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Hi everyone!
Today has been an interesting day. As stated in my previous thread, I woke up to an auto-CLI from Discover from $4500 to $9500, then brought up my two Synchrony store cards from $5000 to $6000 and $7000 to $10000. That was nice.
Now I want to start doing some fine-tuning.
My wife and I recently purchased a house from her parents (bless them) a couple of months ago. The mortgage is not reporting on my credit. I am the owner, she is the joint. We got a stellar rate, by the way, at 3.25%. I am now wanting to seriously optimize my credit so we can get the lowest rates if we do need to pull out an emergency loan. I am wanting to use cards for fine spending but do not want to live in debt.
To go back a bit, back in 2017 I started a home business on credit. That was a huge mistake. With the house we were able to zero out most of our cards, and I have a huge chunk of unemployment coming. We're going to wipe out the balances on our last two cards—both credit union cards (our Rivermark and Alliant card.)
Fast forward to recent, and my new car which I purchased in 2014 was just totaled out from insurance. Some guy ran me off the road during a merge. So now I'm out a car, but the $6000 left on the payment is about to be wiped out. Insurance is sending just over $10,000 for it, so that will take out the only installment loan on my credit.
Data points:
Overall credit usage: 17%
Currently Reporting Credit Limits: $41,000
Next statement cut Credit Limits: $50,000
Debt:
Credit cards: $6,833
Loans: $6,601 (the car)
Collections: $0 (no collections via EX or TU, $0 reported on 1 coll. EQ)
Total Debt: $13,615
12 Open Accounts:
8 Open Credit Cards
1 Auto Account
3 "Self Reported" (Experian)
Inquiries: 5 hard inquiries
1 from a mortgage
1 from Rivermark
1 from Chase
1 from Discover
1 from Sprint
Average age of accounts: 5 yr 1 mo.
Oldest account: 11 yr 3 mo (Authorized User - Chase Freedom)
What I would like:
I try to rotate my cards when I can, but I'd really like to have great cards for specific purposes, and less of this 1% cash back everywhere spam going to a single card.
I have called Convergent Outsourcing, they are providing me with a receipt so I can dispute the $0 PAID OFF collection on my Experian file. That should work if I upload it to Experian, correct? It already shows as disputed.
Should I wait for some of this stuff to be paid off with the car and the couple of credit cards showing a balance (the Rivermark card is actually almost maxed but we can KO it this month if we want thanks to). Also the mortgage isn't reporting yet. Note that if I pay off the car my credit mix will change, I think.
Thanks everyone! If you have suggestions for cards or courses of action, please share them here! I am ready to soak knowledge!
1) Your mortgage will cover the "Fico Credit Mix", so don't fret about car.
2) We need a list of you cards, and your spend in common reward categories for meaningful "replacement / new" card suggestions.
There are lots of good cards but with out knowing your spend our suggestions are just our favorites not necessary a fit for you. Random suggestions will also overlap cards you already have.
@Kforce wrote:1) Your mortgage will cover the "Fico Credit Mix", so don't fret about car.
2) We need a list of you cards, and your spend in common reward categories for meaningful "replacement / new" card suggestions.
There are lots of good cards but with out knowing your spend our suggestions are just our favorites not necessary a fit for you. Random suggestions will also overlap cards you already have.
Hey thanks for the response.
Good news on the car/mortgage. That makes me happy
As for the credit mix, right now the only cards I honestly use are the Discover IT for the rotating categories and the Citi Costco card for restaurants and gas.
So...
Restaurants: Citi Costco (3%)
Gas: Citi Costco (4%)
Groceries: Don't have specific card, have been eyeballing Amex for 6% Grocery?
High % Anywhere: Best is Alliant Platinum Rewards at 2.0%. Was declined for the Visa Signature 2.5% because I couldn't hit $10,000 SL.
@Azza wrote:Groceries: Don't have specific card, have been eyeballing Amex for 6% Grocery?
Look carefully at your spend and make sure the places are Amex friendly.
Amex codes different than many other cards.
After AF "Grocery" with ideal spend is 4.2% and if you spend more than cap need a backup grocery card.
I went with the Bank of the West (Gas, Grocery, Fast-Food, Restaurant), 1 card for 4 categories
Could be a good backup for your Amex and Costco in one card.
High % Anywhere: Best is Alliant Platinum Rewards at 2.0%.
The new 3% anywhere cards are likely to be gone in a year.
I believe that 2% is the top long term, NAF card.
Depending on you unlisted spend, take a look at the US_Bank Cash+
5% in two categories you pick and 3% in a third.
This is another card that provides good rewards for many.