Advice on my Current CCs

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey Everyone!

I wanted to know suggestions on what cards I should keep & close or any tips on strengthening my current portfolio. Some say it's best to keep cards open with no AF, while others have said there's no need to keep them open so i'm not really sure what to do. 

Here are the cards I currently have: 

Chase Freedom $5K | Chase Sapphire $1.25K | Amazon Rewards $1.25K | Discover It $4.5K | Capital One Quicksilver $3.5K | Citi Double Cash $7K | Citi ThankYou Preferred $2.6K (hate this card) | American Express Blue Cash Everyday $27K | Bank of America Travel Rewards $1.5K | Barclay Sallie Mae $9.4K | AARP Rewards $5K

SD: Citi ThankYou Preferred, Chase Sapphire, Amazon Rewards

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Close the Amazon, Thank You Preferred (I don't know why you keep it open, it's useless and you have a Double Cash), the Sapphire (non preferred) is pretty useless too. You have an AARP that pays out more for dining than the Sapphire so there's no reason to use it.

Closing those three to me is a no brainer because they offer you nothing. With a Double Cash there's really no point in keeping your Quicksilver unless you plan to travel abroad for the no FTF. Otherwise, why would you use the QS over the DC?

There's plenty of cards you can easily pare down in your lineup.

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I started preparing to close my Sapphire/Amazon by moving some of the limits to AARP and Freedom. How does it work in moving the rest of the limits and closing the cards. Do you first ask to move the rest of the limit to the card and then ask to close it? Or would a 0 limit automatically close the card?

The ones I am eying to get rid of are TYP, Amazon, Sapphire. I want to keep QS because of traveling, but not sure about the BOA travel rewards. I had a cash rewards card a while ago and it became obsolete with Sallie Mae. So I converted it to a Travel Rewards as a backup card when traveling. Also it's my only BOA card. 

These are all the dates the cards were open. Do you think closing them would effect my credit score? I think the oldest one out of the ones I'm considering closing is the Sapphire. 

AMEX BCE
Nov 27, 2013


BOA Travel 
Jul 10, 2013


SALLIE MAE
Nov 29, 2014


CAPITAL ONE QS
Jul 26, 2013

CHASE FREEDOM
Dec 26, 2012

CHASE SAPPHIRE 
Nov 11, 2013

CHASE AARP
Dec 03, 2014


CHASE AMAZON
Nov 17, 2014

CITI TYP
Sep 13, 2014


CITI DC
Nov 08, 2014

DISCOVER IT
Nov 06, 2013

[kdm31091]

They won't automatically close. You must move the limit and ask them to close the card thereafter.

While you need to decide if the BOA card is useful for you or not you don't need to keep it because "it's your only BOA card". There is no real world advantage to being "in" with BOA, Chase, Amex, whatever over another lender (of the same quality, obviously not Credit One or some such). You need to have the cards that work for you. If nothing BOA offers fits in with your spend, then you don't stay with them just because, IMO.

[thelethargicage]

Keep these cards:

Sallie Mae
AARP Rewards
It
BCE
One of either Double Cash or Quicksilver

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

They won't automatically close. You must move the limit and ask them to close the card thereafter.

While you need to decide if the BOA card is useful for you or not you don't need to keep it because "it's your only BOA card". There is no real world advantage to being "in" with BOA, Chase, Amex, whatever over another lender (of the same quality, obviously not Credit One or some such). You need to have the cards that work for you. If nothing BOA offers fits in with your spend, then you don't stay with them just because, IMO.

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I think I would be comfortable holding onto 1 card to SD and have as a backup no FTF. As for the others they are completely useless at the moment. Do you think since Sapphire is one of my oldest cards I should hold onto it? Or it doesn't matter.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Do you know your AAOA? Can you ballpark a month/year on each account?

What is your spending like in terms of spend per month and type of spend?

What is important to you in a card

At a glance I'd say keep your Amex BCE, Citi Double Cash, Sallie Mae, Chase Freedom, Discover IT, and maybe your Sapphire if you feel you'd get enough spend/benefits out of it to justify the AF. Honestly though, just those first 5 cards would give you a solid total CL and a wide array of options on which to spend, with zero annual fees.

I generally don't like cancelling stuff unless there's some reason to do so, and I'm comfortable putting stuff in the SD. With that said, everyone's different and most of your other not-as-great cards don't have such great limits compared to your Amex and Sallie, so you won't really get hurt much from a util standpoint, and like all cancellations it won't affect your AAOA for another 10 years. If you are worried about your util increasing after cancelling all of those cards, you can probably get Discover to bump you up (they are handing out CLIs now) which will make up for all those small limit cards you'll cut up.

I would hang on to your oldest two or three tradelines though if you can, but that's just my opinion :-) Best of luck!

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I just found the info on CK: 

AMEX BCE
Nov 27, 2013


BOA Travel 
Jul 10, 2013


SALLIE MAE
Nov 29, 2014


CAPITAL ONE QS
Jul 26, 2013

CHASE FREEDOM
Dec 26, 2012

CHASE SAPPHIRE 
Nov 11, 2013

CHASE AARP
Dec 03, 2014


CHASE AMAZON
Nov 17, 2014

CITI TYP
Sep 13, 2014


CITI DC
Nov 08, 2014

DISCOVER IT
Nov 06, 2013

[Anonymous]

With such a tight range of account open dates I wouldn't worry about closures affecting your AAOA. If you had accounts from years ago you were going to close, the answer might be different. :-)

[stellar]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey Everyone!

I wanted to know suggestions on what cards I should keep & close or any tips on strengthening my current portfolio. Some say it's best to keep cards open with no AF, while others have said there's no need to keep them open so i'm not really sure what to do. 

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That's the thing...it's personal preference.  Some people aren't comfortable keeping lots of cards, others enjoy it.  So if a card has no AF and you are not planning to use it...then whether to keep it in the SD or close it is entirely up to you, based on your preference.  Some people worry about potential fraud going unnoticed on unused cards, some on the other hand like to keep the cards available credit there in case they ever need it.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey Everyone!

I wanted to know suggestions on what cards I should keep & close or any tips on strengthening my current portfolio. Some say it's best to keep cards open with no AF, while others have said there's no need to keep them open so i'm not really sure what to do. 

Here are the cards I currently have: 

Chase Freedom $5K | Chase Sapphire $1.25K | Amazon Rewards $1.25K | Discover It $4.5K | Capital One Quicksilver $3.5K | Citi Double Cash $7K | Citi ThankYou Preferred $2.6K (hate this card) | American Express Blue Cash Everyday $27K | Bank of America Travel Rewards $1.5K | Barclay Sallie Mae $9.4K | AARP Rewards $5K

SD: Citi ThankYou Preferred, Chase Sapphire, Amazon Rewards

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Highlighted in red the cards you should keep.  Looks like you're already SDing the cards that aren't on the list.

Double Cash for everyday purchases + backup gas

Travel Rewards + BoA savings account for international travel

QS for backup international travel

Discover it for rotating categories  + backup international travel

BCE for the credit line + backup groceries

Sallie Mae for gas + groceries + amazon

AARP for restaurants

Freedom for rotating categories.

[Anonymous]

Update: 

Both Chase / Citi wont let me transfer my CL to other cards. Chase said they would let me do only $750 from my Amazon to Freedom without a HP, thus leaving $500 on Amazon. 

Citi said NO and it can only be done with HP. So I was like that's the same/if not similar asking for a CLI. 

I also tried their EO, no luck... South Dakota.. they were not too friendly/helpful. *Shock* from Citi!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey Everyone!

I wanted to know suggestions on what cards I should keep & close or any tips on strengthening my current portfolio. Some say it's best to keep cards open with no AF, while others have said there's no need to keep them open so i'm not really sure what to do. 

Here are the cards I currently have: 

Chase Freedom $5K | Chase Sapphire $1.25K | Amazon Rewards $1.25K | Discover It $4.5K | Capital One Quicksilver $3.5K | Citi Double Cash $7K | Citi ThankYou Preferred $2.6K (hate this card) | American Express Blue Cash Everyday $27K | Bank of America Travel Rewards $1.5K | Barclay Sallie Mae $9.4K | AARP Rewards $5K

SD: Citi ThankYou Preferred, Chase Sapphire, Amazon Rewards

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Highlighted in red the cards you should keep.  Looks like you're already SDing the cards that aren't on the list.

Double Cash for everyday purchases + backup gas

Travel Rewards + BoA savings account for international travel

QS for backup international travel

Discover it for rotating categories  + backup international travel

BCE for the credit line + backup groceries

Sallie Mae for gas + groceries + amazon

AARP for restaurants

Freedom for rotating categories.

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Great response, thanks for the tips. If I can give you another Kudo I would. lol