How to grow my credit portfolio...

[NewtoFico1]

Hi,
I have four cards. Two credit and two store cards. Anybody have any advice for me??

[iheartwings]

---

@NewtoFico1 wrote:
Hi,
I have four cards. Two credit and two store cards. Anybody have any advice for me??

---

Welcome to the forums. You'll learn a lot here.

Everyone has advice, but the only way to share it is if you have a more specific question that you're looking to have answered - otherwise, you'll get a lot of generic information. 

[NewtoFico1]

I have gotten lots of credit cards offers lately and loans offers... From reading these posts lately it seems like that there are some I should avoid. Some of credit cards offers, Indigo, credit one, Discover It, CitiBank DC, Walmart, Capitol1. Some of the loans offers are prosper, LC, one main... my local credit union loan..

[NRB525]

Welcome OP.  

Can you list out the 4 cards you have, brand, bank name, the month / year each was opened, credit limit and what the last statement balance was on each? This gives useful perspective about where you are now. 

Any late payments, ever, on any credit accounts? This clarifies whether there are any score challenges that may limit access to some banks. 

Discover and Capital One, Citi Double Cash are good banks to continue with, especially when you are trying to improve scores. 

Credit One is one of the banks you want to avoid unless there are real problems with your credit such as a recent bankruptcy. 

[iheartwings]

Okay. Sounds like you've purused some of the forums. 

To get best bang for your buck, we'll need a little more specifics from you. 

For example:

1) What is it that you want to do? Do you want to refinance debt? Do you want to build (or rebuild) your credit? Are you trying to decide to go cash back, MR points, UR points, etc.? 

2) Do you know your FICO scores? (CK, CS, credit.com, etc. are all Vantage Scores). Do you have have thick/thin/dirty/clean file? 

3) You mention prequalified/preapproved offers (congrats, I don't get anything) - is there anything in those offers that pique your interest that you want to share (not all offers are created equal) or that you have a question about?  

These details help us help you the best way we can. 

[NewtoFico1]

1) I want to build my credit to have lower utilization on my current cc debt. However, this may not be possible with the high inquiries due to trying to qualify for an auto loan. 7/8 due to the auto loan... within the last two to three months.
2) my credit karma scores are 695 from tu and 695 from equifax. 671 from Experian website.
With this information is it better for me to lower my utilization with out using a hard pull?? My total utilization is about 42% between 4 cards. It was about 58% in Sept. 2018..

[Anonymous]

We would need more information to be able to better help you as it was mentioned before. Adding more card to your credit card portfolio would help you increase your overal credit line and also reduce your utilization ratio and some other things but yeah, generally speaking, it is a good thing. Like I said, write a post with more details about your credit profile and what you're looking for.

[iheartwings]

OP -

Can you tell us what cards you have, SLs, and current balances? 

Lowering utilization can be done in one of two ways: 1) paying down your existing debt, or, 2) increasing your total credit. Your current utilization is not ideal, which is affecting your scores. The faster you pay down your cards, the higher your scores will be. 

If you can get increase your credit limits without a hard pull, that will help your utilization. To optimize credit scoring, you want to have one card report a balance of <8% of the card's CL while all other cards report a $0 balance. 

If you have a thin file, HPs, and age of credit are probably also affecting your score. The thicker your file, the less HPs affect you. Do you have any derogs?

Four cards is actually a decent number to grow your credit over time. 

Finally, you should consider trying to get your FICO scores (the one from the Experian website, I believe is a FICO 8) because the scores from CreditKarma are VantageScores. These are not used in credit decision making, so it would be helpful if you could get your true FICO 8 scores to help you decide if it reasonable to apply for more credit products. 

[NewtoFico1]

Okay,

1) My oldest credit card in good standing. 11 yrs..2000 sl 1411 used more than 50% utilization 22.99 purchase apr.
2) kohl in store card 5 years in good standing 300 sl 79 used my utilization is fine.
3) Tires plus in store card 5 years in good standing. 1200 sl o% utilization used.
4) Best Buy newest account opened March of this year. 2000 sl 693 used. Taking advantage of 0% financing for 12 months.
All four of my paid collections were hospitals Bills. They started around 2013 to 2015. My last two that I did not know about were paid Sept/Oct 2018.

[Anonymous]

---

@NewtoFico1 wrote:
1) I want to build my credit to have lower utilization on my current cc debt. However, this may not be possible with the high inquiries due to trying to qualify for an auto loan. 7/8 due to the auto loan... within the last two to three months.
2) my credit karma scores are 695 from tu and 695 from equifax. 671 from Experian website.
With this information is it better for me to lower my utilization with out using a hard pull?? My total utilization is about 42% between 4 cards. It was about 58% in Sept. 2018..

---

The only way that I know of to "get more credit" without a hard pull would be asking for credit line increases which would give you more credit line and reduce your utilization ratio so you could try that.