Citi Costco approval

[Anonymous]

Hello long time lurker, first time poster! Just want to say first and foremost thank you to all those on this forum for all the guidance and advice the last couple years!! Working really hard in rebuilding my credit and it hasn't been easy but ive come a long way.

I just need some advice on the following.

Just recently paid off some credit cards and recently closed the lower end ones because of fees and low limits. Here is my basic profile...
Still working on paying off more in the next 1-2 months.

First Premier $450 P/O & CLOSED
First Premier $400 P/O & CLOSED
First National $500 P/O & CLOSED
First Continental $400 P/O & CLOSED
Merrick $1000 Bal: 0
Comenity (Talbots's) Bal: 0
Synchrony(Sunglasses Hut) $2800 Bal/O
Gap $400 Bal: P/O
Old Navy $400 Bal: P/O
Comenity (Express) Bal: P/O
Comenity (HSN) Bal: P/O
Comenity (Ny & Co.) Bal: P/O
Walmart: $400 Bal: 0
Kolhs $750 Bal: $85
Chevron: $1400 Bal: $275
Phillips: $250 Bal: $154
Comenity (Williams Sonoma) $3000 Bal: $260
Comenity (Ulta) $1000 Bal: $491
Comenity (Pier 1) $1000 Bal: $920
Amazon $1800 Bal: $1457
Synchrony (TCS) $5000 Bal: $1845
Comenity (VS) $3071 Bal: $1131
Comenity (Pottery Barn) $4200 Bal: $4127
Neiman Marcus $500 Bal: $250
Saks $500 Bal: $120
Barclays Apple $1000 Bal: $160
Best Buy $750 Bal: $476
Capital 1 QS1 $750 Bal: $760
Bloomingdales $2200 Bal: $2074
Macy's $3200 Bal: $2666
Nordstrom $2500 Bal: $1629
Target: $2100 Bal: $960
Chase Ink Business $5000 Bal: Max
Chase Ink Preferred $5000 Bal: Max
AU on my husband's CSR $12,000

1 medical collection about $2000
1 ATT $1407.00 (my work manager screwed up my account)
1 late payment from a car stolen 2 years ago 30 days late.
Utilization: 34 % not including when I paid off Sunglasses Hut & HSN
About 25 INQ's

Just got approved this week for:
AMEX BCE $1000!!!
Citi Costco $4000!!!

My fico on Barclays card shows 674
Capital one shows 605
Applied for a AMEX Gold charge card based on pre qualified per the website when I entered my SSN..called in Declined..ask for recon But takes a week.

The 4 I P/O & closed have been some of my oldest accounts therefore if would affect my AAoA. But I'm wondering if it actually benefited me since they were lower limits and the AMEX and Citi would bring up my score since they are higher limits?

Also what's the most effective way I can go about getting an increase?

Sorry long post but TIA!!

[AverageJoesCredit]

It seems you have quite alot of store cards from Comenity and Synchrony. This is good and bad. The bad is that it can be considered too many store cards and these are 2 lenders who can shut you out real fast depending on the circumstances. The good is some of those cards have great potential for growth if allowed to.

I think one of the biggest factors holding you back from getting cli will be your utilization. Too many cards have balances and many have high percentage of utilization. Congrats on getting Amex and the Cost Co Visa. These sre 2 great prime cards thst if you nurture just right will help you get better things later on.

I would work on bringing down those other balances then continue to weed out the cards that aren't essential to your everyday life and overall goals credit wise. Remember its never a good thing to have so many eggs of one lender in your basket, especially of Sync and Comenity. Again enjoy your new Amex and Citi cards , but also remember those lenders will occasionaly sp you and how you treat your other cards can aversely affect your relationship with Amex and Citi.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to myfico Chinagirl congratulations on your awesome AMEX & Citi Costco approvals! As for your balances I would suggest you bring down your UTI to at least 30% if possible as those maxed/or nearly maxed out credit cards are hurting you big time! 😊

[Anonymous]

Congrats on your approval and your work on rebuilding.  I have never seen anyone with this many store cards,  I suspect the number of store accounts and the balances will hurt your chances to get better cards in the future.  My 2 cents is that you should work towards paying off and closing those store accounts as they have very high interest, generallly no rewards and not any flexbility in terms of where and how you can use them.  When your applying for cards each one counts for and against you, too many accounts, too many new accounts and too many accounts with balances can all be reasons for denials.  There are plenty of experts here so I am sure they can provide some advice also if wish.  

[MrsCHX]

Closing cards does not affect your AAoA for 10 years which means, unless a person adds zero additional accounts during that time, there is really no net effect on AAoA.

You have A TON of store cards. Are all of these really necessary?? Can you pay these balances off? That's almost $30,000.

Overall utilization is important but as mentioned, you have far too many cards a) reporting a balance (that is a negative; having too many cards reporting) and b) maxed out Really anything over 50% utilization is a pretty substantial "ding' and as you may know, under 30% is better, under 10% is best.

I don't think you're going to be seeing credit limit increases anytime soon with your utilization.  Also have you tried to goodwill the late pay on the car?

[Anonymous]

Welcome and congratulations on getting those cards, particularly Costco! I'd love to get that one but I don't think my current history (including a BK - Citi is sticky about that from what I hear, plus which I burned them on my primary mortgage in said BK) will allow me to for some time to come.

Allow me to join the chorus urging you to trim your store card list. You don't need to get rid of all of them by any means, but you should give some serious thought to which ones you really need - that should be pretty easy to identify by thinking about which stores you shop at the most/like the most. So, let's say, if you have a card from a favorite store that you've been using for several years and its features are good, definitely do keep that one. If you got a particular card as, say, proceeds from the SCT and you don't have any real use for it after having made your first purchase with it/have only had it for a relatively short period of time, close that and pay it off. Also, I see that you have at least two gas cards from skimming that list (Chevron and Phillips); you might want to think about whether you really need them both. To be candid, I've never had a gasoline-specific credit card myself; I've always paid cash, either hard money or with my debit card, so you might want to take into consideration that buying gas with cash is often several cents cheaper per gallon than buying with credit.

[Aduke1122]

Wow welcome Op , first I will second what everyone else has said !! That's ALOT of store cards and a lot of balances that are too high , get that UTi down to below 30 percent and close some of those cards that you have no use for . Can I ask how Old these accounts are ? What's your AAOA ?

[Anonymous]

Wow! Thank you everyone for the quick response and honest advice. I have actually worked in closing a lot of my store cards..I've paid off about 10 in the course of 1 month and closed 4..I will continue to pay off more in the next couple months..I also can close off a few but concern was it hurting my AAoA(10 years)..some of these cards I have had about 3-4 years..in also thinking it would hurt my credit score since I will bring down my overall credit line therefore increasing my utilization. I got these cars back then when I couldn't get anything as was really trying to re-establish myself. So everyone agrees my AAoA, credit line, and utilization will not affect anything? I been wanting to close it and if it won't affect then I'll close 9 of them today (2 if which will be Merrick Bank $1000 and Barclays Apple $1000)..

As far as the goodwill from KIA for the 1 time late payment, how would I go about doing that? Can someone provide me the address and template of where and how I can sent it? I would also like to do this for most of my inquires as well.

[MrsCHX]

Again, closing cards will not affect your AAoA.

Closing cards will affect your utilization. Do not close anymore $0 balance cards for now. ((and DON'T OPEN ANY MORE NEW ACCOUNTS)).

Do you have the means to pay off this $30,000 in debt??  

If you Google, you can find Goodwill letter templates.  Do you still have the car / account with Kia? 

You can't goodwill inquiries. You applied for the credit, you have to wait the 2 years unfortunately. But they no longer factor into your FICO score after 1 year.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Great thing is you recognize you may need to reevaluate your lineup. I dont think you have to close 20 in a day, lol, yes keep in mind your overall utilization, but what you sre doing in steps seems reasonable. Make a list see what youd like to keep what you can let go and make your plan of attack.

Not to derail your post but how the heck did you get Sunglass hut to 2800 When i first got approved that one they gave me 800 used it once havent used it over a year and will definetly be my next card to get the ax in August, 2 year mark