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Too consolidate or not

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paturner
New Contributor

Too consolidate or not

I'm wondering if it's a better idea to move all credit card balances to a few cards rather than having so many. I've recently applied for credit and been declined because "having too many cards with balances" or something like that. I have the following.

 

Amex                    811

Discover              800

Amazon Chase  905

Capitol One        800

Barclays              600

 

 

My goals is to get bigger credit limits and I can't seem to. HIghest limit on any card other than credit union Visa ($5000) is $2250. Cap One is ($2250) after about 6yrs of no late pymts and ever time I apply for increase they say this card isn't eligible for a requested increase and I'm afraid to apply for another one.  So anyway wondering if combining and instead of having 5 cards have 3.

starting anew
Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
09Lexie
Moderator Emerita

Re: Too consolidate or not

What are the CL's associated with the cc's? Have you calculated the fees associated with a BT? Is it possible to pay the debt so, you do not have a bal reporting on 1-2 cc's?
Message 2 of 7
NonSufficientFunds
Frequent Contributor

Re: Too consolidate or not

I can't think of any good reason to carry high balances on credit cards, and apparently the banks feel the same way. 

 

It wont make any difference if you transfer balances to fewer cards - it is the overall utilization of ALL available credit that is considered in the evaluation of your credit-worthiness. 

 

Rather that applying for more credit, why not just pay down your existing credit lines?

 

Message 3 of 7
paturner
New Contributor

Re: Too consolidate or not

The credit lines on cards are below

 

Amex 2000

Discover 1000

Chase   1800

Capitol One 2250

Barclays   2200

 

I don't have any extra money available to pay off because I'm going on vacation next month and trying to pay cash for everything so not to increase the balances. 

starting anew
Message 4 of 7
paturner
New Contributor

Re: Too consolidate or not

The credit lines on cards are below

 

Amex 2000

Discover 1000

Chase   1800

Capitol One 2250

Barclays   2200

 

I don't have any extra money available to pay off because I'm going on vacation next month and trying to pay cash for everything so not to increase the balances. the cards I wont to consolidate on currently have 0% APR for 12 months

starting anew
Message 5 of 7
parakleet
Valued Contributor

Re: Too consolidate or not

I think the key to getting higher CLs on your cards will lie in actually paying down some of the debt, rather than trying to move the debt from one place to another. It may help to move it so that you'll have more cards reporting zero bal. but that also means you'll have to pay BT fees and you'll be possibly maxed out on the cards that you moved your balances to, which in turn could hurt your score. 


Gardening since 7/16/14
Current: EQ 711 7/13/14; EX 724 TU 721 6/19/14
Goal: 760+
Message 6 of 7
100down0monthly
New Contributor

Re: Too consolidate or not


@paturner wrote:

I'm wondering if it's a better idea to move all credit card balances to a few cards rather than having so many. I've recently applied for credit and been declined because "having too many cards with balances" or something like that. I have the following.

 

Amex                    811

Discover              800

Amazon Chase  905

Capitol One        800

Barclays              600

 

 

My goals is to get bigger credit limits and I can't seem to. HIghest limit on any card other than credit union Visa ($5000) is $2250. Cap One is ($2250) after about 6yrs of no late pymts and ever time I apply for increase they say this card isn't eligible for a requested increase and I'm afraid to apply for another one.  So anyway wondering if combining and instead of having 5 cards have 3.


Pay down your current balances.  You're likely being denied because of high utilization.


Message 7 of 7
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