topic Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory in Credit Cards

I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 01:23:09 GMT

So the year mark has come, for many of my accounts, and for many others they are about to hit a year. The next two months are when I decide what stays and what goes. Help me out, or at the very least your response may aid the decision making process. I will list each card, its limit and amount currently in use, and why I have it if applicable. Pick any five to get rid of. Lets do this.

Note that these are the current balances and may or may not reflect what reports as the cards due dates come up, so other than the Disco, most of these will be paid down or close to it.

Bank Cards

Discover IT - 2200/3500 (using for balance transfer from other cards to no interest while I pay off Xmas)

Best Buy Visa - 200/2000

Amex Everyday - 50/500 (have to keep a balance since its in Amex first account probation)

CapOne Plat - 0/500 (formerly secured, oldest card, rarely used)

CapOne QS1 - 100/300 (Due to bump to at least 500 limit at next statement cut)

Paypal MC - 50/700 (daily driver while Disco is high Util due to balance transfer, 2 percent cashback anyway, might be perma daily)

Store Cards

Walmart - 520/3500 (most used store card)

BP Card - 300/2000 (gas card, used for convenience store shopping since its 3 percent cashback at BP only)

Amazon - 0/600 (good card but I refuse to use it until they up its limit, its 10 months old still stuck at its SL)

Home Depot - 0/500 (never used it)

Target - 0/300 (dont use it much)

King Size Direct - 150/1850 (I am quite tall, this card is useful and may be the only Comenity card I care about)

Victoria Secret - 0/2250 (SCT, useless)

Wayfair - 0/7800 (SCT, I bought towels once)

Williams Sonoma - 0/9150 (30 bucks for a bag of coffee, lolz)

Overstock - 0/8350 (isnt it annoying how Comenity cards seem to have this fetish for limits with 50 at the end?)

Fingerhut - 0/500 (graduation from freshstart last year, never once used)

Paypal Credit line - 660/1250 (this is for gaming and for off the books purchases >_>)

Closed Accounts

Fingerhut Freshstart 0/300

Credit One Visa 0/450

Indigo Mastercard 0/300

So which five cards would YOU cut? As a bonus which five cards would you keep?

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

K-in-Boston — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 01:30:09 GMT

Okay, Jigsaw, this is an easy one.

Fingerhut, Home Depot, Victoria's Secret for sure. Wayfair and Williams Sonoma if they're not going to tank your utilization. (You didn't mention whether you use the Overstock or not.) But I'd kill the two CapOnes instead if the oldest card isn't significantly older than your next oldest one.

Keepers: Discover, Amex, PayPal MC, BP if you really shop there often, and (it hurts me to type this) Walmart since you use it a lot.

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 01:34:17 GMT

Nah overstock is overpriced. All my comenity cards do now is pad my utilization ratio. The only reason they arent closed is because comenity hasnt closed them. All but KSD are actually physically destroyed anyway.

The only difference between your recommendations and my gut instinct when I was typing the list are the cap ones. Is it because you and I both know they will forever be around 500 limits?

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 01:34:26 GMT

I'd consider closing the best buy, Quicksilver, and most of those other store cards. Id personally close the target card and get the target debit and link it to a Kasasa cash back checking account (at least, that's what I did). Keep cap1 plat if you need the acct age.

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

K-in-Boston — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 01:41:00 GMT

As a 20+ year CapOne veteran who is severing ties soon, yes they’ll never grow up to be real cards.

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

shoegal — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 03:41:07 GMT

I would close Home Depot, VS, Wayfair, Fingerhut and the CapOne CCs.

But also can we exchange Victoria Secret card limits? 😉 I use mine all the timeee. Also, can you give me your Wayfair card I shop there often.🤣

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 04:52:18 GMT

Best buy, Victoria's secret, wayfair, Williams Sonoma & finger hut.

Outside the scope of your pick 5 stipulation - also include all the remaining almost never/never use cards. IMO no point in keeping useless cards, especially store cards, AF or not, unless closing it would devastate your available/total credit. I know other people will tell you to never close a no AF card yourself but honestly I feel it's unnecessary exposure to risk - be it through data breach compromising an old unused card you never check or somehow losing track of a random charge you put on a SD card and forget to pay. To me it's not worth it, you'll still benefit from the accounts positive reporting for ten years post closure and if you're concerned that losing an anchor card ten years from now will ruin your profile you've got larger problems to address.

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 05:10:04 GMT

@K-in-Bostonwrote:
As a 20+ year CapOne veteran who is severing ties soon, yes they’ll never grow up to be real cards.

I second this. I had a capital one platinum card from my sub prime days that probably started life as something else and evolved. It had a AF of $60 (hidden as a $5 monthly member fee) with a $500 limit and no perks. It served its purpose. I called and asked them to product change it to something useful and they may as well have looked at me as if I had two heads. She said my only option was to close it and though it pained me to lose one of my oldest cards (2003), I had to say good bye. I also have an old HSBC card that was sold to capital one that has been stuck at the 2006 SL. It's a venture though, so I'm hanging on to it for now. Don't want to close all of my old cards at once.

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 05:16:14 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
So the year mark has come, for many of my accounts, and for many others they are about to hit a year. The next two months are when I decide what stays and what goes. Help me out, or at the very least your response may aid the decision making process. I will list each card, its limit and amount currently in use, and why I have it if applicable. Pick any five to get rid of. Lets do this.

Note that these are the current balances and may or may not reflect what reports as the cards due dates come up, so other than the Disco, most of these will be paid down or close to it.

Bank Cards

Discover IT - 2200/3500 (using for balance transfer from other cards to no interest while I pay off Xmas)
Best Buy Visa - 200/2000
Amex Everyday - 50/500 (have to keep a balance since its in Amex first account probation)
~~CapOne Plat - 0/500 (formerly secured, oldest card, rarely used)~~
CapOne QS1 - 100/300 (Due to bump to at least 500 limit at next statement cut)
Paypal MC - 50/700 (daily driver while Disco is high Util due to balance transfer, 2 percent cashback anyway, might be perma daily)

Store Cards

Walmart - 520/3500 (most used store card)
BP Card - 300/2000 (gas card, used for convenience store shopping since its 3 percent cashback at BP only)
Amazon - 0/600 (good card but I refuse to use it until they up its limit, its 10 months old still stuck at its SL) Use it a little and you might get some luv
~~Home Depot - 0/500 (never used it)~~
~~Target - 0/300 (dont use it much)~~
King Size Direct - 150/1850 (I am quite tall, this card is useful and may be the only Comenity card I care about)
~~Victoria Secret - 0/2250 (SCT, useless)~~
Wayfair - 0/7800 (SCT, I bought towels once)
Williams Sonoma - 0/9150 (30 bucks for a bag of coffee, lolz)
Overstock - 0/8350 (isnt it annoying how Comenity cards seem to have this fetish for limits with 50 at the end?)
~~Fingerhut - 0/500 (graduation from freshstart last year, never once used)~~
Paypal Credit line - 660/1250 (this is for gaming and for off the books purchases >_>)

Closed Accounts

Fingerhut Freshstart 0/300
Credit One Visa 0/450
Indigo Mastercard 0/300

So which five cards would YOU cut? As a bonus which five cards would you keep?

Just my 2 cents

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

AverageJoesCredit — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 13:35:09 GMT

Cut-
Fingerhut, Overstock, VS, wayfair, William Sonoma

Keep-
Discover, Amex, PP 2% MC, Amazon, Combine C1

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 21:11:48 GMT

Update: My formerly secured plat card just got upgraded to a no annual fee quicksilver

I assume its gonna be one of those low tier bucket cards but its a rewards card now (and better than my QS1 as a result), so I am tempted to just combine those account limits and keep the older account.

Thoughts? Oh and my QS1 just credit stepped to 500 as well, so the combined limit would be 1000 as of right now if I do it.

Does that change opinions?

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

K-in-Boston — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 21:52:30 GMT

At a bare minimum, I'd combine them. For some people, if you run enough spend through the low-bucketed cards they will throw you a CLI every now and then.

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 18:53:36 GMT

As long as there is no AF to keep the older card, I'd combine the limits and keep it. My Platinum card had a $60 AF (charged as a $5 monthly membership fee) and it was only $500 and not growing. It wasn't worth it to keep a $500 card with no perks open for $60 a year.

Re: I want to play a game... or rather, want you to recommend how I should cull the inventory

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 19:07:31 GMT

I'd close: QS1, FH, Amazon, HD, and Target.