topic Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl in Credit Cards

6 CCs with low starting cl

fbc200384 — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 06:35:58 GMT

Hello everyone, new user and long time lurker. Finally decided to take my credit more seriously and I need some help. I have 6 CC all with 500 or less CL. I want to get rid of my total visa but it's my oldest card. I got approved recently for Cap1 platinum and discover secured. I want to let discover graduate and upgrade the cap1. So my question is do I get rid of the total visa or what should I do? I am working on getting rid of baddies and cleaning up my credit. Here are my cards:

-Total Visa 350 opened 4/19 received my first cli in 10/20 of only 50

-Self lender visa secured 450 opened in 2019

-Schlumberger Employees CU secured 500 10/20 hoping to graduate in summer 2021

-Credit 1 300 2/21 (idk why I pulled the trigger on this one)

- discover secured 200 2/21

-Cap1 300 2/21

i will garden until next year

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

Tomatoshadow2 — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 09:39:50 GMT

I would reccomend you don't close any credit card, unless it has an annual fee you can't justify paying.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

fbc200384 — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 10:09:16 GMT

Only paying AF is Total which is billed monthly

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

GApeachy — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 11:38:57 GMT

@fbc200384 wrote:
Only paying AF is Total which is billed monthly

I'm not aware of how Total Visa does it's billing, concerning AF, but IF you do close it check that online acct. often. I mean like several months of checking, taking SS's too, just to make sure you don't have an AF charge pop up or trailing interest pop up and potentially causing you a 30 day late. Take a SS of it reflecting closure too.

Just always followup with all cards, open or closed, for months to cyb. Autopay set on all cards that offer it too.

Good luck growing your cards and credit history.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 12:10:29 GMT

@GApeachy wrote:
@fbc200384 wrote:
Only paying AF is Total which is billed monthly
I'm not aware of how Total Visa does it's billing, concerning AF, but IF you do close it check that online acct. often. I mean like several months of checking, taking SS's too, just to make sure you don't have an AF charge pop up or trailing interest pop up and potentially causing you a 30 day late. Take a SS of it reflecting closure too.
Just always followup with all cards, open or closed, for months to cyb. Autopay set on all cards that offer it too.
Good luck growing your cards and credit history.

All of this. I would also request a dated letter be sent to you via USPS reflecting closure upon your request. Keep it safe. That way, if something does pop up (and some subprime creditors will do this), between the screenshots and the letter, you can easily have it removed.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

M_Smart007 — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 13:13:02 GMT

+1 for Documentation ^^^^^^^^^^

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 14:05:41 GMT

OP, I would ditch your AF card(s) and just keep the non-AF cards. You've already identified the constraint to your credit limits and growth, which is negative information on your credit report. Continue to work on cleaning up those negative items, as doing so will strengthen your profile and make acquiring CLIs on current cards as well as acquiring new/better cards much easier.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

kittycreditmeow — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 14:57:47 GMT

I would recommend keeping all the cards open for the sake of your credit age. Especially your oldest card.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 16:41:57 GMT

@kittycreditmeow wrote:
I would recommend keeping all the cards open for the sake of your credit age. Especially your oldest card.

That won't matter. Closing cards doesn't affect credit age factors until the closed cards fall off the reports. Closed accounts remain for up to ten years and by the time they fall off, OP will likely have others with significant age to blunt any effect of these falling off.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:32:01 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
That won't matter. Closing cards doesn't affect credit age factors until the closed cards fall off the reports. Closed accounts remain for up to ten years and by the time they fall off, OP will likely have others with significant age to blunt any effect of these falling off.

Agreed. It also doesn't appear that OPs oldest card is that much older than his next older card(s), so there really isn't any reason to worry about it even a decade from now when the closed accounts would be expected to fall off.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

SouthJamaica — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:47:38 GMT

@fbc200384 wrote:
Only paying AF is Total which is billed monthly

Yes, get rid of that one.

Don't worry about it's being your oldest. It will probably stay in your reports for many years, typically 10 years. In any event I'm sure it's not that much older.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 18:26:19 GMT

@GApeachy wrote:
@fbc200384 wrote:
Only paying AF is Total which is billed monthly
I'm not aware of how Total Visa does it's billing, concerning AF, but IF you do close it check that online acct. often. I mean like several months of checking, taking SS's too, just to make sure you don't have an AF charge pop up or trailing interest pop up and potentially causing you a 30 day late. Take a SS of it reflecting closure too.
Just always followup with all cards, open or closed, for months to cyb. Autopay set on all cards that offer it too.
Good luck growing your cards and credit history.

I agree with not closing your secure credit card accounts if it is not a must. But, if you must close the accounts or when you choose to close the accounts I have one recommendation and that is to over pay the card prior to closing the account if you choose to close it. I'm always worried about the trailing interest and fees that I am not aware of. So, I over pay the card by $100 which will leave you what is called a negative balance. Let the next cycle hit without ever using the card. Once I see where I am at then I would close the account down. Then you will need to wait out until they return your funds. Personally I often over pay my secure cards each by a minimum of $100 dollars just in case I choose to close the account. Most after 30 days will refund you if you do not use the balance, but I have always used the balance so I continue to over pay so that when it is time to close I know I have covered all fees.

Hope that helps.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 18:17:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I agree with not closing the accounts if you do not have to.

Not sure what you mean by "do not have to." No on really has to close a CC account that's open, where they may want to for any number of reasons. The biggest reason here is that if the account is costing someone money, it makes financial sense to close it. Credit cards if used correctly should make someone money, not cost them money. Closing a CC that offers no benefits to offset the AF is a smart financial move.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 18:32:40 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I agree with not closing the accounts if you do not have to.
Not sure what you mean by "do not have to." No on really has to close a CC account that's open, where they may want to for any number of reasons. The biggest reason here is that if the account is costing someone money, it makes financial sense to close it. Credit cards if used correctly should make someone money, not cost them money. Closing a CC that offers no benefits to offset the AF is a smart financial move.

Thank you for pointing that out, how I wrote it was confusing.

Now on another note, sometimes it is a must to close account because you are not reaping the full benefit from the lender. For example, I have had an account for 8 months almost nine months, it never reported to all three cra's. I continue on the regular to contact the lender but they said they were reporting it. I checked every month for each cra and each month something was wrong with at least two of the reports and how they were reporting them. By the now after 8 months of anguish it was a must for me to close the account because it was just too much work to try to get them to fix the problem. So at times it could be a must, but hopefully it never is, but there will become a time when that account is not needed an the individual can do more good things with the secure deposit.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

fbc200384 — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 20:20:52 GMT

I use my secured cards for small purchases and they have now annual fees. Total visa is useless and it's in the sock drawer since they only increased my limit by 50. Hoping to age all my other cards well to get better cards with greater SL and increases in the future.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

fbc200384 — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 20:26:58 GMT

Also, my recent cc (discover, cap1, credit1) haven't shown up on my credit report yet. Should I wait until my it shows to cancel total visa?

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 20:50:32 GMT

No need to wait, you can pull the trigger as early as you'd like.

Re: 6 CCs with low starting cl

NoMoreE46 — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 18:54:49 GMT

To sum OP:

1) Yes, close that Total Visa soon. Get confirmation from them that the account has been 'Closed by the Consumer.'

2) Grow your other CLs to try to replace this lost $350.

3) Put that Credit One on the chopping block next especially if you are able to get another $300 in CLI.

4) Set your milestones for 12 months.

good luck!