Discover it HP CLI worth it??

[austinguy907]

Quality over Quantity is a good stance to be in at this point of your build.  i.e. less is more (less store / more majors)

As to the biggest potential CL's it's going to depend on how far you want to go, how much spend, and how much income.

- This is where AMEX comes into play and the 3X roulette game. I'm currently at 50K w/o much effort.  When I pushed them for more they said I don't spend enough to warrant it right now.

I managed to grow Disco from $4500 to $48K in a little over a year though and opened both AMEX / Disco within a couple of days of each other. By far AMEX grew faster like a hare and Disco kept moving along like the tortoise.

Playing the shell game with Cap1 / Chase / BOA / etc. ..... Sure for some it works and that's fine but, I personally don't see the point in it shuffling all of your spend around all of the time to max out rewards or bump CL's.  Finding what works best with some research into the product is key to a long term satisfaction with your choice.  i.e avoiding Synch / Commenity / Credit One / First Premier.

$300 CLD while jumping the utilization up quickly isn't as bad as I thought from your initial statement.  I can see why the computer would flag that on a newer account.  

Just take some time to explore.  It's not going to happen over night and will take a couple of years to hit those 50K/100K/150K/200k+ milestones for a TCL.  Back in the day I thought it was great just to have a card or two hitting 10K and now I have two in my wallet that come to almost 100K combined.  It just takes time, patience, and restraint in some cases.  

[Anonymous]

Would you close the 2 Commenity cards in favor of an older higher limit authorized user revolver in addition to bringing down Util below 10%? In theory I stand to gain from both while freeing up a slot.

[austinguy907]

I don't think it matters if you keep or ditch Commenity since eventually if you don't use them they'll close them.

The AU accounts can be double edged though if the primary decides to bump utilization up for a period of time then you also lose points on your reports.  It's hard to say how much or little they're helping your current scores though.  I think right now looking at your signature you have enough of your accounts to keep your scores decent.  

It may or may not be the time to ditch the AU crutches.  

[Anonymous]

The reason I ask is because you made me self conscious about the number of cards I have, the AU account I can guarantee with certainty that it will never post a balance and I could gain by adding 4 months to AAoA plus the added TCL would bring down Util a bit, from what you are saying the potential gain is not worth adding a 10th TL, or ditching Commenity (unclutter the file) and replacing it with the AU account... not even MyFico simulator is accurate? They seem to have put a lot of work into it. All my accounts are individual btw.

[austinguy907]

Self awareness is a good thing or you end up like some members around here with 100+ cards.

The biggest factors are paying on time, keeping reported balances low, and letting them age.

The more time and payments that pass the higher your scores go.  The higher your scores go the more bullet proof your apporval odds go.  

Simulators are useless because there's 100+ scoring models out there and it's not usually helpful to simulate something that's not specific to your needs.

For instance if it's a Fico 8 simulator that won't help you with a mortgage since they use 3 different models across the CRA's to evaluate you for the rate and they're all older models.

Your TCL will grow as your cards age and payments post.  If you cycle through them periodically and put a small charge on them to keep them active you'll gain more points.  Rule of thumb is every 6 months check for APR reductions and CLI on each account.  To keep yourself busy and not apping you could pick 2 cards per month to try the reductions and increases on and you'll expedite your growth.

If you want to trim the 2 Comenity and replace with AMEX BCE/ED w/o an AF and use the monster growth of the 3X CLI every 6 months it's an option.  

With the AU thing I don't like the thought of someone else's decision to charge or not to impact my scores

[Anonymous]

Appreciate you taking the and all the advice, you seem very involved and finesed with the game, I'll be sure to follow you. Thanks!