being a newbie here... i have to ask .. how does it all work, couple questions i have ...
1). how does having so many open credit lines help boost your score / credit rating ( explain thoroughly if you can )... i don't get it ... having 5-6 open credit cards / lines boosts your score ?.. how do you keep up with all of that... having $100,000+ in credit lines / cards.. i just don't get it i mean i get the idea... but i just don't "get it" ... like how that works ... how is that possible
2) ( question i really want answered ) how do you keep up with all of that... where do your store or put all those cards ?... reason i ask is because i'm interested into trying to get started , or try and do something along those lines ( having mulitple cards and keep low %10 ult balances or so have you )... but yeah... how you keep up with all of that .
last but not least .
3) give me your thoughts and opinions on the matter... eager to hear from anyone who's willing ...or have some solid advice ...
Starting Score: EX 649 EQ 649 TU 653
Autopay is your friend. Always set that up, just in case. I have 8 CCs. I carry 2, plus my debit cards. The others are kept in my safe. I rotate the one I carry, just to give it some use. I have some things autopaid to my CC, then my CC autopaid. If that makes any sense. I do have more cards and more CLs than I'll ever use now. Kind of went overboard a bit.
July 2013 score: EQ FICO 819, TU08 778, EX "806 lender pull 07/26/2013
Goal Score: All Scores 760+, Newest goal 800+
Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
Current scores after adding $81K in CLs and 2 new cars since July 2013
EQ:809 TU 777 EX 790 Now it's just garden time!
June 2017 update: All scores over 820, just pure gardening now.
@all_about_the_credit wrote:being a newbie here... i have to ask .. how does it all work, couple questions i have ...
1). how does having so many open credit lines help boost your score / credit rating ( explain thoroughly if you can )... i don't get it ... having 5-6 open credit cards / lines boosts your score ?.. how do you keep up with all of that... having $100,000+ in credit lines / cards.. i just don't get it i mean i get the idea... but i just don't "get it" ... like how that works ... how is that possible ***one answer is utilization percentage...the more trade lines you have the lower your utilization becomes (granted of course you don't max your cards...ie...if your total tl is 1000 and you use 500 of it, then your util is at 50 percent...now if you go and open a new account that gave you 1000 cl, then your new TL is now 2000...calculating your new utilization at 25 percent...utilization is a big part in deriving your credit score...there are more reasons i'm sure, but that's just one of them.
2) ( question i really want answered ) how do you keep up with all of that... where do your store or put all those cards ?... reason i ask is because i'm interested into trying to get started , or try and do something along those lines ( having mulitple cards and keep low %10 ult balances or so have you )... but yeah... how you keep up with all of that . ***autopay is your friend here
either by pushing through your bank, or scheduling it thru your cc
last but not least .
3) give me your thoughts and opinions on the matter... eager to hear from anyone who's willing ...or have some solid advice ...
hope that helps i'm sure many more will chime in...and lastly...welcome here
Welcome to the forum!
You don't need 5-6 open lines for a good FICO score; all you need is 2-3 cc's. fico suggests having a good mix of credit meaning, installment, mtgs and cc's. however, plenty members have high scores without mtgs and/or installment loans.
As Shogun mentioned, autopay is your friend. Set up all your cc's on auto pay so you won't miss any pyts. There are apps that you can use, Manilla, Mint and Pageonce to name a few.
Where you keep your cc's is a matter of personal preference. Safes, shoe boxes or as Ron with his 109 cc's you can build a special room.
Whatever you do, don't add too many too fast. Pace yourself what's good for others may not be good for you. Choose cc's based on your need and whether or not there is a benefit to you financially.
You don't need 5-6 open lines for a good FICO score; all you need is 2-3 cc's. fico suggests having a good mix of credit meaning, installment, mtgs and cc's. however, plenty members have high scores without mtgs and/or installment loans.
As Shogun mentioned, autopay is your friend. Set up all your cc's on auto pay so you won't miss any pyts. There are apps that you can use, Manilla, Mint and Pageonce to name a few.
Where you keep your cc's is a matter of personal preference. Safes, shoe boxes or as Ron with his 109 cc's you can build a special room.
Whatever you do, don't add too many too fast. Pace yourself what's good for others may not be good for you. Choose cc's based on your need and whether or not there is a benefit to you financially.
I just closed some lower limit accounts actually. I have 3 main cards that I use, 1 card (usaa) that is only used to pay my car insurance each month, and 2 cards that I very occasionally use.
The due dates for these are all either on the 15th or the 1st, so I can use different cards if I am trying to improve utilization for an application.
It is very, very easy. I don't forget the date that I get paid twice a month. I also don't forget to pay my bills when I get paid.
you might have went " lol..overboard" a bit ... but u've got GREAT SCORES to show for it and for your steady hard dedication toward for credit .. congrats !!! that how i want to be one day...... congrats ... my current situtation is that i'm just coming from a paid charge off ok'd from june since... now that i know the importance of credit i really want to start to better myself... i got a secured card with a 1k limit ... i got autopay on my insurance and ymca bill... thats all i got on there ... i don't use it ...matter fact i hides it ... lol pretend its not there ( its not even real... untill lol its time for me to pay it lol ... )... i'm thinking about getting another secured card... anybody... whats my next step.. advice please... i'm all ears ...what should i do next ... lol get a safe?... glad you brought that up because i really was considering that ... i'll be back on tomorrow but feel free to leave your thoughts / opinions ... i'm going to bed for now ...
cool.. whats a good time period to apply for cards / credit every 6 months or so ... 3 months ?.. give me a good estimate / idea of how to go bout it ...
you can set your own dates... i didn't know that ...
@all_about_the_credit wrote:...
2) ( question i really want answered ) how do you keep up with all of that... where do your store or put all those cards ?... reason i ask is because i'm interested into trying to get started , or try and do something along those lines ( having mulitple cards and keep low %10 ult balances or so have you )... but yeah... how you keep up with all of that .
. ...
I currently have 13 credit cards, but will be closing 4 in the next 8/months; then when I hit the "700 club" I have two more cards I would like to apply for. I will admit, thats a good amount of cards. I don't carry around 13 credit cards, usually two or three, rather I use an Alpine Swiss 23 slot file wallet (linked below) and store it in a hidden location.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004M6UD6Y/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Actually, keeping your utilization at/below 40% is just fine. However, many say that keeping it below 10/9% will boost your scores even higher (and I will agree with theme). I suppose if you plan on credit shopping/credit limit increase, then its a good idea to shoot for a lowlow utilization.
I personally use a spreadsheet program (Microsoft Excel) on my computer to list all my accounts. Each account (checking, savings, cc) has its own sheet that are basically like "checkbooks". Over the years I have revised the spreadsheet, and it basically does all the math on its own, including utilization%, =ROUNDOWN forumula for available credit, etc etc... Its actually somewhat sophisticated 
I also have my budget on spreadsheet. I don't have auto-payments set for my credit cards, but I do have auto-payments set for other bills like my internet, insurance, cell phone, etc.. What I do have is the "due dates" listed for all my bills, so each payday I just make sure I have everything paid on time/scheduled.
I hope that gives you some inspiration
...
3) give me your thoughts and opinions on the matter... eager to hear from anyone who's willing ...or have some solid advice ...
Manage your debt, not your score...
though I'm guilty as charged 
