Hi all, I've read a lot of posts on here but am kind of not sure what to do now as I'm not used to how to play the credit game.
First off, I have scores in the 630-660 range across the three bureaus. In may of last year, I had a score of around 650, and I needed to move cross country. As a result, I had to get a car for my wife (lived in a downtown city before) finance a lot of the move, and have credit pulls for electrical, rent, blah blah. Also, as a result of the move, I ended up with 2 collections for stuff that people had tried to reach me for on the west coast. (Both medical bills, one 30$ one for about 300$) All said and done I had 2 collections and 10 inquiries. All of my scores dropped to the 550 range for "too many new accounts/inquiries". I've managed all of the debt I accumulated pretty well. Down to about 40% util and of course, never paid late, etc. EXP is now around 660, EQ up to 630. Within 2 months I'll have Util below 30%. The collections are paid but still show up.
Here's my question, the three new cards I got were BOA, CAP1 and USAA. Cap 1 went from 500 to 3,000 for the auto cli. 2 months later, I thought that BOA would match so I pressed the luv button. I got a decline for "too many inquiries/accounts opened".
I didn't push it with a recon because I didn't know if it was a HP. (Checked EXP and no HP/SP, checked eq, nothing either).
My question is, should I just sit on these accounts and hope for an auto cli, or should I push the issue when I get down to 30% with my other 2 cards. The sticking point is I want to buy a house this year and I don't know if its worth risking inquiries to try for higher CL or just leave it alone and have 0 inquiries in the last 12 months when I go to apply for the loan.
Any thoughts would be great!!
