Advice to advance my credit to the "next level"

[fatjoe8]

My credit report is quite lengthy. I currently have 18 open cards with an average of a $9k CL. I just closed 4 accounts that served no purpose or had an AF that I deemed undesirable and non-beneficial. I recently got Barclays to close my Arrival card and move the credit line to my Priceline card and upped that CL to $12.5k. I recently closed my Chase SP b/c I didn't meet the initial bonus and have better cards with bonus offers. I also closed my Chase United card as FD worthless since I never fly United. I do have Chase Southwest with 13k CL... My big cards right now include AA executive platinum 12k CL, BOA Alaska Air with $15k CL, two other BOA cards with $10k CL each, an Amex blue cash wth $12k, two other Amex cards with smaller limits (delta cards), a Cap1 Venture and a quicksilver with both roughly $7k CL, discover it with 5300 CL (recent CLI), and a couple other minor cards Us bank LAN among them.

Due to a collection from Sprint in 2010 on Exp and Equifax my score there is 724. On TU the collection does not appear and score is 747.

My utilization is roughly 3%.

I have 22 inquiries in past 24 months as I try and gain every possible travel bonus possible. I did earn the AA 75k miles bonus and currently working toward Hilton citi bonus offer.

Only one late payment in last 4 years. No other collections or derogs or CO's....

So at this point I have 139,000 in available credit with no real balance of note. I am fully aware I cannot make another inquiry for two full years. My score probably won't be going up much because of inquiries and a student loan of $100k+ (6 years no late payments no missed payments) and a car loan of $12k (no missed or late payments)...

Soooo. What is the best course to improve score and overall credit profile (bigger CL's).....

[takeshi74]

Always address derogs when possible.  They tend to have a significant impact and hold one's scores down.  Hit the Rebuilding subforum and carefully research.  Do whatever it takes to avoid them in future.

Inquiries are a small factor despite the obsession over them around here.  The number you have is a large number but the biggest problems you have are your derogs from what you've said.  It's the specific age of each inquiry that really matters and how many you have with the CRA('s) that a given creditor will pull when considering your credit.  They do fall off at 2 year but they lose their scoring impact for FICO at 1 year and taper a bit even earlier IIRC.  That said, a given creditor may consider inquiries differently than the FICO model and may consider older inquiries on your report(s).

Your recent credit seeking actviity probably isn't helping you but the age of each of your accounts isn't entirely clear from your post.  Again, it's not just the inquiries.  New accounts drop your AAoA and account that are new can be risk factors.

How are your current limits lacking?  Improve your profile and you'll get better limits.  Limits and CLI's will be determined based on what your credit profile and income qualify for.