topic Re: need help in Credit Cards

need help

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 19:41:13 GMT

so my credit score is at 620 ish now.. after paying off all collections. i will be paying off all my credit card debts within the next week.. all utilization are roughly 95% plus... planning on calling to cancel my two first premier card and one credit one, leaving me with two capital one cards $300 and $500, citi dc $1000, and walmart store card $800. how should i start managing my profile to larger limits/cards? annual income is $60k @ 40 hours a week..but usually do about 50-60 hours a week so annual income varies

Re: need help

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 19:50:41 GMT

You're doing the right steps in paying down uti and closing 1st premier and credit one. The only other things that I feel are critical: garden to let you current accounts age and get regular cli AND keep your utility below 30%.

Re: need help

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 19:52:04 GMT

As a fellow rebuilder I would highly recommend that once you get your util down to a manageable number just work on getting your credit score higher. Once the util goes down then your score should easily jump to around 640-650 I'd think. At that point play the prequalification link game and check out capital one, amex, and chase to see if there are any solid offers out there before you go out and start cold apping. When I did that I got prequalified for a chase freedom card with a micro limit (500) but a year later I've gotten just about every single card that I could have ever wanted. My advice is try to be patient and wait for solid prequalifications

Re: need help

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 20:10:46 GMT

Congrats on working in the right direction. I agree with what has already been said. Patience really is a virtue. When starting my rebuild Capital One wouldn't approve me initially due to burning them in my BK. Discover also said no and I knew not to try any of the other big boys right away. I was getting mail from Credit One and Merrick and while I know they have helped plenty of people get started or re-started I really didn't want to get into a fee based card. So I waited 6 months and then got approved from Cap One. It's just a platinum card, but it will get better in time. Thats where I have to tell myself to be patient, but that is not easy. Good luck on your journey.

Re: need help

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 20:20:12 GMT

what do you mean by gardening?

Re: need help

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 20:22:05 GMT

thanks for the input, i will be patient and let things happen.

Re: need help

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 20:29:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
what do you mean by gardening?

Gardening is when you stop applying for any type of new credit and allow the cards that you do have to age and allow your overall profile to age also. In this forum is more information on gardening.

Re: need help

wilmer007 — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 02:17:09 GMT

you have to keep your ultilization at less than 10% so if you have a total available credit of say $3,000 this means you need to have your total balances be less than $300 per month. when you have toy limits or small total available credit it is important to make multiple payments per month (if you are constantly using the cards) to keep total balances at less than 10%.

when i had toy limits less than a year ago i was constantly making 2-4 payments per month to each credit card. but now a days with $47.5k total credit i simply set all my CCs to autopay and let the autopay make the payment once a month.

Re: need help

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 14:14:08 GMT

Just paid all cards to 0 balances.. now waiting for the payments to post so I can close the credit One card and the 2 first Premier cards.. oh and I didn't mention a secured card with Wells Fargo either

Re: need help

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 14:20:56 GMT

Update.. my Fido score is 571!.. not good at all.. 620 was thru credit karma.. I have a long way to go..

Re: need help

HeavenOhio — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 14:38:23 GMT

You're going to get dinged if all your cards report zero balances. But if you were paying interest, paying them to zero was probably a necessary step to get the banks to stop charging interest. Speaking of interest, be sure to check your next statements. There'll probably be small "trailing" interest charges that you'll need to pay.

In the future, make sure that you leave a small balance on one card. For optimized scoring, that balance should be between $5 and 8.9% of that card's limit. The balance should come from new charges; that way you're not paying interest. You can use your other cards, but pay them to zero before the statement cuts.

Keep in mind that while 8.9% optimizes one's score, up to 28.9% is still considered responsible. Your score won't be quite as good as with the lower balance, but your lenders will still be happy with you. In your case, I'd shoot for 8.9% just to see where your score "tops out." After that, you may want to experiment with slightly higher balances in order to see how your score might be affected. Since utilization has no memory, your score can always be optimized again the next month.

Re: need help

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 16:37:44 GMT

Ok got it.. got to make sure I leave some amount of a balance to report. So the question now is, should I still go ahead and cancel the two first Premier, credit One? And possibly the WF secured card?

Re: need help

HeavenOhio — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:08:22 GMT

Definitely close First Premier and Credit One. Wells Fargo could go either way. If there's a chance it could be useful or that it could graduate, it might be worth keeping around. If it's not going to graduate or has an annual fee that can't be eliminated, it can go. Take your time and do you homework on the WF card. First Premier and Credit One should be cancelled as soon as you can.

Re: need help

jdxprs1 — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:16:10 GMT

If I were the op and my score was 571, I wouldn't close any accounts just yet.

First I would pay off all the cards but one. Leave 40 bucks on one card.

Second I would call Walmart/synchrony credit solutions and request $5,000 limit increase.

Third, I would wait a month or so for everything to update to the reports and see where scores are.

Fourth, if op doesn't have an installment loan open on reports, get a self lender loan.

I'd expect that 571 score to jump up to 650 or higher within 2 months as long as there are no open charge offs reporting a balance.

Re: need help

SouthJamaica — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:24:22 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous my credit score is at 620 ish now.. after paying off all collections. i will be paying off all my credit card debts within the next week.. all utilization are roughly 95% plus... planning on calling to cancel my two first premier card and one credit one, leaving me with two capital one cards $300 and $500, citi dc $1000, and walmart store card $800. how should i start managing my profile to larger limits/cards? annual income is $60k @ 40 hours a week..but usually do about 50-60 hours a week so annual income varies

1. Congratulations!

2. With the 4 credit cards you have left, let 1 report a small balance (29% or less) while the other 3 report a zero balance. Always pay in full, either before or after the statement cuts.

3. Try for soft pull CLI's.

4. See if you're eligible to combine the 2 Capital One accounts; if so, do that.

Let everything report like this for a month or two and let's see where your scores are then.

Re: need help

SouthJamaica — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:26:31 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Ok got it.. got to make sure I leave some amount of a balance to report. So the question now is, should I still go ahead and cancel the two first Premier, credit One? And possibly the WF secured card?

Yes you should certainly cancel First Premier and Credit One. I'm not familiar with the WF secured card, but if it has an annual fee, ditch that one too.

Re: need help

SouthJamaica — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:28:46 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Update.. my Fido score is 571!.. not good at all.. 620 was thru credit karma.. I have a long way to go..

If your score is 571 you probably have some negatives, so you should also be writing verification letters to the bureaus, which might accelerate the process of removing the negatives.

Re: need help

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:35:26 GMT

i have 2 current car loans and a personal loan

Re: need help

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:38:48 GMT

thanks for the advice.. ive been reading the let one card report stuff alot.. but my question is..

if i let the other 3 cards report 0, i wouldnt have any payments due for those cards and wouldnt that look bad? (inactivity)

Re: need help

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:41:14 GMT

about 3 collections and1 judgement. all paid off and doesnt show on credit karma. but i will be doing the annual credit report now