Am I on the Right Path? I need Help

[texasman07]

Guys First off thanks for all the help. Since joining the forums I read them every day and they have helped me tons.  Second Im not sure if what Im doing is right or wrong for my goal.  My Goal is #1 to Buy a car within the next year and half and #2 to raise my scores to get a good rate.  Anyway I started with mid 500's scores and now Im about 630.  Here are my current cards:

Accounts	Credit Limit		Annual Fee	APR	Date Opened
American Eagle Outfitters	$150.00	$	$0.00	24.99%	Feb-11
Bank of America Power Rewards (Secured)	$1,000.00		$39.00	20.24%	Apr-11
Best Buy Reward Zone Mastercard	$300.00		$59.00	21.74%	Sep-10
Capital One Platinum	$525.00	$	$24.00	19.80%	Sep-10
Capital One No Hassel Rewards	$750.00	$	$39.00	22.90%	Nov-10
Chevron	$500.00	$	$0.00	26.99%	Feb-11
Credit One	$350.00	$	$74.00	23.90%	Nov-10
Citgo	$200.00	-$	$0.00	24.99%	Mar-11
Express Fashion	$2,160.00	$	$0.00	24.99%	Nov-99
Exxon Mobil	$200.00	$	$0.00	24.99%	Feb-11
Old Navy	$200.00	$	$0.00	24.99%	Feb-11
Shell	$200.00	$	$0.00	24.99%	Feb-11
Walmart	$375.00	$	$0.00	22.90%	Sep-10

And here is what I closed:

Closed Accounts	Credit Limit	Balance	Annual Fee	APR	Opened	Closed
HSBC Orchard	$300.00	0.00	$74.00	28.00%	Aug-10	May-11
First Premier	$275.00	0.00	$120.00	20.15%	Jul-07	Apr-11
First Premier	$400.00	0.00	$120.00	20.15%	Aug-08	May-11
Hooters Mastercard	$1,000.00	$932.68	$0.00	16.00%	Oct-10	May-11

Am I being impatient?  Am I doing Okay.  I think Im Spinnging my wheels and think Im doing bad.  I use my power rewards secured card for all my purchases. PIF every month. I use it like a debit card to get points and Ca$h Back.  Also, I already got 100.00$ cash back so that more than paid for the AF.  I really like it too.  As for the others  what Im thinking of doing is just not use them at all for at least 6 months to bring the balances down.  Ugh what to do.

[tntexans72]

That Credit One and BB Rewards card got to go IMHO.

You won't see much CLI from those 2 cards down the road....ever.

Those are pretty ridiculous AF.

Your Express card is your oldest card and no AF. Keep that card around.

I would continue to use your BoFA card and PIF. Hoping they will unsecured it down the road.

Those 2 cap 1 are reubilder cards and you don't need 2 imho. As soon as the AF date is near, cut 1 loose. Just give it another 1-2 yr and PIF all your cards. Don't ever missed a payment or have lates or CO if you want your score to go up. Eventually your BoFA will unsecured and that will open more doors for you in getting a prime CC.

Remember, just because you closed out your other CCs, it's still reporting to the CBs for another 10yrs. I wouldn't worry too much about the closed account effecting your score. I would be more concern about lenders charging you outragious AF.

What's going to help your score rise in the next 1-2 yrs is....pay on time, low util % (less than 10%), no lates, no CO, AAoA. Patience grasshopper...

[texasman07]

Thanks !!! I know. We live in a society where " I want to happen here and now!" its hard. Every time I get a paycheck every two weeks I think what can I pay, when I should just concentrate on one card at one time.  Cant pay everything at once.  Im always on time and havent missed a payment or been late since 2007.  Nothing in Collections right now, all outstanding debt paid.  I should just take a breathe and realize to stop pulling my report every day! I turned this into a hobby LOL

[tntexans72]

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@texasman07 wrote:

Thanks !!! I know. We live in a society where " I want to happen here and now!" its hard. Every time I get a paycheck every two weeks I think what can I pay, when I should just concentrate on one card at one time.  Cant pay everything at once.  Im always on time and havent missed a payment or been late since 2007.  Nothing in Collections right now, all outstanding debt paid.  I should just take a breathe and realize to stop pulling my report every day! I turned this into a hobby LOL

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Forgot to mention...don't app for any new credit right now til you get approved for your auto loan. You want to have a clean CR with no hard inquiries. The hard iquiries makes up 10% of your Fico scoring system. Just refrain yourself from apping for new CCs....focus on the big picture (auto loan).

[Anonymous]

Wowzers do you have a lot of small credit limit cards. Cancel most of the AF cards you can. Use a few small limit cards for automatic things like netflix and have bank of america scheduled to pay them every month. This way you can show activity on a few cards and not regularly use them.

Dont apply for any more cards EVER or atleast your bank of america becomes unsecured and you get a limit greater than maybe 3 or 4 thousand. When that happens you can app for something else in a couple years and get another rewards card with a higher limit. 

Dude you need to go KONA

[Anonymous]

ALSO set a NOTEPAD with all cards and when they are expected again for a CLI

for all your GEMB cards, you can request increase every 4 statements. Just make sure that the last credit increase you had reflects on 4 statements before you pull the trigger.

You need to do that every 4months in order to start slowly increasing all your limits

[texasman07]

On the GEMB Cards. I pulled the Trigger before 4 months and got denied.  Does that mean you have to wait another 4 months from when you pull the trigger? 

[Anonymous]

no. just try again once the 4th statement hits. you must become a farmer that is isolatd from the outside world so u can no longer apply for any more credit cards

[Anonymous]

Taxesman07,

All I do everyday is work with people just like you.  I consult for a financial planning firm and help people with getting lower interest rates on credit cards. 

I would get rid of half those cards personally because they are not helping you.  All your Feb 11th cards need to go in my opinion.  All are bad banks and will not look good on your credit report.  Do not close Express, because you have had that card the longest.  The length of your credit history makes up 15% of your FICO score.  Most all your accounts have very short history.  35% of your score is your payment history, so keep paying ontime.  Keep all you 2010 accounts for now. 

On your BOA card, you should be able to convert over after 6-12 months to unsecured.  Amounts that you owe on your accounts equal 30% of your FICO score, so keep balances under 25% of available credit for best results.  Capital One is fine for now also, you can do a product trade next year and get a better credit card product.  

The car loan you can get with a 650 score easliy. Interest rates are pretty good right now and dealers need to sell cars bad.  They have alternate lenders to work with for people with fair credit if needed.  It should be under 10% for sure.  A way to beat the finance charges is to make 2 payment per months. 

Example:  Make your first car payment when it come do.  2 weeks later make half of your car payment.  This stops your finance charges from accruing for 30 days and shortens it to 15 days.  You end up paying less money this way.  So when payment #2 comes in you only owe a half payment and you were only receiving finance charges for 15 days.  Make that half payment or full payment again if you can.  But make sure to always make a 2nd payment ever 2nd week. 

I hope this helps,

Scott

[bichonmom]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Taxesman07,

All I do everyday is work with people just like you.  I consult for a financial planning firm and help people with getting lower interest rates on credit cards. 

I would get rid of half those cards personally because they are not helping you.  All your Feb 11th cards need to go in my opinion.  All are bad banks and will not look good on your credit report.  Do not close Express, because you have had that card the longest.  The length of your credit history makes up 15% of your FICO score.  Most all your accounts have very short history.  35% of your score is your payment history, so keep paying ontime.  Keep all you 2010 accounts for now. 

On your BOA card, you should be able to convert over after 6-12 months to unsecured.  Amounts that you owe on your accounts equal 30% of your FICO score, so keep balances under 25% of available credit for best results.  Capital One is fine for now also, you can do a product trade next year and get a better credit card product.  

The car loan you can get with a 650 score easliy. Interest rates are pretty good right now and dealers need to sell cars bad.  They have alternate lenders to work with for people with fair credit if needed.  It should be under 10% for sure.  A way to beat the finance charges is to make 2 payment per months. 

Example:  Make your first car payment when it come do.  2 weeks later make half of your car payment.  This stops your finance charges from accruing for 30 days and shortens it to 15 days.  You end up paying less money this way.  So when payment #2 comes in you only owe a half payment and you were only receiving finance charges for 15 days.  Make that half payment or full payment again if you can.  But make sure to always make a 2nd payment ever 2nd week. 

I hope this helps,

Scott

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I agree that OP has A LOT of these smaller cards, but I'm wondering why you're saying they are bad banks. They are mostly gas cards and Old Navy (which I happen to have; hence, my question).

Thanks!