@Anonymous wrote:I'm considering 4 major network revolvers (not necessarily ALL major networks), 1 charge and 2 or 3 useful store cards. That should be more than enough.
I hear that Jon....Because of travel, and having to use different airlines and hotels for business I tend to rack up more cards than I should for status and perks that you get with them...it is nice to go on business trips have the company pay bill and get points for it, this way I can take the family on vaca cheaper!
@odd_dog wrote:Since I have achieved all that I ever wanted CC wise, and have pruned the heard down to just the cards I want (still waiting till a year to close Hawaiian air) I have now started to look at lowering CL on some cards. First today was IHG, I really do not need a $10K + CL on a hotel card so knocked that down to $7K. It gets kinda crazy when I look at my total CL available across all cards...NUTS and I am truly the king of PIF so seems silly to have all "that" out there. If I really needed a money for something big I would just apply for a loan. I know I am against the tide here with NOT wanting more CL for Util padding, but as we always say everyone's journey is different. It is becoming addicting, checking on cards I used to use but as spending patterns or Hotels, or Airlines change, so do the cards I utilize.....It is almost like apping...same high to get rid of unwanted things.....Now after cutting down a few CL maybe I will look into what cards overlap in rewards...THAT might be a tougher decision....LOL
Gratz. Each person is different so whatever works for you. I like having high available credit because even though I PIF (except on 0% APR cards), I don't like to have to worry about paying before the statement cut date. With the extra util it allows me to let multiple balances post, but still keep my util at reasonable levels. It can be liberarting when you close cards though.
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@red259 wrote:
@odd_dog wrote:Since I have achieved all that I ever wanted CC wise, and have pruned the heard down to just the cards I want (still waiting till a year to close Hawaiian air) I have now started to look at lowering CL on some cards. First today was IHG, I really do not need a $10K + CL on a hotel card so knocked that down to $7K. It gets kinda crazy when I look at my total CL available across all cards...NUTS and I am truly the king of PIF so seems silly to have all "that" out there. If I really needed a money for something big I would just apply for a loan. I know I am against the tide here with NOT wanting more CL for Util padding, but as we always say everyone's journey is different. It is becoming addicting, checking on cards I used to use but as spending patterns or Hotels, or Airlines change, so do the cards I utilize.....It is almost like apping...same high to get rid of unwanted things.....Now after cutting down a few CL maybe I will look into what cards overlap in rewards...THAT might be a tougher decision....LOL
Gratz. Each person is different so whatever works for you. I like having high available credit because even though I PIF (except on 0% APR cards), I don't like to have to worry about paying before the statement cut date. With the extra util it allows me to let multiple balances post, but still keep my util at reasonable levels. It can be liberarting when you close cards though.
Cool, what am I missing with worrying about posting balances? Is it just for score, for apping, or something else? For me my util is always no more than 3%-ish so I never really worry but would like to hear your reasoning, I may be missing something good!
@odd_dog wrote:
@red259 wrote:
@odd_dog wrote:Since I have achieved all that I ever wanted CC wise, and have pruned the heard down to just the cards I want (still waiting till a year to close Hawaiian air) I have now started to look at lowering CL on some cards. First today was IHG, I really do not need a $10K + CL on a hotel card so knocked that down to $7K. It gets kinda crazy when I look at my total CL available across all cards...NUTS and I am truly the king of PIF so seems silly to have all "that" out there. If I really needed a money for something big I would just apply for a loan. I know I am against the tide here with NOT wanting more CL for Util padding, but as we always say everyone's journey is different. It is becoming addicting, checking on cards I used to use but as spending patterns or Hotels, or Airlines change, so do the cards I utilize.....It is almost like apping...same high to get rid of unwanted things.....Now after cutting down a few CL maybe I will look into what cards overlap in rewards...THAT might be a tougher decision....LOL
Gratz. Each person is different so whatever works for you. I like having high available credit because even though I PIF (except on 0% APR cards), I don't like to have to worry about paying before the statement cut date. With the extra util it allows me to let multiple balances post, but still keep my util at reasonable levels. It can be liberarting when you close cards though.
Cool, what am I missing with worrying about posting balances? Is it just for score, for apping, or something else? For me my util is always no more than 3%-ish so I never really worry but would like to hear your reasoning, I may be missing something good!
If your spend is only using up 3% of your util then its not really an issue. Some months I have heavy credit card spend, which can drive up my util. This in turn temporarly lowers my score. My score will recover once the balances are paid down, but since I have heavy spend each month I don't want to worry about that. Having a lower score due to util can make it more difficult for me to get auto-CLI or SP CLIs on cards that I would like higher balances on due to my frequent use of them. Also, by keeping my util down it keeps my credit score in better shape, so that if a limited time credit card offer pops up I can pull the trigger on it and get approved with a decent credit line. If I had to go around paying all my balances and optimizing my report and waiting for it to update then I could miss the app window. Finally I like getting more available credit, because I pick up a lot of travel cards with AFs and every year I have to go through and see which cards are worth keeping. By making sure I have plenty of credit I can easily close 20k+ credit lines without worrying about it causing a significant rise in my util rate. Eventually I will get to the point where I will only have one or two AF cards and the rest will be non-AF. On the flipside sometimes I will reduce my credit lines on certain cards (e.g., citi) if I am near the overall credit limit with the lender so that i may be approved for a new product. Over the course of 2016 I anticipate closing several accounts and opening only 2 or 3, so my total number of accounts will start dropping.
@red259 wrote:
@odd_dog wrote:
@red259 wrote:
@odd_dog wrote:Since I have achieved all that I ever wanted CC wise, and have pruned the heard down to just the cards I want (still waiting till a year to close Hawaiian air) I have now started to look at lowering CL on some cards. First today was IHG, I really do not need a $10K + CL on a hotel card so knocked that down to $7K. It gets kinda crazy when I look at my total CL available across all cards...NUTS and I am truly the king of PIF so seems silly to have all "that" out there. If I really needed a money for something big I would just apply for a loan. I know I am against the tide here with NOT wanting more CL for Util padding, but as we always say everyone's journey is different. It is becoming addicting, checking on cards I used to use but as spending patterns or Hotels, or Airlines change, so do the cards I utilize.....It is almost like apping...same high to get rid of unwanted things.....Now after cutting down a few CL maybe I will look into what cards overlap in rewards...THAT might be a tougher decision....LOL
Gratz. Each person is different so whatever works for you. I like having high available credit because even though I PIF (except on 0% APR cards), I don't like to have to worry about paying before the statement cut date. With the extra util it allows me to let multiple balances post, but still keep my util at reasonable levels. It can be liberarting when you close cards though.
Cool, what am I missing with worrying about posting balances? Is it just for score, for apping, or something else? For me my util is always no more than 3%-ish so I never really worry but would like to hear your reasoning, I may be missing something good!
If your spend is only using up 3% of your util then its not really an issue. Some months I have heavy credit card spend, which can drive up my util. This in turn temporarly lowers my score. My score will recover once the balances are paid down, but since I have heavy spend each month I don't want to worry about that. Having a lower score due to util can make it more difficult for me to get auto-CLI or SP CLIs on cards that I would like higher balances on due to my frequent use of them. Also, by keeping my util down it keeps my credit score in better shape, so that if a limited time credit card offer pops up I can pull the trigger on it and get approved with a decent credit line. If I had to go around paying all my balances and optimizing my report and waiting for it to update then I could miss the app window. Finally I like getting more available credit, because I pick up a lot of travel cards with AFs and every year I have to go through and see which cards are worth keeping. By making sure I have plenty of credit I can easily close 20k+ credit lines without worrying about it causing a significant rise in my util rate. Eventually I will get to the point where I will only have one or two AF cards and the rest will be non-AF. On the flipside sometimes I will reduce my credit lines on certain cards (e.g., citi) if I am near the overall credit limit with the lender so that i may be approved for a new product. Over the course of 2016 I anticipate closing several accounts and opening only 2 or 3, so my total number of accounts will start dropping.
Thanks!!
