Cards Cards Cards - Questions

[headsup7up]

I have a few questions about cards. I search topics quite a bit but I'm hoping to get some expert advice/opinions

First, I have quite a few Comenity and Synchrony store cards. We needed to qualify for our home loan a few years ago and the fastest way to build our scores at the time was to use the shopping cart trick  (I'm also now a bit of a store card hoarder for the rewards points). I want to axe several of them, but I also don't want to mess up my available credit because those store cards keep my open credit much higher than it would be otherwise. What is the best way to go about making sure the axe doesn't bite me in the rear?

Second, what are the best cards to work toward? I feel like I am stuck in the perpetual big limit store card, puny limit for anything major. None of my major cards are higher than around $1000 limit. At the time, I was just grateful to be approved for something other than a store card. Now I want to aim higher.

Husband and I have both worked our way up the last few years from mid 500 scores after a rough military deployment several years ago to now high 600 scores. I want to keep working at them to get higher. We are at the point right now where we don't need to app for anything (house, cars, etc) so I want to reduce the fluff out of our credit reports without damaging our scores we worked hard to pull back up. 

Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

If the store cards don't have an AF then I don't see any point in closing them. If you don't want to use them anymore you can cut them up but leave the account open.

For the bank cards that you have, I would start requesting CLI's. These are Soft Pulls for the most part and will not hurt your score in any way.

As for cards to look for in the future, it really depends on what you want most? (IE: cash back, categories, travel rewards, etc....)

[HeavenOhio]

I'd start by closing cards you don't or won't use. Step two would be to close out cards that don't give you decent rewards.

You can keep your reports and scores in a good place by not allowiing untilization of over 28.9% on any one card. That can be done with low limits as well as high ones.

I don't know how many cards we're talking about here, but it sounds like there might be quite a few. Closing a few might give you a better look when it's time to apply again for a major card.

If you'd like to list your cards (both retail and major), along with their limits and dates opened, people here could likely offer specific advice.

[headsup7up]

• "I don't know how many cards we're talking about here, but it sounds like there might be quite a few. Closing a few might give you a better look when it's time to apply again for a major card."

Yes ^ this is what I am hoping for. When we were vehicle shopping a couple of years ago, our local bank did not like the number of open store cards we both had on our credit. They didn't deny the loan for that reason, but they didn't understand why we had so many with 0 balances until I explained it helped pull our scores up to get our mortgage. 

Also, big brother must be listening. I just got a myfico alert that comenity closed my wayfair card that had a $6100 limit and 0 balance. Guess I can take that one off the list, but it freaks me out. I don't know if that will bump me over 30% utilization on my remaining open credit. I had planned on keeping wayfair open. Yikes.

[WorkingHard56]

If you don't mind me asking , when was the last time you used the Wayfair card ?

[headsup7up]

I have never used the wayfair card. I used the shopping cart trick back in 2016 to open it so I didn't get a HP and since then I have bumped it to $6100 every 6 months or so. They smelled something brewing they didn't like lol. We did just open a personal loan to pay off almost all of our cards but that isn't reporting yet. So maybe they didn't like the credit pull, or they didn't like something else. Not sure.

[WorkingHard56]

Appreciate the response.
I wonder if it was closed due to inactivity?

I opened a Wayfair card up a few months ago and get concerned with them closing it if I never use it.

[FlaDude]

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@Anonymous wrote:

For the bank cards that you have, I would start requesting CLI's. These are Soft Pulls for the most part and will not hurt your score in any way.

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I'll echo this, many cards have a "request CLI" button right on your account page. Chase is a major exception, you apparently have to call them and they do an HP.

[headsup7up]

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@FlaDude wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

For the bank cards that you have, I would start requesting CLI's. These are Soft Pulls for the most part and will not hurt your score in any way.

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I'll echo this, many cards have a "request CLI" button right on your account page. Chase is a major exception, you apparently have to call them and they do an HP.

I typically do that on the ones I know won't HP, but Citi did HP me and Discover hasn't given me love in a month or so now. I just paid it off so I'll wait a bit and see. I have 2 USAA cards (amex and Visa) that were both supposed to auto increase, but they have not and I've had them both for about 3 years now. I do have a link to request CLI on both USAA cards, but it looks like it will be a HP so I haven't submitted CLI on those.  

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[headsup7up]

@WorkingHard56 wrote:
Appreciate the response.
I wonder if it was closed due to inactivity?

I opened a Wayfair card up a few months ago and get concerned with them closing it if I never use it.

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Maybe! If it was inactivity, that is ok with me. I just don't want them closing other accounts randomly or it will really hurt my utilization. Now I will need to reconfigure which ones get the axe -_- lol