APR if OP can pay them off in full before the 0% window closes. Credit score is only a concern if OP plans to apply for something else and with under 50% utilization AA is highly unlikely. That said I *personally* wouldn't carry utilization that high, even on 0%. My cut off would be more like 25-30% tops, but I wouldn't fault someone else for carrying about 50% or less on 0% if they had the money to pay it off.

Although, it seems like not all of the cards are at 0%:

"Barclay Rewards Card - Owe 700, Credit line 2,550. 1.5 years old"

That's where I would focus my efforts on paying down/off. As long as you can pay off all your deferred interest/0% balances in full before the terms expire, and as long as you can manage utilization and not let things get out of hand, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

However:

"Barclay Apple Rewards - Owe 1700, Credit line 2,000 (desperatly needed a new computer) - 1 month old. 18 months deferred interest"

That Apple card definitely needs to see significant pay down, even though it is on deferred interest, since the utilization is currently so high.

As far as combining/PCing, I'd just echo previous advice to see about consolidating the QS1s into a single QS no AF card.

In the meantime my advice would just be to focus on getting everything paid off/down, let everything age up, and don't apply for anything new until your current debts are paid off.