My credit journey what’s next

[Anonymous]

So some of you followed my journey the good and bad from approvals to closures.

i wanted to give you an idea if my plan and see if it makes since or if I should change something.

so the good......I got approved for a lot of cards and I mean A LOT. Some I thought would take forever to get like the navy fed flagship. I also cancelled a lot of builder cards like credit one, avant, indigo, first premier and so on. My score has gone from 503 “the lowest in feb 2017” to 650ish ex/eq and 714 TU.

the bad I had 5 citi cards shut down at once and the sportsman guide visa shut down AA style for to many inquiries.

my plan is to chill. I’m gonna chill and grow what I have especially discover, Amex and navy as they are my primary drivers. 

I was was thinking garden 6 months to a year, only doing sp cli like discover and Amex. Or is that a bad idea too?

i really wanted to do 3/91 with navy cli and go rewards but that is prob a bad idea too  you think? Iunno, just looking for advice. I’mma listen more now I promise. 

Currently it it is only 4 cards I want so gardening should be hard. Only want the navy go rewards, a second/third hotel card “for when I can’t find a Hilton”, and since citi AA I need to get AAdvantage from barclay since travel aa a lot. But I won’t app for that for a full 12months from now.

[Brooklyn2018]

IMHO, I would garden at least 6-12 mos and give those inq’s time to age. If you’ve already had AA from citi, I can’t imagine if the others might follow suit once they review you. JMHO. As always YMMV.

GL👍

😊

[Pikaboo-icu]

Garden Garden Garden  

Do NOT do anything to draw attention to your credit for at least 6 months, possibly 12. 

[_NERD]

Nothing wrong with earning the diamond badge (24 months gardening badge). I went 27 or 28 months without a HP, and look at the run I had yesterday and today.

Let those accounts age. If you rack up a lot HPs and new TLs, banks may perceive that as aggressive credit seeking behavior. /:

[CreditInspired]

OP
IMHO, since you already have 3 great cards, there’s no reason to keep chasing credit. I think a minimum of a year in the garden will do your profile a lot of good and give that AA a chance to thaw so other CCs won’t follow suit.

Yep, a little break may be all the medicine your credit profile needs.

GL2U

[Anonymous]

The answer here is obvious, you should keep applying, you have already come so far and sacrificed so much.

Joking of course, hit the garden and start trimming useless store cards.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. I am in the garden until July. At that time I will go for go rewards with Navy. Hopefully they give me 25k and a CLI on my Flagship to 25k. In December I will go for maybe another Hotel Card since thats usually the time we travel most maybe SPG since I'm already with Amex. I will go for AA with Barclays maybe June of 2020. Those are my goals. By them I'm close to being under 5/24 and will hit up chase for something.

I plan on dropping maybe Mattress Firm and Target. Citi closed Shell, NTB and Home Depot ... I use JC Penny, Belk and pretty much all the others. I use for the points and zero finance on a lot of things.

[Pikaboo-icu]

I know it's difficult to resist..

Oh how I know...  

I keep getting preapproval notices for Wells Fargo Propel and I'm preapproved for a second Disco It (my first CL is only $3300 so this is very tempting).

What I've done: I filled out the apps and at the last step before submit, I stop, ask myself:

#1 What negative effects will this have on my credit score & report?

#2 What positives are there for me in having this card?

#3 Do I really NEED another card? Do I NEED this card?

#4 Is there another card I want/need that will be delayed by obtaining this card?

#5 Will this card be there in another 6/12 months? 

After all that- I decided against the cards & just closed the application page. In the case of Propel, I admit, I saved it for later.

You go through the motions, like writing a letter you never intend to send to get things out of your system.

It's therapy LOL

You really should post in the Garden Thread when you get that urge.. The peeps there will help you STOP. 

Good Luck!! 

[Anonymous]

Thanks I will head over because its addicting applying and getting approved. I am in the garden. I think it helps I'm working on business credit now with no PG so when I get the urge I just review business stuff lol

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks I will head over because its addicting applying and getting approved. I am in the garden. I think it helps I'm working on business credit now with no PG so when I get the urge I just review business stuff lol

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You might want to consider freezing your credit reports. After my recent trigger finger app for the Platinum with NFCU this past Sunday, I froze all my reports. Now it will give me considerable time to debate the pros and cons of another app while I am unfreezing my reports and at the same time it will protect me from someone stealing my identity and opening new accounts.

Now that its free to add and remove, its kind of a no-brainer honestly.