The right time to apply for a new credit card?

[Anonymous]

My credit is 2 years old. I have a car loan with $14000remaining, a wells fargo credit card with a $2000 limit and an Amex blue cash preferred credit card with a $3000 limit. All accounts are under the recommended 30% utilization, and I have the money in savings to pay in full if I wanted to. I choose to carry a low balance monthly so I can establish a good history of on time monthly payments since I'm still building my credir. My total cc debt is under $1000, additionally I have no derogatory marks or late payments with an Experian FICO score of 744, I'm 23. Both of my existing credit cards have interest rates in the low 20%, I'm not happy with those rates. I understand the AMEX blue cash generally carries a higher apr than other rewards cards, that credit account was opened 7 months ago. I recently received a prequal offer from Discover It for a credit card with a variable apr of 10-13% after intro 0% apr is up. That APR blows all my other credit card APRs out of the water. I was planning to apply and use that card as my go to card because of the lower APR but I'm concerned that the additional inquiry on my report, as well as another line of credit might hurt me rather than help me. My fiance and I are looking to buy a house within the next year so I'm trying to be conscious of how my credit will affect that, although we will be using a VA loan so the requirements aren't quite so stringent. Adding another credit account would raise my credit limit and help with my utilization, but would it be more beneficial to request a cli from AMEX rather than apply for a whole new card? When I opened the AMEX account I considered all factors accept for the APR, not realizing that the APR for blue cash is generally higher than most rewards cards. All of my accounts factor into my average credit age so I'm not interested in closing any accounts, although I don't use my wells fargo credit card much because of the 23% APR.  My fiance has a fico score of 795, with over 13 years of credit history so I'm not sure if we will even choose to use my credit and income in the qualification process, with VA loans we would have to be married for my information to be used regardless. I don't want my quest for a better credit card to mess up our ability to be qualified for a mortgage later this year. Advice?

[bdhu2001]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

My credit is 2 years old. I have a car loan with $14000remaining, a wells fargo credit card with a $2000 limit and an Amex blue cash preferred credit card with a $3000 limit. All accounts are under the recommended 30% utilization, and I have the money in savings to pay in full if I wanted to. I choose to carry a low balance monthly so I can establish a good history of on time monthly payments since I'm still building my credir. My total cc debt is under $1000, additionally I have no derogatory marks or late payments with an Experian FICO score of 744, I'm 23. Both of my existing credit cards have interest rates in the low 20%, I'm not happy with those rates. I understand the AMEX blue cash generally carries a higher apr than other rewards cards, that credit account was opened 7 months ago. I recently received a prequal offer from Discover It for a credit card with a variable apr of 10-13% after intro 0% apr is up. That APR blows all my other credit card APRs out of the water. I was planning to apply and use that card as my go to card because of the lower APR but I'm concerned that the additional inquiry on my report, as well as another line of credit might hurt me rather than help me. My fiance and I are looking to buy a house within the next year so I'm trying to be conscious of how my credit will affect that, although we will be using a VA loan so the requirements aren't quite so stringent. Adding another credit account would raise my credit limit and help with my utilization, but would it be more beneficial to request a cli from AMEX rather than apply for a whole new card? When I opened the AMEX account I considered all factors accept for the APR, not realizing that the APR for blue cash is generally higher than most rewards cards. All of my accounts factor into my average credit age so I'm not interested in closing any accounts, although I don't use my wells fargo credit card much because of the 23% APR.  My fiance has a fico score of 795, with over 13 years of credit history so I'm not sure if we will even choose to use my credit and income in the qualification process, with VA loans we would have to be married for my information to be used regardless. I don't want my quest for a better credit card to mess up our ability to be qualified for a mortgage later this year. Advice?

---

Go for the lower interest and stop paying interest on your other cards if you can PIF.  Pay previous month's balance in full by due date on one card, but continue to use it. Pay off all your other cards, by due date, and make sure they report a $0 balance for statement cut date.

It's better to keep your utilization below 10% on each individual card and overall.  In addition allowing only one card to report a balance has a beneficial affect.  Having a card report a balance doesn't mean you have to pay interest.  It just means paying previous balance in full. Do you have any installment loans: student, car, shared, or house?  If not get a 5 year shared loan. I understand that Alliant allows as shared loan with $500 to $550.

[Anonymous]

My AMEX is still in the 0% APR for another 5 months and that's my go to card because of the awesome rewards it offers. Once the card  begins accruing interest is when I won't want to use it so much. My only card I currently pay interest on is my wells at 23% interest and that only has a $300 balance on it. I do have an installment loan from Honda Financial. I bought a brand new civic in 2014 so April of this year will be my 2 year mark for that installment loan. The discover at 10-13% apr is the best I've been offered thus far so maybe I should downgrade the BCP to the BCE to avoid the annual fee since the APR is so high. 

[Anonymous]

I went ahead and submit a 3x cli on the AMEX website and was approved for a $9k limit with only a soft pull. Should I still apply for discover to have a lower apr credit card as well? This discover card is under the double rewards points promotion so the rewards are still pretty good.