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I've had my Costco AMEX for a while - almost 2 years, and I have not asked for a CLI. I JUST read about the 3X CLI thing and I'm planning to try it. I want to do it NOW. However, until my balances refresh in the next week-ish, I have about 55% utilization. I also JUST got a car loan, which SW has not yet told me is reporting. Should I pull the trigger with the high util and no car loan listed, or should I wait until the util drops to just over 30%? Also, how often do they do soft pulls on accounts that have been active for a while? I'm also planning to refi my mortgage (opened 2011, right before the card), but I probably won't try to do that for another 2-3 months. (Doing a costs-rolled-in refi should get me out of PMI, and even if it doesn't, by my and the CU's calculations, the payment will go down by 2-300/mo and for not a ton more, I can pay it off in the same amount of time)
Thoughts?
Thats a good question. Most would say to get your util under 10% but maybe it wont matter if you have a good established history already.Im intersted to see how it goes down.
Yeah, under 10% isn't doable in the near future - I did just use my Federal refund, the cash I got for my old car, and I've got it set up to use my bonus / retroactive raise to pay down my overall utilization to that 30%. Buying a house alone and then having to pay for appliances, an expensive insulation upgrade, gutters, and having your property taxes spike 29% really takes it out of you. Honestly, if I can get the refi worked out (my main fear: house not appraising for enough - I should qualify otherwise), I'll be putting the extra cash towards paying off utilization.
I've decided that I'm going to wait for my current payment to get that card's balance to $0 (I use it almost exclusively for gas at Costco right now), and then pull the trigger. Since I got the notice this morning that the payment had been received, that should be either tomorrow or Friday. I guess it's not the end of the world if I have to try again in 90 days because it was declined...and the increased CL would help bring down the overall util, so there's that....
I know how it is. I bought a house, but I have no furniture. I have two chairs my old room mate gave me and a table my mom gave me for christmas. I have no insulation. I still need to buy a microwave. oh and a TV. Thats why im always here on the forum. I got my trusty macbook and a pink chair.
My CRT is sitting in my bedroom, not being used. My microwave is one of the appliances - I bought a foreclosure and the initial appraisal came in low so I couldn't fund the fridge / dishwasher / oven / microwave(recirculating exhaust) / washer / dryer in my rehab loan. I overbought on my appliances a little, just because I felt it was a waste of money to buy ones that were cheaper but would be temporary.
Paid my balance down to $0 (well, it finally processed, that is)
Still have, on record, about 50% utilization - almost all of my 7 cards are updating in the next 10 days.
Approved! $2000 -> $6000!
This should help with my utilization, which is pretty exciting - and without a hard pull!
I should start my 180 day countdown now, huh?
Current CLs:
Capital One: $500
Target Visa: $1000
Chase Slate: $4000
UMCU Visa: $5000
Chase BP: $5800
AMEX True Credit: $6000
Discover More: $8300