Two different questions (regarding opening a new card and upgrading another)

[Scott90]

Good morning everyone... been reading a bit on here figured I would finally register and start joining in on the fun.  First here is some background...

Been working hard on building credit and have made it a priority since the day I turned 18 (23 now).

Credit history is just over 5 years.

Last time I checked score was a couple months ago and I was at 773.

My current cards and CL.

American Express from USAA / 11,000

Chase Card / 1,500

Capital One / 750

Walmart / 1200

Zales / 4000

All of my cards have a 4% interest rate besides AMEX which is 12%.

I probably have about 3k in credit card debt but its all managed... like I am full control of what I am doing so its hard for me to call that debt since debt usually is looked at as a bad thing..

Anyways, here are my questions.

#1... BoA keeps sending me letters saying I am approved for their Cash Rewards card.  I am debating on accepting their offer because of their 0% APR for 15 months, and 0% on their tranfers for the first 60 days.  My idea was to possibly accept their offer, then transfer the AMEX balance (1400) to that card and pay no interest or transfer fee on it that way I no longer am paying 12% interest on that amount like I am right now through AMEX.  Plus, then it opens another card.  But I am trying to debate on whether or not that is a good idea or not and was hoping to get some input from others?  Like would that then be too many cards?  I believe the  BoA card will go anywhere from 12-22% after the promo period which sucks since all of mine are so low but maybe that isnt so bad?  Just looking for some other input please.

#2... My walmart card is just the typical store card, not the discover.  I got the offer to upgrade to the Discover forever ago, maybe a year or so.  But I never did it because I read in the paperwork that came with the offer that by doing so it will then make my interest go from the 4% now to the new card interest which was around 20% I  believe.  My question is what would you do?  Is there a way I can call and ask to upgrade but with keeping my current 4%?  If they wont do that is it worth upgrading still just so I can have that "discover" name?  I do not really use the card much anyways and whenever I do i always use it on a 0 interest promotion anyways like for a TV/computer.  So really i guess it doesnt matter about the interest, but you never know...

Also real quick, does anyone else have a pain in the ass time with getting capital one to increase your limit?  Capital one was my first card EVER and I cant get them to agree to up my pitty 750 limit, meanwhile I have every other card giving me whatever I want....

Thank you so much for your time... look forward to your responses...

[dodfire]

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@Scott90 wrote:

Good morning everyone... been reading a bit on here figured I would finally register and start joining in on the fun.  First here is some background...

Been working hard on building credit and have made it a priority since the day I turned 18 (23 now).

Credit history is just over 5 years.

Last time I checked score was a couple months ago and I was at 773.

My current cards and CL.

American Express from USAA / 11,000

Chase Card / 1,500

Capital One / 750

Walmart / 1200

Zales / 4000

All of my cards have a 4% interest rate besides AMEX which is 12%.

I probably have about 3k in credit card debt but its all managed... like I am full control of what I am doing so its hard for me to call that debt since debt usually is looked at as a bad thing..

Anyways, here are my questions.

#1... BoA keeps sending me letters saying I am approved for their Cash Rewards card.  I am debating on accepting their offer because of their 0% APR for 15 months, and 0% on their tranfers for the first 60 days.  My idea was to possibly accept their offer, then transfer the AMEX balance (1400) to that card and pay no interest or transfer fee on it that way I no longer am paying 12% interest on that amount like I am right now through AMEX.  Plus, then it opens another card.  But I am trying to debate on whether or not that is a good idea or not and was hoping to get some input from others?  Like would that then be too many cards?  I believe the  BoA card will go anywhere from 12-22% after the promo period which sucks since all of mine are so low but maybe that isnt so bad?  Just looking for some other input please.

#2... My walmart card is just the typical store card, not the discover.  I got the offer to upgrade to the Discover forever ago, maybe a year or so.  But I never did it because I read in the paperwork that came with the offer that by doing so it will then make my interest go from the 4% now to the new card interest which was around 20% I  believe.  My question is what would you do?  Is there a way I can call and ask to upgrade but with keeping my current 4%?  If they wont do that is it worth upgrading still just so I can have that "discover" name?  I do not really use the card much anyways and whenever I do i always use it on a 0 interest promotion anyways like for a TV/computer.  So really i guess it doesnt matter about the interest, but you never know...

Also real quick, does anyone else have a pain in the ass time with getting capital one to increase your limit?  Capital one was my first card EVER and I cant get them to agree to up my pitty 750 limit, meanwhile I have every other card giving me whatever I want....

Thank you so much for your time... look forward to your responses...

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Welcome to the Forums!!!

IMO.... Looking at your total credit lines and $3k debt you are sitting around 17% UTL, I would get that down under 10% before applying for a new card.

I am sure you could get the card and if you can transfer the balance with 0% then that is money in the bank.

I would move all of the remaining balances to the 0% card.

As for the Walmart/Discover card....if you want the name...just get the Discover It card instead of the branded card from Walmart. Again, no problems to qualify.

Capital One....yes everyone has a hard time with them....Do a search on the Forums for the Capital One EO and email the executive office. Ask them to increase your limit to $5k. You will get a call back in a couple of days and they will help you out.

[leoment]

Hi Scott!  Welcome to the Fico boards

I'm by no means an expert, and one of the more senior members may come an offer better advice but on first glance:

1. If you see yourself using some of the bonus categories (gas and/or groceries), it's not a bad idea to open the account.  Many of us on the board have 5+ cards (I myself have 8 cards).  Are your Chase or Cap 1 cards reward cards?  If they aren't then I'd definitely recommend the BoA card.  As long as you can keep track of your accounts and due dates, there's nothing wrong with having several accounts - it's all about making them work for you, and not the other way around

2.  Unless you need to use your Walmart card outside of Walmart (via upgrading to the Discover), I would leave the account as-is.. Your 4% APR is the lowest I've ever seen for that card, so I'd definitely hold on to it.  If you do want the Discover card, I would find a backdoor number for one of the management offices to see if your APR would stay the same with the upgrade.

3.  A lot of Cap1 cardholders have success contacting their executive office (EO) regarding higher card limits and product changes to better rewards cards.  Ask around on here, someone should be able to PM you the e-mail address/phone number you need to contact. (I don't know it, unfortunately).

But before doing that, do you have a lot of inquiries on your report?  Any lates/derogs on any of your accounts?  I'm 99% sure you'll get the card with that score, but sometimes other things on a report might make it a recon situation.  How long have the cards you have been open?  Sorry for the question spam, but it does help us get a better picture of your overrall credit profile.

Lastly, congrats on taking credit so seriously at a young age - there's a lot of us early 20-somethings on here (I'm 22) that are also working to establish and grow positive tradelines now to benefit from them down the line as well!

[NJTurnpike]

WOW! How the heck did you get your APR's to 4% on all those cards??!?!?! Amazing!

[dodfire]

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@NJTurnpike wrote:

WOW! How the heck did you get your APR's to 4% on all those cards??!?!?! Amazing!

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Right!!!!!

That is probably why Walmart wants to upgrade him to the Discover so they can get him out of that 4%!!!!

[Scott90]

dodfire, thanks for the advice, I will have to pay some off and get it my UTL in the single digits then to make sure I am in the best position possible before I make any decisions.  Thank you for the heads up on the Capital One EO info. 

Leoment, thanks for your input.  My Cap 1 just became a rewards card but with such a low CL I don’t even bother with it much.  I feel like perhaps with a BoA card I may be able to take full advantage of the rewards, especially if I transfer all my debt over to that card and take advantage of the 0% interest.  My interest now is low anyways but 0 beats 4 anyday.  As far as my report goes, its clean.  Never had had a late payment on anything, no negative remarks at all.  On top of the CC listed, I also have two Auto Loans that are just a couple thousand away each from being paid off and they started at about 15k @ 4% as well.  Everything always paid on time.  Thanks for the compliment and congrats to you too, its good to see others passionate about something so important at an early age as ours.  Keep it up. 

NJTurnpike,  my interest is so low because I was lucky enough to open all those cards before I joined the Military.  Once I joined the military I took advantage of the service member civil relief act.  It is a program where all my CC, Loans, etc are to be capped at 6%.  So all my cards were originally sky high but that lowered them all to 6%.  Then the act was reformed a few months ago and everything got lowered again to 4%.  My AMEX I got while I was already in the Military, that is why that card Is not as low as all the others. 

thanks for all your input so far, i appreciate it.  I gotta run, ill check back on this later today.  thanks again!

[jamie123]

You are in a really awesome position right now. Keep up the good work!

One word of warning though...If you are carrying balances month to month you are probably using your cards too much and probably not saving for a rainy day. Almost everyone gets rained on sooner or later. Be prepared.

Your scores are so good that you should only be applying for credit from the PRIME banks. Prime bank CCs will grow with you for life and give you some really good CL down the road. These are the prime banks:

AMEX

Bank of America

Chase

CitiBank

Discover

Wells Fargo

The BoA CC would fit real nice in your portfolio!

I would suggest adding 1 or 2 cards per year from these prime banks until you have about 6 prime bank cards in total. Keep calling them every 6 months for CLI and you are golden!

[Scott90]

thanks for the advice, i appreciate it!

[Scott90]

So I just applied for the BoA card... and at first a message popped up and said something about I will receive a letter within 30 days, but before I could finish reading the page refreshed and another page came up and said request couldnt be processed at the time and to call if I wanted too.  Thought that was odd.... so I called and got the message that everyone is closed and to call tomorrow after 11am.  It's a bit frustrating, this was probably my 7-8th time getting their pre approved offer in the mail, feel like I should have just been auto-approved and call it a day.  Does this seem right?  Especially with the two different pages I got?  I dont know what to make of it, I guess I will call in the morning and see what they say.  Anyone else experience this? outcome?

[09Lexie]

Hi Scott99! Welcome to the Forum and thank you for your service. I'm curious about the 4%APR, my understanding is that the cap was on debt prior to entry of active duty. If so, does that mean that if you charge now those new purchases are at the reg APR?