topic Re: I have 100 accounts.... in Credit Cards

I have 100 accounts....

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 20:56:01 GMT

Okay, I have 100 accounts. Almost 5 years ago, I started a rebuilding process. 45 if my total 100 I have closed. A few rebuilder cards in the beginning and then as time went on different cards that weren’t willing to increase my limits or I found no use for th card or there was an annual fee, I closed them. I closed four credit card accounts last month and made a list of fourteen more I would like to close within the next few months. I realize after opening so many accounts, I need to slowly close them instead of chucking them immediately and seeing a negative result in my credit score. I started here with a 560 credit score and now have a 721. I am very happy with the progress I’ve made and all that I have learned but at this point, I have several cards that I no longer use and no longer have interest in. Considering my average age is 3 years and 1 month and my oldest account is 7 years and 8 months, I would like to keep my new accounts to a minimum. Every time I tell myself I’ll go a year without opening a new account, I get an offer in the mail too good to ignore.

No need to bash me for having 100 accounts. I already realize I don’t need 100 accounts or 55 open accounts. I’m weeding my way down to less than ten but it will take me some time. I have carefully built my credit score and I don’t want to see anything but positive things happen to it.

Any advice on which cards to keep or close is much appreciated. Any next steps advice is also appreciated. None of my accounts have an annual fee. I have never been late on any payments.

I won’t list all of my open account cards but I will list some:
Fifth Third, PNC, 4 Chase cards, discover, BOA, Huntington, 2 capital one cards, ebates Visa, BP Visa, Gap Visa, American Eagle Visa, Kroger MC, 2 American Express cards, Home Depot, Lowes, Amazon, Macy’s, Express, art van, abc warehouse, Menards, Meijer, Kohl’s, Best Buy, care Credit, old navy, Ann Taylor, Talbots, game stop, Target, toys R Us, ny&co, Children’s place, Victoria’s Secret, old navy, Abercrombie, The Buckle, Marathon, Talbots, Ally car loan, Student loan,

Most Recently closed:
Barclays, QVC, The Limited, ExxonMobil, Banana Republic

I am thinking of closing:
Talbots (2 years 9 months), Old Navy (4 years 3 months) in the next month.

Should I wait and close down anything older than my average age until my average age is higher than the age of the account? Thank you so much in advance.

Re: I have 100 accounts....

pipeguy — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 21:25:01 GMT

The first step for me would be to close all "store cards" except those you find truly useful - Note I have 24 active accounts and the only store cards I have are Lowes ($35k), HD ($25k) and Amazon ($10k) and I use the store cards mainly for promotional Zero percent financing.

I also found that co-branded store-bank cards can be hit or miss, mostly miss. I have the Chase-Amazon ($5k), Citi-Costco ($12.5k) and Sams Club MC ($14k) - I use these mainly at the stores they co-brand with because the APR is generally high (Costco and Sam's do offer extended financing on occasion). Cards like Old Navy Visa or TJMaxx Visa and several others I've also closed because of the higher APR and duplication of another account factor with very little specific value on their own.

I noticed you said you had 4 Chase cards, you could probably combine some of those as far as credit limit(s) and thin the dead weight that way too.

Should I wait and close down anything older than my average age until my average age is higher than the age of the account?

It makes ZERO difference an open or closed account will stay on your report for 7 to 10 years and it's history (positive = positive, negative = negative) with be reflected in your scoring while the tradeline is included on your report.

Re: I have 100 accounts....

Kforce — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 03:40:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Any next steps advice is also appreciated.

How many credit cards someone wants to have and manage is a personal preference.

As you know some want no more than 3 and others are content and love having more than 100.

As "pipeguy" said closing accounts does not raise or lower you fico score except if you are carrying balances on a lot of cards and then closing cards can change your utilization. If you don't carry balances and PIF you can close what ever you want.

My personal opinion is that more than 10-12 cards provides minimal extra value and splits the rewards making it longer to receive the benefits. I would keep my oldest two cards for AoOA and AAoA and close any other cards that give minimal benefits.

I set a personal rewards $ value every card that I have must surpass every month on average to stay in my possession. That rewards value amount varies by your monthly spend and willingness to not go for every penny of benefit. My number is $10/month. If a card can be worth more that $10 each and every month I might go for it. For now I am content with the 5 that I have.

Re: I have 100 accounts....

jamesdwi — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 02:17:03 GMT

Guess I don't feel so bad, with my 50 accounts, 39 open. and 11 closed accounts, most of the closed accounts are the cards that were reports that were lost or stolen, only a couple accounts were closed. AAoA is 4 years and 11 months, openned two cards in the last 6 months or so. With as many cards as I have I recover in a month or two, most of my cards are openned in the second and third year of my rebuiding. With my oldest credit card is now 9 years and 1 month. It does feel overwhelming sometimes, but most of the cards sit in my "sock drawer" and I'm not actively working on keeping most of them open, and one store card has closed on its own.

Re: I have 100 accounts....

red259 — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 02:21:31 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Okay, I have 100 accounts. Almost 5 years ago, I started a rebuilding process. 45 if my total 100 I have closed. A few rebuilder cards in the beginning and then as time went on different cards that weren’t willing to increase my limits or I found no use for th card or there was an annual fee, I closed them. I closed four credit card accounts last month and made a list of fourteen more I would like to close within the next few months. I realize after opening so many accounts, I need to slowly close them instead of chucking them immediately and seeing a negative result in my credit score. I started here with a 560 credit score and now have a 721. I am very happy with the progress I’ve made and all that I have learned but at this point, I have several cards that I no longer use and no longer have interest in. Considering my average age is 3 years and 1 month and my oldest account is 7 years and 8 months, I would like to keep my new accounts to a minimum. Every time I tell myself I’ll go a year without opening a new account, I get an offer in the mail too good to ignore.

No need to bash me for having 100 accounts. I already realize I don’t need 100 accounts or 55 open accounts. I’m weeding my way down to less than ten but it will take me some time. I have carefully built my credit score and I don’t want to see anything but positive things happen to it.

Any advice on which cards to keep or close is much appreciated. Any next steps advice is also appreciated. None of my accounts have an annual fee. I have never been late on any payments.

I won’t list all of my open account cards but I will list some:
Fifth Third, PNC, 4 Chase cards, discover, BOA, Huntington, 2 capital one cards, ebates Visa, BP Visa, Gap Visa, American Eagle Visa, Kroger MC, 2 American Express cards, Home Depot, Lowes, Amazon, Macy’s, Express, art van, abc warehouse, Menards, Meijer, Kohl’s, Best Buy, care Credit, old navy, Ann Taylor, Talbots, game stop, Target, toys R Us, ny&co, Children’s place, Victoria’s Secret, old navy, Abercrombie, The Buckle, Marathon, Talbots, Ally car loan, Student loan,

Most Recently closed:
Barclays, QVC, The Limited, ExxonMobil, Banana Republic

I am thinking of closing:
Talbots (2 years 9 months), Old Navy (4 years 3 months) in the next month.

Should I wait and close down anything older than my average age until my average age is higher than the age of the account? Thank you so much in advance.

OMG you will be on the phone for days closing credit cards. ROFL.

Re: I have 100 accounts....

jawbrkr — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 05:01:17 GMT

All I can reply to this is...w..t..f?

@red259

Re: I have 100 accounts....

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 05:11:29 GMT

WOW.. a 100... all i can say is WOW.

Re: I have 100 accounts....

pizza1 — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 13:41:55 GMT

As a store card advocate, Im kinda going against what I love and preach sometimes, but in this case I believe its warranted. I would close all your store cards except for maybe 1-4 of them, keeping the ones you really use most often or actually are your favorites.

There really isn't a need for umpteen store cards, and I seriously doubt you use all the cards you have, but having a few you really love is fine. I know I could never get rid of my PB card...it is my favorite store. Having store cards is fine, just not 50+.

This is coming from someone who had a ton of store cards during my earlier rebuilding days, and realized later on my goals wasn't quantity, but quality.

Re: I have 100 accounts....

SouthJamaica — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 16:20:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Okay, I have 100 accounts. Almost 5 years ago, I started a rebuilding process. 45 if my total 100 I have closed. A few rebuilder cards in the beginning and then as time went on different cards that weren’t willing to increase my limits or I found no use for th card or there was an annual fee, I closed them. I closed four credit card accounts last month and made a list of fourteen more I would like to close within the next few months. I realize after opening so many accounts, I need to slowly close them instead of chucking them immediately and seeing a negative result in my credit score. I started here with a 560 credit score and now have a 721. I am very happy with the progress I’ve made and all that I have learned but at this point, I have several cards that I no longer use and no longer have interest in. Considering my average age is 3 years and 1 month and my oldest account is 7 years and 8 months, I would like to keep my new accounts to a minimum. Every time I tell myself I’ll go a year without opening a new account, I get an offer in the mail too good to ignore.

No need to bash me for having 100 accounts. I already realize I don’t need 100 accounts or 55 open accounts. I’m weeding my way down to less than ten but it will take me some time. I have carefully built my credit score and I don’t want to see anything but positive things happen to it.

Any advice on which cards to keep or close is much appreciated. Any next steps advice is also appreciated. None of my accounts have an annual fee. I have never been late on any payments.

I won’t list all of my open account cards but I will list some:
Fifth Third, PNC, 4 Chase cards, discover, BOA, Huntington, 2 capital one cards, ebates Visa, BP Visa, Gap Visa, American Eagle Visa, Kroger MC, 2 American Express cards, Home Depot, Lowes, Amazon, Macy’s, Express, art van, abc warehouse, Menards, Meijer, Kohl’s, Best Buy, care Credit, old navy, Ann Taylor, Talbots, game stop, Target, toys R Us, ny&co, Children’s place, Victoria’s Secret, old navy, Abercrombie, The Buckle, Marathon, Talbots, Ally car loan, Student loan,

Most Recently closed:
Barclays, QVC, The Limited, ExxonMobil, Banana Republic

I am thinking of closing:
Talbots (2 years 9 months), Old Navy (4 years 3 months) in the next month.

Should I wait and close down anything older than my average age until my average age is higher than the age of the account? Thank you so much in advance.

1. I didn't see any reference to utilization in your post. In closing accounts you have to be careful not to push your utilization percentage up too much.

2. Apart from the utilization issue, I would proceed gradually rather than quickly, and I would focus on the store cards.

3. I would try not to zero out the installment loans until the last minute.

Re: I have 100 accounts....

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 18:28:41 GMT

Doesnt matter anyone says, just do you. I have 25 open. Dont let these unwritten rules steer you in any way. I believe in not letting banks and CRA'S tell you what to do. If you can handle it, handle it. Its to the point where if you dont use your card enough, you'll get the message from my fico that says "usage on account that hasn't been used in 4 months has been detected" then you lose 9-15 points on it. **bleep**? Too much big brother to me. your 721 is very good. The question is, do you have something besides credit cards? You need installments too. You need a good mix. An installment might add 30-40 points.

Re: I have 100 accounts....

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 18:30:36 GMT

dont know why there is a bleep in my reply. sorry

Re: I have 100 accounts....

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 18:41:22 GMT

I didn't even know 100 credit cards exised (just kidding, kinda), but wow that is mind blowing.

Re: I have 100 accounts....

wasCB14 — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 19:11:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
No need to bash me for having 100 accounts. I already realize I don’t need 100 accounts or 55 open accounts. I’m weeding my way down to less than ten but it will take me some time. I have carefully built my credit score and I don’t want to see anything but positive things happen to it.

You're not going to get from 55 to less than 10 with a scalpel. Either make your cutting goal less aggressive (and plan to keep more than 10 cards) or significantly raise the standard of what it takes to keep something.

@Anonymous wrote:
I realize after opening so many accounts, I need to slowly close them instead of chucking them immediately and seeing a negative result in my credit score.

Unless you have high utilization, the timing doesn't matter. Chuck away!

Re: I have 100 accounts....

Dalmus — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 16:45:24 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
No need to bash me for having 100 accounts. I already realize I don’t need 100 accounts or 55 open accounts. I’m weeding my way down to less than ten but it will take me some time. I have carefully built my credit score and I don’t want to see anything but positive things happen to it.
You're not going to get from 55 to less than 10 with a scalpel. Either make your cutting goal less aggressive (and plan to keep more than 10 cards) or significantly raise the standard of what it takes to keep something.

@Anonymous

Exactly. With 55 accounts, the OP can afford to be pretty picky, with the exception of watching utilization. But that should be fairly easy to manage.

Re: I have 100 accounts....

wasCB14 — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 22:16:22 GMT

If you are determined to cut aggressively, there are a few techniques you might try:

1. Ask yourself which features matter the most to you. Discounts, rewards, extended warranties, big CLs, great customer service...whatever.

2. Ask yourself how often you use each card and how much you spend on it. 20% savings on $100 a year isn't very much. Saving 5% on $5k of purchases a year may be the better value. Price or purchase protection may make whole categories of cards obsolete.

3. Rank your cards. Lay them out in a line (or maybe a grid) and force yourself to put them in order of how much you value them. It doesn't have to be exact, but if you really want to take 55 to <10, you can probably cut the bottom third for starters. Then maybe another dozen.