topic New here. Advice / Help needed in Credit Cards

New here. Advice / Help needed

Bella143 — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 17:35:34 GMT

Hello all. I'm new to posting but have been lurking a while. I have been working on rebuilding my credit since my divorce in 2009 and think I'm finally getting back on Track.

I had a short sale on my credit that was hurting me since 2010. I disputed this just because I noticed that the mortgage company that held this account happened to go out of business in 2012. EQ and EX have both DELETED any record of this account since they could not verify with the lender that I was ever late due to the short sale, so my scores are creeping back up. Yay. Still waiting on TU. Now on to my credit card question.

I have a lot of credit cards that I am trying to pay off /down. My question is this. I'm thinking of closing a couple of the piddly ones since they have such low limits and I'd like to get my scores back up to where I can get some big name ones like AMEX or Discover IT.

Right now I have the following I know it's a lot)

Lowes - 300 limit / 0 balance

Home depot 1500 / 1283

Cap. One 1000/ 271

Orchard (now cap. One) 400 / 0

Best buy rewards MC 500 / 0

Mtn. America CU 10000 / 9400 bal <--- this is my lowest interest rate card of 7.99%. Had this card since 2008

Dell Account 3500 / 2800 bal

Merrick 1800 / 1601 bal

An old B of A Urpomise card that has now been sold to Barclay that is currently closed but I am still trying to pay it off. Balance on this is 5100.

After I got divorced I was a single mom trying to pay mortgage, keep up with bills, etc so I was living off of cards a lot fo the time. I have since gotten a great job and have a fiance whom I live with and we share expenses so I've been able to get a lot of stuff paid down recently.

My annual income is bout 63K. My goal is to pay off pretty much everything and then only utilize the credit union card because of the low interest but I'd still like to have some big players as well to increase my credit and just not hold balances on these ones much.

Which cards should I close? Chase Freedom of $500? They've never given me a CLI

Orchard of $400? Best Buy? Lowes? I've asked Lowes for an increase once in June of this year and got denied.

My FAKO scores are EQ 629 TU 678 EX 679

According to Merrick my FICO on there is 666 but not sure which they pull from.

Only baddies on my credit now are 1 30 day late with chase in 3/2010 and Barclay is reporting a 30 day late in 8/2011. I have never been late with Barclay but they bought this account from B of A and I was late with them once for a 30 day.

Thanks for any help or advice.

Re: New here. Advice / Help needed

Luscher — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 17:43:04 GMT

don't close any cards until you pay down your balances. It will help give you a lower utility since you have balances on some of your cards.

Re: New here. Advice / Help needed

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 17:43:09 GMT

Welcome to the forum! IMO, you should not close any cc's until you get your util down to at least 20%. When you close the accounts, the CL is taken away and your util will rise since you have several cc's (HD, CU, Dell and Merrick) are almost maxed out.

Once you get your util down, request CLI's from Lowes and email the EO for both Cap 1 cc's . I'd also write GW letters on your 30 day lates.

Currently, your util is hurting you not the limits on your cc's.

Re: New here. Advice / Help needed

Creditaddict — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 17:44:07 GMT

@Bella143 wrote:

Which cards should I close? Chase Freedom of $500? They've never given me a CLI
Orchard of $400? Best Buy? Lowes? I've asked Lowes for an increase once in June of this year and got denied.

Thanks for any help or advice.

CLOSE NOTHING!

Orchard and Best Buy are now completely Capital One and you can send email to EO and ask for CLI (Best Buy MAY cost you HP so might skip it, but your capital one and your orchard you should be able to get increase with SP and annual fees waived if you have them and possible rewards added if you don't have them... ill private you the email, it's quick and easy.

Lowes is GE (as soon as that baddie mortgage is gone from your credit report on TU *who they always pull) you can call in to credit solutions and get a manual review sp on the spot for a HUGE CLI possible... they are good about that... ask for $5k or something... thinking about new kitchen... blah blah..

Chase... half a dozen, you already have it, Id probably keep and just use every few months just to keep active and you never know down the road you may want to increase that relationship or take the HP for the CLI and the account is there.

Re: New here. Advice / Help needed

Luscher — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 17:45:34 GMT

and then once you are ready to close some accounts. look into which cards you need and dont need. do you shop at best buy or lowes a lot? no, than you dont need them. I would keep chase freedom because of the awesome rewards. try and build that card up and get CLI's as well as do the same for your CU card

Re: New here. Advice / Help needed

Bella143 — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 17:52:29 GMT

Thank you so much for the responses. I actually called up Chase about amonth ago to see if they would be willing to remove the late from 2010 since I've never been late and since the guy on the phone flat out refused and said it's their policy and there's nothing I could do.

Cap. One just increased me from $500 to $1000 via the luv button in July. I tried the Orchard one too but I guess they aren't doing increasing on them yet until the transition is done. I have no other bad things on my credit now. Just those two old 30 day lates. I'm confident TU will also delete that short sale since they wont be able to verify the info either.

I know that what's keeping my scores down right now is high utilization and inquiries. (21 in the last 2 years) Bought a car a year ago and got hit quite a few times from that to

I will keep all my cards open and just focus on paying them down.

Re: New here. Advice / Help needed

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 17:55:29 GMT

Write the GW letters, calling usually will go nowhere. Inq's do not count towards your FICO after 1 yr.

Good luck

Re: New here. Advice / Help needed

Luscher — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 17:58:13 GMT

stop applying, and pay down your debt and you should see some results

Re: New here. Advice / Help needed

Creditaddict — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 18:00:19 GMT

I sent you private message for capital one and orchard.

Re: New here. Advice / Help needed

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 18:06:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Welcome to the forum! IMO, you should not close any cc's until you get your util down to at least 20%. When you close the accounts, the CL is taken away and your util will rise since you have several cc's (HD, CU, Dell and Merrick) are almost maxed out.

Once you get your util down, request CLI's from Lowes and email the EO for both Cap 1 cc's . I'd also write GW letters on your 30 day lates.

Currently, your util is hurting you not the limits on your cc's.

If you close a CC and both the CL and balance are reported, the CL won't be removed from scoring until the balance is 0.

Re: New here. Advice / Help needed

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 18:08:17 GMT

@guiness56

Correct!

Re: New here. Advice / Help needed

Bella143 — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 18:23:57 GMT

"If you close a CC and both the CL and balance are reported, the CL won't be removed from scoring until the balance is 0"

I'm confused on this - My Barclay card that I owe $5100 is closed and I'm still paying on it. It does still show my credit line of 7600. So you're saying that once I pay this off it will not show a credit line at all?

Also as far as my Chase card goes. I've had this card since 2008 and never had a CLI. Is there someone I can email to request this or do I need to call a backdoor number?

Re: New here. Advice / Help needed

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 18:39:05 GMT

Since the account is closed, you no longer have access to the CL. Therefore it will not factor into scoring for FICO.

Chase will probably do a HP. IMO, wait until your util is down so you will not waste an inq.