New Accounts...Need Guidance

[shippy1973]

Hello all...

Just getting out of 10 years of damage. BK, foreclosure and baddies. I have 1 paid collection left (5/14) and 1 chargeoff left (1/14) so i decided to take a little spree over the last month and a half for the first time in ever really and this is what I came up with. I tried to even out the inquiries best could but mostly pulled Experian.

AMEX BC - $500 (Can't wait till day 61) Experian

Chase Freedom - $3000 Experian/Equifax

Amazon Chase Visa - $2000 Experian/Equifax

Barclay Rewards MC - $2500 Transunion

Discover IT - $5000 Equifax

Wells Fargo Cash Rewards - $5000 Experian

Capital One Quicksilver - Pretty sure this one will be declined. They say it is pending. Pulled all 3. *EDIT - Declined*

BoA Cash Rewards - Declined Experian *EDIT - Recon unsuccessful*

I have 3 old accounts, 2 Cap One cards ($3000/$500) and JCP ($3700). All in good standing. Paid off.

So that makes 6 pulls on Experian, 4 Equifax and 2 Transunion. So how to proceed from here? Here are my questions...

Did I do too many? Feels like I did. Will these pulls affect my chances of getting the 3x limit increase on AMEX?

Time to garden for me I believe. With my cards arrival, my FICO scores were Experian 660, Equifax 667 and waiting for a couple weeks to get the score from Barclays for TU. My old baddies will fall off and hopefully as these report and are PIF, my score will rebound.

My biggest question is this. My old Cap One cards I have are almost 10 years open. JCP is really useless to me but open the longest, 13 years. The Cap one cards have annual fees of $49 a year and the other $60 (paying $5 a month). How much would it hurt to try and get them to wave it and if they don't, close them down. They would report for 1o years positively and in effect when they fall off, my oldest age would just fall to where it is now.... not sure what to do here. *EDIT - $500 Cap One closed, $3K Cap One given $60 AF credit and 1.5% cash rewards after EO email*

Thanks for any help and all the infomation I found on here!!

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on re establishing your credit!

It's too late now to be concerned with doing too much. The inq's/accts will age together and it's just best to use them wisely. Your CS will take a hit due to the new accts reporting but it's also temp and it should rebound. You've added nice CL's -and Cap1 always pulls all 3 bureaus.

If you haven't already done so,memail Cap 1 to have your AF waived. Search the email address here or do a google search for the CEO.

[B335is]

Congrats, you've added some nice lines!  Give it 6-12 months and your score should rebound no problem.  Have you tried calling BoA for a recon?

[12njoy]

Congrats.  Nice lineup!

[Anonymous]

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@shippy1973 wrote:

Hello all...

Just getting out of 10 years of damage. BK, foreclosure and baddies. I have 1 paid collection left (5/14) and 1 chargeoff left (1/14) so i decided to take a little spree over the last month and a half for the first time in ever really and this is what I came up with. I tried to even out the inquiries best could but mostly pulled Experian.

AMEX BC - $500 (Can't wait till day 61) Experian

Chase Freedom - $3000 Experian/Equifax

Amazon Chase Visa - $2000 Experian/Equifax

Barclay Rewards MC - $2500 Transunion

Discover IT - $5000 Equifax

Wells Fargo Cash Rewards - $5000 Experian

Capital One Quicksilver - Pretty sure this one will be declined. They say it is pending. Pulled all 3.

BoA Cash Rewards - Declined Experian

I have 3 old accounts, 2 Cap One cards ($3000/$500) and JCP ($3700). All in good standing. Paid off.

So that makes 6 pulls on Experian, 4 Equifax and 2 Transunion. So how to proceed from here? Here are my questions...

Did I do too many? Feels like I did. Will these pulls affect my chances of getting the 3x limit increase on AMEX?

Time to garden for me I believe. With my cards arrival, my FICO scores were Experian 660, Equifax 667 and waiting for a couple weeks to get the score from Barclays for TU. My old baddies will fall off and hopefully as these report and are PIF, my score will rebound.

My biggest question is this. My old Cap One cards I have are almost 10 years open. JCP is really useless to me but open the longest, 13 years. The Cap one cards have annual fees of $49 a year and the other $60 (paying $5 a month). How much would it hurt to try and get them to wave it and if they don't, close them down. They would report for 1o years positively and in effect when they fall off, my oldest age would just fall to where it is now.... not sure what to do here.

Thanks for any help and all the infomation I found on here!!

---

Congrats! Those are some nice approvals. 

From my experience with AMEX, inquiries are not of a huge concern to them. They seem much more receptive to approvals and CLIs based on payment history (ie, not just paying on time, but how much of the balance was paid each month) and overall util. When my boyfriend (who has a very similar credit profile to myself) apped for AMEX, he got a $1200 limit. We lowered our overal utilization about 6 months later and I apped for two AMEX cards and got $10,000 and $2000 approvals. 

[myjourney]

Welcome the the forum 

Congrats that's some spree and it's just my opinion but its time for you to head for the garden for 6 months for sure 

Good luck on pending and recons are also in order 

Good luck

[12njoy]

@shippy1973,

I had the same question regarding my longest account.  I called Equifax and spoke with a supervisor (yes I was actually able to get a supervisor).  I asked that same question and the supervisor told me that closing my longest account would only negatively impact me in regards to my overall utilization.  Since my utilization is low anyway, this is neglible and I added $9,500 in new credt.  The supervisor also said that the history on the closed account wouldn't be factored into my score (not sure about the accuracy of that statement) which could potentially hurt my score but he assured me that this would be neglible also.  I went ahead and closed the account which had a credit line of $5,000.  I have to wait until December until it updates to see how it impacts me.  The account's history was only 19 months. 

[shippy1973]

@09Lexie - Thank you! I actually called the EO after I thought I was declined and she told be that it was "pending" I keep calling the auto status number and they say they are revewing it. I am tempted to call and ask them to move credit from my Platinum Visa to a new Quicksilver.

@B335is - Thanks! I called BoA today for a recon. She was really nice but was concerned over my one remaining chargeoff that I told her was going to fall off in January and that I had old accounts with no balance. Well, geez, what do you want me to do? I told her I just paid them off and wanted to start maximizing rewards cards instead of non-rewards cards. She didn't bring up "new accounts" or "too many inquires" I may try again. I wrote her name down :-)

@12njoy - Thank you! I am probably either going to try and transfer my credit from my old Cap One cards to hopefully a new Quicksilver if I can. I will call and see about getting the AF waived and if not, these cards will probably get cancelled. They are $0 balanced anyway so at least I can reap the positive rewards of that for 10 years. My utilization if I closed both of them would be 1.57%. I think I can handle that :-)

@k-s Thank you! Unfortnately, AMEX has blocked me from making any more payments until the first statement clears. I didn't realize that until I tried to make a 2nd payment to clear the balance. Guess it was some thing with adding a new payment account and it being a new card, etc etc. I had to call to figure out why I couldn't pay my bill. Anyway, I can't pay it again until the 19th but when i can, it will be $0 again.

@myjourney - Thank you! Yes, my wife thinks so too. Her credit is outstanding and I am jealous and want to catch her :-) So garden it will be for me :-) As I told B335is above, I tried but might try again. Still waiting on Cap One.... Being denied after all the approvals sucks!!! LOL

[12njoy]

@shippy1973,

Amex has some weird rule that won't let you pay online more than once within 30 days on a new account.  However, you can call 800-230-1284 to make a payment.  This goes directly to the credit department and they will take a payment over the phone which will be just like making it online.  You will get immediate credit to your account.  You can make as many payments as you want through the credit department.

[shippy1973]

@12njoy

Not sure if I should call during regular business hours but I tried and it keeps telling me that no payment is required when I say "make a payment"...