I hit a snafu early on in my credit life, and needless to say have been recovering ever since. Ever had a credit score of 4?
Anyway, so I have a First Premier card (cringe), a Capital One Card, and two GE Capital lines of credit. Recently I was able to pay all of the balance on FP and 1 GE, half of C1 and the other GE. I'm assuming with that on my history plus a co-signed car loan, I should be above the 660 I'm at now.
I've had the C1 card for 8 years, but have a meager balance of $500, the FP I've had for 4 years with $375. The GE loans I've had for 2 years. I can remember a time when my parents had thousands in credit....
I really don't like how I can't get a credit increase on FP. "Oh, you've done so well, here's a second card with only half the balance available." Since I've had the card for a while, in pretty good standing with them, is it wise to keep it even with paying them over $100 a year in fees? Heck, what about C1? When I got it, no fees, only interest, but then a year or two ago they started the annual fee on it, but split it up every month.
Is it wise to keep the GE loans? The APR is ridiculously high on them, 29%, but now that I'm in a position to put purchases on them, and pay them off before interest kicks in (so long as that's the promo I get) is it necessarily a bad thing?
Sorry for the scattered thoughts, but you guys get the idea. I've gone from a 4 to 660 in 10 years. It's been a painful, and at times an embarrassing ride. My main goal is to get a mortgage in the years to come, refinance my car loan and most importantly: keep my credit score going up up up!