Real nice to see all the (fairly) new voices on this thread! Nice to that everyone is doing there best to help our OP out.
Switchblade, if it's OK with you, I'll give you my thoughts on your last post. My comments are in blue boldface.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
While I am no expert, I think the better question to ask yourself is if you need any more credit at this time. If you let those accounts age, and apply for a card when you can better utillize a promotion period (such as 0% apr) or qualify for a lower overall APR, you may be better served than just applying for the sake of it.
Valid point. I don't need the credit lines as my income is good, but I do need the credit to help rebuild my credit. I'm trying to increase my debt to balance ratio in hopes of acquiring my first home in the next year or two.
You mention an upcoming home purchase and "debt to balance" ratio. I think you are probably thinking of something called Debt To Income ratio, or DTI. DTI is indeed very important to mortgage underwriters. FICO doesn't know anything about your income, however, so DTI is in no way part of your FICO score. Furthermore, neither having lots of credit cards nor a large total credit limit helps you in any way with your DTI.
A very different kind of ratio, which is a factor in your FICO score, is your utilization ratio. That's where you take all of the amounts you owe on all your credit cards, and divide that by the sum total of all your credit limits. Having a low CC (credit card) utilization is a GREAT idea for someone wanting to buy a home. But you are already doing a super job with that. The best way to control one's CC utilization is by keeping your balances low, NOT by trying to open lots of credit cards and thereby increase your total credit limit. Remember that it is always possible to lower your utilization to 1-2% -- by doing something called Pay Your Damn Cards Down. You are doing this and that is overwhelmingly the best way to do it.
Having many credit cards is not helping you. At all. All one needs to drive a very high FICO score is three credit cards (and an installment loan). More than three cards will not help you in any way.
Ideally my "plan" was to have quite a few open lines with low to zero balance, at least 1 year of on-time payments on them to give me an edge to finally cross the 700 FICO line.
If I am not getting denied for these cards and I only apply 3-5 times and get approved. That should innevitably help me over the course of a year or two, right? As long as they maintain low balance, get used and paid on time. Right?
If your sole aim was preparing your FICO score for a home purchase a year from now, then you should have stopped with having three cards oif your own. Every additional card you have opened after that has lowered your average age of accounts, given you inquiries, and consitituted a New Revolving Line of Credit" which some FICO models view as bad as a factor in and of itself. And MANY mortgage underwriters view your behavior as risky (opening several credit cards in the run up to a home purchase).
If the long run (several years from now) it's nice having several cards. But you don't have a lot of time. You want to buy a house very soon.
At this point the best thing you can do is STOP OPENING CREDIT CARDS. (On the other hand, there is no advantage to closing them either.) Keep your credit card utilization fairly low and pay all your bills on time (sounds like you are doing that). Your idea of making purchases on all your cards periodically, but paying them in full each month sounds like a great idea -- I think this is what you are suggesting by creating a payment history.
The other thing you can tell us is whether you have an open installment loan. Auto loans are examples of installment loans (though there are other kinds of I-loans too). You mention that you bought a truck. Do you have a loan associated with a vehicle that you are making payments on now? If so, tell us and we can give you some advice on how to make it even better. If you don't, tell us that as well and we can give you advice on how to get a very cheap I-loan.
Finally, you may find that it is in your interest to get rid of the AU accounts. This is because a real human (the underwriter) will be opening your actual credit reports. When he sees AU accounts, that weakens his belief in the validity of your FICO score. Because of course your score is relying on what someone else has done, rather than you. I say that it "may" be in your interest. I can't say that for sure, but I suggest you explore that as a possibility.
