Hello, Im new here but I've been lurking for the last 6 months of so.
Thanks for eveyone for the wealth of information here.
Started my rebuild back in May of this year. Scores at the time were in the upper 500's.
Had not had any credit cards since I filed BK 7 about 12 years ago. 7 months ago the only good thing on my reports was an auto loan that I'm now 2 ys into a 4yr loan. 16%
Baddies. 2 unpaid medical collections and 1 paid medical judgement.
Recieved a pre-qual letter in the mail in May for the Cap One GM card. Apped, Approved SL 750. Auto CLI Today to 1250.
In June, I Apped for and was Approved for the Amazon store card, SL 800. Auto CLI last month to 1300.
In Sept. Received pre-qual in the mail for the Citi DC card. Apped, approved SL 800.
After all the reading I've done here, I figured I was all set to garden for at least a year or so. 1 installment loan and 3 credit cards.
And here is where I have regrets, I broke 1 of the rules while rebuilding and that is....Don't app for cards you don't need or can't use.
Last weekend while browsing and reading about rebuilding, I came across the Amex prequal site and decided to see what came up just for the heck of it.
I do know these pre-quals don't mean a whole lot. Just wanted to see what happened. 3 Cards came up I was pre-qualed for so I apped for the BCE card.
Approved. SL 1800. Got the card in the mail yesterday.
I was kind of floored to think I was approved for the Amex BCE this early on.
Scores at this time are in the 630's.
While on this "high" of getting the BCE, I kept going. Went to the Discover pre-qual. The it card came up. Apped and Approved for the Discover it. SL 2500
Went to the chase pre-qual. 3 cards came up. Apped and Approved for the Freedom card. SL 2500. Got this card in the mail today.
So to recap, I have received these in the last 6 months.
Cap one GM - 1250
Amazon store card - 1300
Citi DC - 800
Amex BCE - 1800
Discover it - 2500
Chase Freedom - 2500
Right now I use the Citi DC the most.
6 cards may not seem like a lot to some people here, but it is to me. I don't think my lifestyle can support this many cards.
I won't put all that much through 1 or 2 cards let alone 6 cards.
But, I really don't want to close any right now. Or do I? I can see closing the Cap one card maybe the 6 months to a year?, its my oldest card but for me,
the rewards for that card a are worthless.
I think a need to garden for a very long time.
Will any of these companies close or CLD these cards if used but used very little?
I could use some adivce on how to move forward.
Thanks for reading this long, drawn out post.
@Anonymous wrote:The damage is done, in terms of credit pulls, so there's no sense in closing any of them at this point. One, that much available credit can help with utilization. Two, you're also going to take a hit, in terms of Average Age of Accounts, with all those new accounts, but that damage is done too.
Here's what I would do.
Pick the card that offers the most. Be it cash back rewards or some other kind of reward, and use that card exclusively. Put the others in your sock drawer and forget about them. Not sure about companies closing or dropping your limits due to non use, but that's the least of your concerns at this point. Even if they did, the account will age (assuming it's not closed).
Thank you jjking54 for the reply and the advice. My AAoA before the last 3 cards was only 8 months. Yeah I messed this up a little bit. 
What's done is done ... no need to beat yourself up ... give yourself credit for coming clean on it here
Put most of those cards away and do not spend on them. With that many cards you run the risk of losing track of what's on which card, how much is due, when it's due, etc.
You're fine ... just don't further undo the success you've already had
Thanks again for the advice and the encouragement. I'll do as you say.
@Anonymous wrote:I don't think you messed up. You picked up some decent accounts, just garden for 6-12 months and work on CLIs and getting your medical collections removed (search: whychat hipaa). You'll take a hit for new accounts less than 6 months old, but if you keep everything open and decide to apply for new accounts in the future the hit will be much less.
I second this mryflyguy. You didn't mess up. IMO, credit is something you build over a long period of time. If you do your due diligence to track your spending habits, it would be very beneficial to you. DO NOT use credit cards to finance purchases you would normally not purchase, and don't have reserve cash for. The ONLY time you spend big amounts on a credit card is for the rewards AND ONLY if you were going to buy that item in cash to begin with. As soon as you buy big items that you have the cash for with a credit card, immediately go in and pay the credit card off with the cash from your debit card/bank. I can also suggest that you keep track of all your spending on an excel file. If you need help doing this, please contact me. I am an excel Super User Guru. I can build you a system to track your spending more easily so it doesn't seem so burdensome. Congrats on building your credit. You can do this! Get rid of those collections. If they're older, find the CA's and see if they have an online account where you can pay. Best idea is to PIF. sometimes they will just drop completely off your report depending. send us the CA's info and we can tell you if those specific CA's are likely to drop them off of your report once PIF'd.
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you all for the replies and offers of help.
As far as the medical collections go:
The name of one of the CA's is:
Automated Accounts Management Services LLC
The amount is $200
This one is due to fall off 12/16. So I should hold off on that one for now?
They had not updated this collection since 2011 until last month.
Not only did they update it last month, they added an exact duplicate of the colletion and changed the DOFD on the duplicate.
The dup is showing not to fall off until 1/2017.
And of course, this 1 collection is showing as 2 seperate collections.
The other medical collection CA:
THE CBE GROUP
The amount is $25
It was placed on my report 1/15 and has been updated just one time and that was last month.
This one is not to come off my reports until 2/2022
I have called them 2 times in the last 6 months to try a PFD, but they say they won't do it.
I have looked into the whychat hipaa, but could not quite understand where to even begin. Kind of confusing. I will take another look.
Quick edit:
The medical collection from Automated Accounts Management Services LLC for $200 is only showing on my Transunion report.
It has already been removed from the other 2 credit bureau's
I'm not familiar with either of the CA's above but persistence is something that has paid off for some individuals. Examples below.
PFD Example:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/CBE-Group-PFD/m-p/4265198#M446551
GW Example: With this example, you would need to pay off the debt and then attempt a Goodwill deletion.
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/CBE-GW-Success/m-p/3949195#M410427
Websites to Pay the CA's:
I just paid 2 'Medical Collections' for $47 and $111 and they are still on my report but not effecting my CS as much because I just app'd for many cards and was approved for all of them. See my cards below. Old Collections as long as they show paid don't sting as much as old collections that aren't paid. it took me a month. i paid them off last month and tried app'ing but declined by chase, then they reported as paid and I was approved for all my app's.