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Too Many Credit Cards With Balances! A lil Overwhelming!

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llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Too Many Credit Cards With Balances! A lil Overwhelming!

SBK, it is easy to fall into that trap. Well, maybe not a trap but a rut.
 
DW and I are balancing 15 CC payments between us monthly. I still question my sanity. What helped, as mentioned, is to PIF and shelve the cards. The store cards are the easiest. We can't use our Target, for example, to pump gas (OK, at least not here anyway. Aren't there Target gas stations?). Anyway, we PIF and we will only use them every 4-5 months. That was the easy part and covered 5 of our 15 CCs. Next, we PIF and shelved our low limit cards, So Credit One x2, HSBC, Juniper, and Orchard were next to go. That left 5 CCs between DW and myself. One of the 5 remaining we use one exclusively for internet orders. The remaining 4 stay in our wallet, or 2 for each of us, and if we max those out, then we are on cash only. Simple as that. In fact, if we have our debit cards on us or cash, we'll use that long before we ever use a CC. And we didn't get to this starting day one. It took a while to get to this point.
 
Another thing that helped besides shelving the cards was to increase our income. We set out to increase our income to help improve cash flow. We realized that during the 2-3 week of each month, we have about 10 CCs due between us. Increasing the $$$ gave more options other than paying just the minimum or pay $20 for this or $30 for that when doing that tend not to help too much.
Message 31 of 98
Schoolbuskid
Valued Contributor

Re: Too Many Credit Cards With Balances! A lil Overwhelming!

i hear you guys i guess main thing is to STOP using them! I think about when i didnt have a credit cards and i was doing just fine, so i can definitely do without them for a couple of months or so. My plan is to pay the smallest to biggest. That is what seems the easiest for me. My mom has also said that she would help me get them down! I'll keep you all upadated!
 
My scores now are TU-624 EX-607 EQ-602
 
I have nothing bad on there except a med collection, which through hippa should be deleted!
 
Thanks Guys!
Rebuilding and Reducing Debt, is my game plan.
Message 32 of 98
score_building
Senior Contributor

Re: Too Many Credit Cards With Balances! A lil Overwhelming!



Timothy wrote:
 
I have $1500 a month going to savings that used to pay debt.


Now that's a turn for the better!
DCU EQ 5.0, Citi EQ 08 Bankcard, PenFed EX NG2
EX 08: AFCU, Amex, Chase, PSECU EX 98(?)
TU 08: Barclays, Discover
Message 33 of 98
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Too Many Credit Cards With Balances! A lil Overwhelming!

7 cards? All relatively new? Pay them off and cancel them. 4 cards is plenty. What does anybody need 7 cards for? If they're new, your history will be so small that it won't make much difference. Your credit limits will grow over time with 4 credit cards that are paid in full monthly.

Heck, I just have 1 credit card. Personally 2-3 cards is the max I'd want to have to deal with. Simplicity is priceless.
Message 34 of 98
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Too Many Credit Cards With Balances! A lil Overwhelming!

if you have the cards and they are not costing anything- I would not advise to close the cards.
 
kill the losers off as you see fit and not all at once.

Cheapskate wrote:
7 cards? All relatively new? Pay them off and cancel them. 4 cards is plenty. What does anybody need 7 cards for? If they're new, your history will be so small that it won't make much difference. Your credit limits will grow over time with 4 credit cards that are paid in full monthly.

Heck, I just have 1 credit card. Personally 2-3 cards is the max I'd want to have to deal with. Simplicity is priceless.


Message 35 of 98
MsKiwi
Established Contributor

Re: Too Many Credit Cards With Balances! A lil Overwhelming!



Schoolbuskid wrote:
i hear you guys i guess main thing is to STOP using them! I think about when i didnt have a credit cards and i was doing just fine, so i can definitely do without them for a couple of months or so. My plan is to pay the smallest to biggest. That is what seems the easiest for me. My mom has also said that she would help me get them down! I'll keep you all upadated!
 
My scores now are TU-624 EX-607 EQ-602
 
I have nothing bad on there except a med collection, which through hippa should be deleted!
 
Thanks Guys!


If you got along without them before , you can get back in that habit of cash only. Do NOT carry them with you at all. Put them in a drawer and dont use them for online purchases . If you don't trust yourself to not use them, ask your mom to hold them for you. I'm sure she'd be happy to help you not get more in debt. You don't want to get in a position of being cancelled, late pays and fees or worse yet......... defaulting. You CAN do this!

Message 36 of 98
jmbfl
Valued Contributor

Re: Too Many Credit Cards With Balances! A lil Overwhelming!



Cheapskate wrote:
7 cards? All relatively new? Pay them off and cancel them. 4 cards is plenty. What does anybody need 7 cards for? If they're new, your history will be so small that it won't make much difference. Your credit limits will grow over time with 4 credit cards that are paid in full monthly.

Heck, I just have 1 credit card. Personally 2-3 cards is the max I'd want to have to deal with. Simplicity is priceless.


Don't do this. This is not sound advice.
Message 37 of 98
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Too Many Credit Cards With Balances! A lil Overwhelming!



@jmbfl wrote:


@Anonymous wrote:
7 cards? All relatively new? Pay them off and cancel them. 4 cards is plenty. What does anybody need 7 cards for? If they're new, your history will be so small that it won't make much difference. Your credit limits will grow over time with 4 credit cards that are paid in full monthly.

Heck, I just have 1 credit card. Personally 2-3 cards is the max I'd want to have to deal with. Simplicity is priceless.


Don't do this. This is not sound advice.



There are reasons to close cards, but this needs to be done with your eyes open.

Everyone thinking about culling cards should first read fused's Closing Credit Cards first. Mull it over, apply it to your individual situation, and go back and read it a couple of more times. Then close as needed, but do it the smart way, and watch your timing.

Linked in my siggy below.
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 38 of 98
CodeMonkey
Contributor

Re: Too Many Credit Cards With Balances! A lil Overwhelming!



@jmbfl wrote:


@Anonymous wrote:
7 cards? All relatively new? Pay them off and cancel them. 4 cards is plenty. What does anybody need 7 cards for? If they're new, your history will be so small that it won't make much difference. Your credit limits will grow over time with 4 credit cards that are paid in full monthly.

Heck, I just have 1 credit card. Personally 2-3 cards is the max I'd want to have to deal with. Simplicity is priceless.


Don't do this. This is not sound advice.





I would respectfully disagree - what is good for FICO is not necessarily good for everyone's individual financial situations.

If someone feels they are unable to effectively manage X number of cards and want to cut down to Y, not doing so may cause far more harm than the few FICO points they lose due to util (and eventually age, 10 years down the road).

If you honestly don't have the willpower to restrain yourself from using available credit, removing your access to it entirely until you can overcome the issue is probably a wise option. Credit card debt can be very, very damaging - not just to your FICO score.
Message 39 of 98
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Too Many Credit Cards With Balances! A lil Overwhelming!


@CodeMonkey wrote:

...I would respectfully disagree - what is good for FICO is not necessarily good for everyone's individual financial situations.

If someone feels they are unable to effectively manage X number of cards and want to cut down to Y, not doing so may cause far more harm than the few FICO points they lose due to util (and eventually age, 10 years down the road).

If you honestly don't have the willpower to restrain yourself from using available credit, removing your access to it entirely until you can overcome the issue is probably a wise option. Credit card debt can be very, very damaging - not just to your FICO score.


Good post.

And it does bring up an important issue with posting in forums. It's one thing to say, I'm going to do this. (Knowing that they'll probably get some unwelcome feedback, lol.) It's another to recommend that others do so-and-so without understanding the consequences of that action.

For instance, we have some members who seem to app daily (and I love them dearly), but they certainly don't advise others to do the same.


edit: cna't splel

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 09-06-2008 11:00 AM
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 40 of 98
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