Shell Drive for Five (Citi) and Discover - AM I STUCK?

[Anonymous]

I have had both of these cards open for 1 yr and 4 months. Both of these cards have a $500 CL and that is what I originally started with.

i have asked numerous times (maybe 6 times/card) over that period of time. My income has gotten higher since I opened both of those cards (went from 32k - 38k), I've always kept a fairly low balance and/ or PIF and only recently stopped using the cards because I have never been able to get a CLI. The reason is always the same: too many inquiries in the past 6 months. I even got that when I didn't make a single inquiry for 7 months and was still denied for the same reason.

Am I stuck?? Do I call and recon??

i like both of these cards but they just aren't growing with me. I'm not too convinced to continue to use them if I can't get them to grow. Should I just throw them in the sock drawer?

[austinguy907]

I can't speak for the Shell card but, Disco will grow with some time.

$500 limits indicate borderline profile at time of approval.

Keep away from apping for more stuff to let things mature a bit.  Otherwise things will just stay in the same cycle you're in with $2K and under limits.  The slew of store cards brings into question where you want to end up down the road.  

Take a small monthly bill and put it on Disco and setup autopay for the statement balance.  After a few months of this it should start opening the CLI door with them little by little.  Things take time in this credit game and while you have a couple of "prime" cards it's still a 50/50 mix with store/retail only cards.  

Calling them isn't going to get you anywhere right now with either of them.  However a call to CS on your Synch cards once you're in the 700's with your TU will allow you to bump them considerably with a quick phone call.  

Something to look at is taking your 3 Cap1 cards and combine them into a single $5K limit to give other lenders to strive for meeting.

Other than that keep your smaller cards in the crock pot on the low 'n slow setting with autopay setup to generate activity and things will come together with time.

[Anonymous]

@austinguy907
Thank you VERY MUCH. All of that makes perfect sense to me. I've been wanting to close AEO, VS, and possibly Chevron for quite some time. My utilization is currently 0% and they aren't that old. How heavily would that impact my score?

I'm actually going to call Capital One tomorrow and ask to combine all three cards so I've got my fingers crossed for that. And the only reason I'm still keeping Walmart and Macy's around is because I'm hoping they'll upgrade into a MC and Amex account in the future. I'm not sure if that's worth keeping them over?

[austinguy907]

WM/Macy's are sync/citi..... WM goes through cycles where they'll do a bunch of upgrades for select accounts but, my Sam's card never converted back in the day to Disc or MC now.  I ended up having to apply and get approved for the D/MC version and had 2 cards.  While they have some small perks there's better options out there with the same perks.  Macy's seems to be a little easier to get a co-brand out of but, once again there's better options out there especially if you're ever planning on carrying a balance and don't want to be under the thumb of that 24.xx% APR.

Cutting the newish cards won't hurt since you're 0% utilization and any damage caused by opening them will start to fade within a year.  Any positive payment history remains for 10 years so, it shouldn't hurt much to consolidate and trim things back to your Quality cards instead of juggling the Quantity of cards.  If you don't use them they don't do much for scoring and improving things

Some like Kohl's cap out at $3K max for 99% of people.  Carecredit if you don't use it for 12 month they'll likely just close it and send you a letter.  Barclay's has jealousy issues when you ramp up on approvals and they keep tabs on accounts you're adding that usually result in AA/CLD or closure.  Of course some of those nice little perks like 5% off on purchases like Amazon if you shop there enough add up.  Otherwise it's just a buffer.  

Of course everything is a YMMV when you start making moves but, as time passes any negatives turn positive and result in better circumstances.

[Anonymous]

You have been extremely helpful and helped me confirm what I'm wanting to do. I will go ahead and close out the JCP, Macy's, VS, AEO, Walmart, Shell, and Chevron.
I shop on Amazon a LOT so I think I will keep that store card in the event I need to make big purchase, keep Kohl's for a little while as I tend to buy clothes there quarterly, and CareCredit because I have accident-prone dogs. I will withdraw from applying for ANY new credit until I've had the chance to grow my existing cards a considerable amount.

Thank you kindly for your advice it has been valuable!