First post / introduction

[nccarguy1]

How about a Prosper or SoFi personal loan?  Rates can be as low at 8%.  It would allow you to pay off and close some duplicate accounts and have some cash available for your new business. Soft pull to find out with cash in bank in 24 hours after approval. 

[dfwxjer]

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@WindyBinky wrote:

Hey all! I've been lurking a little while and I'd like to start contributing & being active within the community. This post serves as a little introduction of how I started and where I am currently along with some of my next goals. I used a template to outline where I'm at. I tried to organize the info best as possible. 

* Current cards: (list cards, limits, opening date)

* Capital one venture one $6,000 limit, Jun 2019

* Apple Card $2,500 Limit, Aug 2020

* Credit one $400 Limit, Sep 2020

* Amex platinum $2,500 Limit (switches Back and forth to no PSSL depending on balance) Sep 14 2022

* Amex delta $5,587 Limit, Sep 14 2022 ( was $8/9k limit decreased)

* Amex BCE $1000 Limit, Sep 14 2022

* Chase Sapphire reserve (originally $15,000 SL but decreased recently to $5000 after I had to hold a balance for business expenses) Sep 29 2022

* Chase freedom unlimited $500 Sep 29, 2022

* Discover It $2000 Limit, Apr 2023

* FICO Score: 689 EXP, 717 TU, 716 Eqf

* Oldest account age: 5 years 4 months

* Chase 5/24 status:

As of today 10/8/24 it’s 6/24, on 10/29 it will be 1/24

* Income: $60,000

* Average monthly spend and categories:

   * dining $200 -/+

   * groceries: $440

   * gas: $880

   * travel: $0

   * other: $ NA - many other expenses unsure what to list

* Open to Business Cards: yes, my next card preferably

* What's the purpose of your next card?

My main objective for my next card is for a Balance transfer. as of April this year I started a new business and I have had to hold the balances on my personal cords. As I mentioned above, I’m primarily using my Chase sapphire card to hold the balances for the business. This has affected my personal credit and it has affected the limit of the card. At that time my credit was around 770 for all 3 Exp, Eqf & Tu.

I have more new business expenses coming up and I’ve been paying down the balance on the Chase SP card (28% interest rate). I would like to transfer the balance to a 0% Apr business card to make the debt the “businesses” responsibility so I can keep everything separate. 

The main reason I haven't made any moves yet is because i thought it would be best for my chase 5/24 to reset next month Incase I went for a chase card. 

* Do you have any cards you've been looking at?

* Chase ink business unlimited

* Chase ink business cash

* Chase ink business preferred( no longer 0% apr?)

* Amex blue business +

* Amex blue business cash

* BOFA business advantage cash & travel ( I have the longest standing relationship with this bank, but no credit cards from them yet)

* Are you OK with category spending or do you want a general spending card?

• General spending

If this info is relevant, I have LLC, EIN, business bank account, Dunn & brad #, listed business address, all set up btw. I’ve been working on establishing business credit through trade lines but still working on it, no paydex score yet but Experian business says 85/100

TLDR:

1st goal/question: Looking for a business card with 0% apr.

2nd goal: get my personal credit back up where it used to be. 

Any insight, recommendations, wisdom, guidance in the right direction is greatly appreciated. 🤝🏼 thanks for reading.

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I hope this doesn't come across as insulting, but your salary does not support the high end travel cards you have. Especially given your travel expenses of $0. You're lighting thousands of dollars on fire every year with no return. 

I'd downgrade the CSR to the free Sapphire card if you can, and downgrade the Amex Platinum to the green card. Throw the AF money at paying down your other cards before you apply for business cards. As someone mentioned above, at best you'll get some low SL cards that won't be worth the HP. 

[NoMoreE46]

Welcome back @WindyBinky .

Excellent on your debt and kudos for that huge increase on your scores.

I agree about reconsidering your Amex Plt and CSR.  Are they worth about $1200 / year with your type of spend...?

You've got great cards so I'd focus on growing the CL on them.  For example, that BCE can go to $27,000 pretty quickly.

If you still got the itch to change your lineup, consider the Citi Custom Cash card for Fuel/Grocery.   I think you are well past the Credit One so close that.

[WindyBinky]

So I ended up considering both of your suggestions @NoMoreE46 @dfwxjer  and went through and went from Amex platinum to Amex green. I just got off the phone with a girl at chase and considering the CSR renewal is Oct 1 she said to call 1-2 days before then to do the product change.

 @NoMoreE46 Also to touch on 2 more of your points

1. although the Credit One car has not much use to me anymore, it is one of my oldest accounts. Would closing it negatively affect my avg age of credit? 

2. BCE to 27,000 quickly, **bleep** I wouldn't have thought that. I think trying to grow the CL's on my cards is on my to do list, best advice for that? 

[NoMoreE46]

Good timing by getting away from the Platinum as the AF is now $895.

No, closing your your Credit One should not lower the average as it should continue to report for years depsite being closed.

Yes, AMEX cards can grow 3X from $1000 to 3000 to 9000 to 27000 in about a year.   

To get CLI from any issuer = No magic.

PIF every month every card. 

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@WindyBinky wrote:

So I ended up considering both of your suggestions @NoMoreE46 @dfwxjer  and went through and went from Amex platinum to Amex green. I just got off the phone with a girl at chase and considering the CSR renewal is Oct 1 she said to call 1-2 days before then to do the product change.

 @NoMoreE46 Also to touch on 2 more of your points

1. although the Credit One car has not much use to me anymore, it is one of my oldest accounts. Would closing it negatively affect my avg age of credit? 

2. BCE to 27,000 quickly, **bleep** I wouldn't have thought that. I think trying to grow the CL's on my cards is on my to do list, best advice for that? 

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[WindyBinky]

update 

Requested product change from reserve to preferred. Product change denied, credit limit below minimum (4,700) of 5,000 for CSP.

chase freedom everyday credit limit too small to reallocate credit (500 limit minimum

Request availability for CLI increase for CSR, denied

Offered to do CLI for smaller card, i asked if it would be a better use of time to try to get it reconsidered and he agreed. So I opted to talk to the reconsideration line and they put a different application in for a CLI on the CSR

• Called 1 hour later, CLI denied with 4 reasons high credit usage per Experian (the card has no balance ($0) updated with Experian)
• too small of payments (I paid off $4,500 off in less then 3 months, often making $1000 payments?)
• Insufficient deposit of funds into Chase account (I don’t use Chase as my primary bank account, only depositing what I needed to make payments on the card.)
• Can’t remember the 4th

I feel like I'm in a weird position. 

[Vinjints]

High credit usage will likely take into account all of your cards, not just the one you're asking for an increase on.

As for the deposit funds, are you holding a Chase account just to pay the Chase card? Can't you just pay from another bank account? Seems that you are giving them a reason for a denial with that one and adding in an extra step for the payment.

[WindyBinky]

If it's going off all of my cards my credit usage is less then 3-5% closer to 3, on my most recent Experian update. 

as for the Chase account, yeah essentially. I just opened it for the sole purpose of paying the card. I thought it would be easier for me to just deposit 1 check into it per month to have available funds for the card vs doing a transfer. 

I do see what you mean though. In their eyes I don't deposit a sufficient amount of funds into the account, and the deposits aren't consistent. They could care less of how I use the account unfortunately I'm just now realizing that it's given them a reason for denial.