@Anonymous wrote:So I just recently became interested in this credit business. A friend of mine got me to download an app for credit scores and I also realized my credit card companies give me a free score. I was looking at my credit cards and notice there is a large variation in my limits ($1,900-$16,000). I got most of these cards as a freshman in college because you got a free T-shirt for filling out an application. So I filled out several. I have not gotten a new card in a long time.
I decided to convert the Citi Thank You card to the Double Cash cash and asked for a limit increase. I asked for $10,000. I am not sure if this is a reasonable amount. Also, what recommendations do you guys have for the other accounts (especially Chase Freedom)? Thank you!
Chase Freedom: $1,900
Chase Slate: $6,600
Chase Slate: $10,000
Citi Thank You Preferred: $3,300
Citi Dividend: $7,700
BankAmericard Reward World: $5,500
BankAmericard Cash Rewards Platinum Plus: $4,000
Best Buy: $16,000
American Express Blue Cash: $9,900
austinguy907 made a lot of good points. Which of these cards is your oldest card according to your credit reports?
The $10k on the Double Cash is not at all an unreasonable amount. Did you do that online or by calling? That's a good all-purpose 2% cash back card (although there is lag time in getting the 2nd 1% for payment unless you pay your statement balances before the statement actually even cuts) and pairs well with your Dividend, which I assume you only use for the 5%?
Agree that the Slate cards are absolutely useless if you always pay in full - they are good only for balance transfers and the free Experian FICO 08 score (which you can get for free from Discover at creditscorecard.com even if you do not have a Discover card. When you use the UR points on the Freedom (which I also assume you only use for 5%?) do you tend to get cash or shop through Chase for goods or travel? If cash, I'd just call Chase and ask them to move over the limits from those 2 Slate cards to your Freedom and close them (unless one of them is the oldest card you have), alternately you could move the limit from 1 to your Freedom and do a product change to a Freedom Unlimited for 1.5% in Ultimate Rewards. If you redeem for travel, you should really look into getting the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Chase Sapphire Preferred card (both have 50,000 UR sign up bonuses right now - $500-750 in cash or travel credit depending on what you redeem and which of the cards you get); CSP has a 1.25x multiplier on travel redemption and CSR has a 1.5x multiplier on travel redemption, so it's possible you could be getting up to 7.5% back on Freedom purchases and 2.25% back on all purchases if you changed one of your Slate cards to a Freedom Unlimited.
Bank of America - is the Reward World an old card that used to be an MBNA that earns WorldPoints? If you were okay with taking a credit inquiry on Transunion with Bank of America, you could call them and ask them to use the same hard pull and request a $20,000 or $25,000 credit line on each of the cards; you may be surprised at the results! If the Rewards World card is of no use to you, made a 2nd call and tell them you would a.) like to combine the two limits to your Cash Rewards card and close your Rewards World card, b.) you recently requested a credit line increase and would like to use the same credit inquiry to do this (BOA is one of the only lenders that does a HP for card consolidation) and c.) you would like to have the Visa Signature version of the Cash Rewards card.
Is the Best Buy card a store card or the Visa version? Do you still buy things there?
AmEx - when was the last time you requested a credit line increase? You are eligible for up to a 3x credit line increase every 181 days if your profile supports it. For $29,700 AmEx may request access to your tax transcripts (not guaranteed but it does happen somewhat ofter over $24k or so). No harm in trying, there is no hard credit inquiry. If you do not feel like giving them access to your tax records, you can always hit the back button and enter a lower amount. When the letter comes in the mail asking for the tax transcripts you can safely ignore it.
@Anonymous wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:So I just recently became interested in this credit business. A friend of mine got me to download an app for credit scores and I also realized my credit card companies give me a free score. I was looking at my credit cards and notice there is a large variation in my limits ($1,900-$16,000). I got most of these cards as a freshman in college because you got a free T-shirt for filling out an application. So I filled out several. I have not gotten a new card in a long time.
I decided to convert the Citi Thank You card to the Double Cash cash and asked for a limit increase. I asked for $10,000. I am not sure if this is a reasonable amount. Also, what recommendations do you guys have for the other accounts (especially Chase Freedom)? Thank you!
Chase Freedom: $1,900
Chase Slate: $6,600
Chase Slate: $10,000
Citi Thank You Preferred: $3,300
Citi Dividend: $7,700
BankAmericard Reward World: $5,500
BankAmericard Cash Rewards Platinum Plus: $4,000
Best Buy: $16,000
American Express Blue Cash: $9,900
austinguy907 made a lot of good points. Which of these cards is your oldest card according to your credit reports?
The $10k on the Double Cash is not at all an unreasonable amount. Did you do that online or by calling? That's a good all-purpose 2% cash back card (although there is lag time in getting the 2nd 1% for payment unless you pay your statement balances before the statement actually even cuts) and pairs well with your Dividend, which I assume you only use for the 5%?
Agree that the Slate cards are absolutely useless if you always pay in full - they are good only for balance transfers and the free Experian FICO 08 score (which you can get for free from Discover at creditscorecard.com even if you do not have a Discover card. When you use the UR points on the Freedom (which I also assume you only use for 5%?) do you tend to get cash or shop through Chase for goods or travel? If cash, I'd just call Chase and ask them to move over the limits from those 2 Slate cards to your Freedom and close them (unless one of them is the oldest card you have), alternately you could move the limit from 1 to your Freedom and do a product change to a Freedom Unlimited for 1.5% in Ultimate Rewards. If you redeem for travel, you should really look into getting the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Chase Sapphire Preferred card (both have 50,000 UR sign up bonuses right now - $500-750 in cash or travel credit depending on what you redeem and which of the cards you get); CSP has a 1.25x multiplier on travel redemption and CSR has a 1.5x multiplier on travel redemption, so it's possible you could be getting up to 7.5% back on Freedom purchases and 2.25% back on all purchases if you changed one of your Slate cards to a Freedom Unlimited.
Bank of America - is the Reward World an old card that used to be an MBNA that earns WorldPoints? If you were okay with taking a credit inquiry on Transunion with Bank of America, you could call them and ask them to use the same hard pull and request a $20,000 or $25,000 credit line on each of the cards; you may be surprised at the results! If the Rewards World card is of no use to you, made a 2nd call and tell them you would a.) like to combine the two limits to your Cash Rewards card and close your Rewards World card, b.) you recently requested a credit line increase and would like to use the same credit inquiry to do this (BOA is one of the only lenders that does a HP for card consolidation) and c.) you would like to have the Visa Signature version of the Cash Rewards card.
Is the Best Buy card a store card or the Visa version? Do you still buy things there?
AmEx - when was the last time you requested a credit line increase? You are eligible for up to a 3x credit line increase every 181 days if your profile supports it. For $29,700 AmEx may request access to your tax transcripts (not guaranteed but it does happen somewhat ofter over $24k or so). No harm in trying, there is no hard credit inquiry. If you do not feel like giving them access to your tax records, you can always hit the back button and enter a lower amount. When the letter comes in the mail asking for the tax transcripts you can safely ignore it.
The Dividend card and the $10K slate card are my oldest accounts (same exact age-- Citi and Chase were both there offering free T-shirts LOL)
For the double cash, I made that request on the phone at the same time when I requested it to be converted to the double cash card. I currently use the Dividend card exclusively because it was like 5% a long time ago and it's been habit ever since. They dropped it or something now I only get 1%. I barely get any cash back, it used to be a lot better, but I haven't been smart about using the right cards. As for the whole traveling and stuff, I don't really do much of that. I don't actually spend a lot of money either now because I went back to school. I usually use the Freedom or Slate card at Costco because they don't accept MasterCard. I usually use the points on amazon.
Bank of America-sounds complex, but I'll try it. I don't think I have used those cards in a long time. What is the benefit of the Visa signature card?
The Best Buy card is a store card only, not Visa. And yes, I do. I just bought a phone there a few days back.
AmEx-I tried it online, I was scared to do the $29,700, so I tried $24,500...and it worked! Might try the higher number next year or something.
Also an update on Chase, I called them just now and didn't give them an amount, and they immediately approved me for $6,900. Is that still a HP? They said they will do a hard pull but I thought that would take time.
I would keep the Dividend and the $10k Slate acounts open so that your credit age isn't affected.
For the Dividend, you have to opt in to get the 5% cash back just like the Freedom (and Discover it) cards: https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-cards-citi/citi.action?ID=dividend-quarterly-offer
I think you're good on your Citi accounts. Also keep in mind that with Citi, you can go online and if you go to the Request A Credit Line Increase (Account Management, Services) and it has specific wording that says "It's easy to find out if you qualify for a credit limit increase. A credit bureau report will not be requested and you will receive an instant decision." that is a soft pull and can be done every 6 months.
Visa Signature, World MasterCard and World Elite MasterCard cards report to the CBs as "Flexible Spending Account" instead of "Revolving Acount," generally you need at least a $5,000 credit line (there are exceptions and not all cards are available to be issued as these cards), they do have some additional perks that most people do not take advantage of.
https://usa.visa.com/pay-with-visa/cards/signature.html?ep=v_sym_signature
https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/consumers/find-card-products/credit-cards/world-elite.html
Congrats on the AmEx approval - that's awesome! Far and away your current highest credit line (I'm guessing until you call BOA).
Since you don't travel (CSP and CSR are really no good for you unless you just want the sign up bonuses - but sounds like you're clearing house after doing this back in school when the bonuses were just lousy t-shirts) and don't seem to spend enough to make it worth having two Freedom cards (5% back at Costco up to $1500 each card during the quarters they have wholesale clubs would be a reason if you do spend that much there), I would suggest moving the limit of the $6600 Slate to your Freedom and closing it, then doing a product change on your $10,000 Slate to a Freedom Unlimited and just make the occasional 1.5% back purchase on it every 4-6 months to keep it open. With your new Freedom credit line (yes it was a HP) you could have a $13,500 Freedom card to pair with the $10,000 Freedom Unlimited. If it mattered to you, you could ask for both of those to be issued as Visa Signature also. Also, sometimes Chase doesn't let you move the last $500 from a card, so that may be a $13,000 card. $5k was more than a 3x credit line increase, so that's pretty sweet.
@Anonymous wrote:I wasn't planning on getting any new cards. I thought new accounts were bad because it reduces your average age. My FICO from the Chase card is 810, Credit Karma says 801 and 803. Which is surprising to me because I thought you have to have a mortgage and a lot more credit history to be in the 800s. I just have credit cards, student loans, and a car loan a few years back that I paid off in 2 months.
I guess my main concern is that I just want no issues with my credit in about 2-3 years when I plan to buy a house.
So when I call BoA tomorrow, I ask them to increase both cards to $20-$25k, using the same credit report. Once that is done, and assuming they approve, I asked them to use the same credit report to combine the accounts into one and ask them to do a product change to a visa signature. I think I got that right.
The Chase Slate score is Experian FICO 08, what we call a real score. The Credit Karma scores are Transunion Vantage 3.0 and Equifax Vantage 3.0 which you'll see referred to as FAKO scores here - Vantage scores can be way higher or way lower for a lot of people (mine are usually 80-110 points lower than my actual FICO 08 scores) - most of us just use Credit Karma for credit alerts and to watch general trends. You have an excellent credit history, and just having the loans on your reports and paying your cards in full and on time has helped you tremedously; with your profile and not opening up new cards before your mortgage, you will likly be quite close to the magic 850 when you have made a few mortgage payments!
If you are looking at buying a house in 2 years, and it doesn't sound like you need any new cards - don't open anything new.
Sounds perfect on the BOA. They always counter-offer so it's best to shoot somewhat for the moon with the CLI requests. Alternately, you could just click the Request A Credit Line Increase button on each card's page in your account, but there is no guarantee that wouldn't result in 2 HPs.
Most of us are quite envious of your situation, and it's going to look incredible to a mortgage lender!
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you!
OK, another question "Visa Signature, World MasterCard and World Elite MasterCard cards report to the CBs as "Flexible Spending Account" instead of "Revolving Acount," <-- why is this important?
Of course! It's no problem at all.
Flexible Spending Accounts allow you to spend more than your actual credit line. The amount you can go over is determined by your credit card issuer and they will not give you that dollar amount. If you ever did this, your minimum payment would be the normal minimum plus any amount that you exceeded your credit line by. On a manual review (which would likely happen with a mortgage), this would look good to an analyst because they would see that the credit card issuer actually trusts you with even more than the amount shown as your credit limit. There are are also NPSL (no preset spending limit) cards that report that way, but they are pretty rare (other than AmEx charge cards which report as Charge Card instead).