Am i on the right track?

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My question is am i on the right track?

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Instead of relying on others to tell you if you're on the right track or if doing X will hurt you should learn about the various factors that are used to assess your credit.  Start here:

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx

As indicated above your scores reflect that your derog is olding you down.  Derogs will usually do so (they tend to kill your Payment History which is the biggest slice above) and if you have any you should hit the Rebuilding subforum to see what you can do to address them.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Would it hurt if i open more credit cards?

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Go back to the link above.  Consider what happens when you add cards.  You incur hits from the HP's (New Credit).  You also take hits to your AAoA (Length of Credit History).  If the new credit limit is sufficient enough to drastically improve your Utilization (Amounts Owed) it's possible that it might mitigate or even overcome those other hits.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I really want to just open 1 card with a high limit and transfer what i owe on to it but everytime i open a new card they only give me a $1k limit. Any ideas?

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 The CL granted all depends on your credit and income.  If you're only getting low limits from various creditors then you aren't meeting their requirements for higher limits.  There are two things you can do to address that:  improve your credit and improve your income.  Credit is the more important item here and we're back to your derogs which are holding you back.  That said, even with no derogs high limits are not guaranteed.  As I added more accounts over a relatively short span of time I found that the limits offered to me had a tendency to decrease.  That's because adding a lot of new credit is seen as risky.  What specifically constitutes "a lot" varies by credit profile.  Thinner profiles can only handle a much smaller amount of changes, if any, while thicker profiles tend to handle more changes.

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@Anonymous wrote:

will it hurt my credit if i close store cards?

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Don't overlook resources such as the stickies.  This is linked in the Helpful Threads sticky in this subforum:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=creditcard&thread.id=117125&jump=true

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@Anonymous wrote:

I don't think it makes sense to just cancel the store cards, absent an annual fee.

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Seems to be a popular take here at myFICO but each needs to make this call for the individual.  It's not just matter of whether or not the card has an AF.  Every open account runs the risk of fraud so each needs to determine whether or not SD'd cards can be monitored along with other active cards.  Each has his/her own limit on the number of cards that can be responsibly managed.  There are certainly other factors as well (including the items in the Closing Credit cards thread I linked above) and I can't provide an exhaustive list but this is another area where there is much more than just one thing to consider when making a decision.

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@Anonymous wrote:

One important thing to note is that closing 5 3-4 year old cards can dramatically hurt your AAoA.

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See the Closing Credit Cards thread linked above.  AAoA is not immediately impacted.  I don't recommend using it as a deciding factor.

[Anonymous]

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@takeshi74 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I don't think it makes sense to just cancel the store cards, absent an annual fee.

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Seems to be a popular take here at myFICO but each needs to make this call for the individual.  It's not just matter of whether or not the card has an AF.  Every open account runs the risk of fraud so each needs to determine whether or not SD'd cards can be monitored along with other active cards.  Each has his/her own limit on the number of cards that can be responsibly managed.  There are certainly other factors as well (including the items in the Closing Credit cards thread I linked above) and I can't provide an exhaustive list but this is another area where there is much more than just one thing to consider when making a decision.

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I apologize if I didn't state assumptions. I agree with Takeshi that you chould read all of the threads that he mentioned. There is lots of good advice in the stickies. However, the point of the forums is to ask questions, and I'm sure you are evaluating the various advice that you're getting. You shouldn't take anybody's advice as gospel (certainly not mine), but evaluate it in light of everything else you know. 

In my mind (and I fully concede that others may disagree), sock drawering a card involves not using it at all. Therefore, you have an implicit 0% utilization of that particular card, and your overall utilization will decrease as a result of having zero balance while having a credit limit. By cancelling a card, you are reducing your available credit limit while not reducing your balance, so your utilization will increase, which is typically considered a bad thing. Thus, keeping the card open, but unused, allows the credit limit and reporting to work for you, while not running fees.

The greater argument about monitoring is extremely important, and I do not want to give it short shrift here. You need to be able to monitor EVERY card you have, regardless of whether or not you're using it. On of the popular scams I've seen is charging a small amount, typically under $5, in the hope that it goes unnoticed. I'm sure that it typically does. This is not a job for a crediting monitoring site, however. You can monitor individual statements, if you want, although that gets messy. I prefer something like Mint or Personal Capital, which allow you to enter your card information and then compiles all the transactions in one place. I tend to check every couple of days to make sure I know where every charge is coming from. 

[Dw4250]

Accounts stay on your report for ~10 years after you close them so don't worry about effects of AAofA. I would leave your oldest account open.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

One important thing to note is that closing 5 3-4 year old cards can dramatically hurt your AAoA. Maybe go the SD route, but until overextension becomes a problem, or creditors deny you because you have too much available credit, i see no use in closing them.

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Simply the act of closing CC's has no immediate effect on your AAoA, Closed accounts in good standing will usually continue to report for about 10 years after the closing date.