@Anonymous wrote:
@CreditUnionFan wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@CreditUnionFan wrote:Wow, that's a really long list. Is managing that many cards a job in itself?
I passed 70 open cards recently and it's becoming more of a challenge to stay on top of them, remember which card to use at which time, etc.
On the bright side, I recently misplaced a couple of credit cards and was like "well, I have another one I can use"
@CUF,
That is alot. Do you plan on closing any soon?
There are some that I've been thinking about closing... I get torn about the affect to the AAoA since some of the cards I'd like to close are 13 or more years old.
@CUF,
Understandable.. But do you know that the closed accounts still remain on your file for the next ten years and still used in calculating your AAoA? That should give some consolation incase you decide to move forward.
They can remain, but they don't have to - An issuer could choose not to report if they wanted.
I did just purposely pay a car loan off on June 1st just to get that extra month on the credit report. 
@Anonymous wrote:
@Creditaddict wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Creditaddict wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@darwin_wins wrote:
How do you manage to take care of laundromat and still be on MF so much?
Also have you stopped apping? Are you going to be new Ron1?
P.S. : I wonder what happened to RON1Hmm.. Good mention as I forgot about him. He hasn't been on in a while. I hope all is well with him.
@Anonymous, how many credit cards do you have now?
Mercedes said EX showed 126 or something but I think my number is closer to 85... I need to do an update... I had hit 100 but then closed out a bunch of small Comenity and Sync cards because I was at exposure with them and didn't like the limits on the cards I actually wanted with them so I had dropped down to nearly 80 I think and then have since added a few.
Surely, something must have happened for you to want this money cards? Do you carry them all at once?
When I was on Suze Orman in 2009 I had 86 cards and over half if not more were basically maxed... I always told myself when I fixed my finances and got my life in order I wanted more than that and I wanted them to be paid off! So that's what I have done!
You did keep you word amassing them
. With so many cards, have you ever had a late payment on any of them?
I have royally messed my credit up 3 times:
filed BK 2
Chapter 7 at age 20
Chapter 13 which I then dismissed because I didn't want it and didn't like it in 2007 and then settled with anyone that came after me once I came out of the BK.
I then went belly up and turned in my lease and stopped paying all my credit cards in 2011-12 and then about 6 months later got back on my feet and went back to all of them including the car lease and settled them all. I couldn't finance a lollipop until I settled everything and as soon as I hit 6 months from settlement I was off to the races and the funny part was Barclay was a settlement and 7 Sync cards were settlements and Sync was the first to give me credit again and I hit exposure in just over a year!
I'm not super proud of all those moments but many of those experiences are what brought me to the knowledge and understanding I have now of credit. But I didn't really get control of my life and there for my finances until after loosing it all again in 2011 and that crushed me far more than the BK's (surprisingly)
@CreditUnionFan wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@CreditUnionFan wrote:Wow, that's a really long list. Is managing that many cards a job in itself?
I passed 70 open cards recently and it's becoming more of a challenge to stay on top of them, remember which card to use at which time, etc.
On the bright side, I recently misplaced a couple of credit cards and was like "well, I have another one I can use"
@CUF,
That is alot. Do you plan on closing any soon?
There are some that I've been thinking about closing... I get torn about the affect to the AAoA since some of the cards I'd like to close are 13 or more years old.
CA - What would you do if you had a 13-year-old account? If it had a long history and no annual fee, would you use it a few times a year just for the AAoA?
It will stay for another 10 years as a closed account so no biggie.
just depends what it is and limit I guess.
I closed my Target card that was my first credit card in 1999 that they never closed through 2 BK's just because at some point I hated having the $200 limit on my report as open 
@CreditUnionFan wrote:
@Creditaddict wrote:yeah that's why I really just went to the 2 cards at a time in the wallet and if I know I'm going to the outlets or something I take Neiman Marcus, Banana Republic and Jcrew with me for that day but otherwise I don't skip around anymore and I never do the categories on Freedom or Discover and now we PC freedom to freedom unlimited.
That is to much for me now.
Ah, did you hear - Freedom is offering 5% on warehouses for the entire rest of the year!
Of course if your Costco sells wine, that $1500 per quarter would go really quickly.
I love Costco for Wine!
and we will be stocking the bar for the wedding ourselves from Costco since we are the caterer too
@Creditaddict wrote:You did keep you word amassing them
I have royally messed my credit up 3 times:
filed BK 2
Chapter 7 at age 20
Chapter 13 which I then dismissed because I didn't want it and didn't like it in 2007 and then settled with anyone that came after me once I came out of the BK.
I then went belly up and turned in my lease and stopped paying all my credit cards in 2011-12 and then about 6 months later got back on my feet and went back to all of them including the car lease and settled them all. I couldn't finance a lollipop until I settled everything and as soon as I hit 6 months from settlement I was off to the races and the funny part was Barclay was a settlement and 7 Sync cards were settlements and Sync was the first to give me credit again and I hit exposure in just over a year!
I'm not super proud of all those moments but many of those experiences are what brought me to the knowledge and understanding I have now of credit. But I didn't really get control of my life and there for my finances until after loosing it all again in 2011 and that crushed me far more than the BK's (surprisingly)
That must have been intense. Thanks for sharing. Did you have these many cards at age 20?
@Creditaddict wrote:
@Ghoshida wrote:Hi CA!
Glad that you could answer all the queries! Users on this board can't thank you enough for all the tips, especially related to recons. I personally thank you for the EQ contact. I share the pain of EQ troubles.
Happy to see one more board member joining the freeze team!
Congrats on the laundromat!
What I want to know :
(1) Did you at some point pick aggressive credit adding as a serious building strategy? I guess one philosophy is to add a lot of cards when building / rebuilding so that they age together!
(2) We know you're great at recons. But did any particular recon call make you pause / regret your pace of adding credit? If yes, how did you tackle it going forward?
(3) I read about your $1m credit goal. Any concurrent FICO goals?
1. I have always been extreme and aggressive but in the beginning I was so fresh from fishing everything again I took what I could and figured I would groom later and I quickly found that worked well for me.
2. Barclay recons have always been a thorn in my side... they almost seem like programmed robots sometimes about how particular they are about your inquiries and new accounts and one day I got this guy and he just didn't even ask about the inquiries and he almost asked because he had to about the new accounts and my response is always pretty standard... "You offer me a discount, I'm going to open a credit card, but if you notice they are all paid off... and for probably 6 months I really pushed... guess who just got back from 9 days in Costa Rica and we Flew for free and stayed 8 of those 9 nights in a suite for free! tell me you wouldn't open some credit cards for that too!"
and it really did work a lot of times but this guy with Barclay was the one and only and he just saw the bigger picture and looked on the outside of the box that they seem so programmed for and that's when you see a better credit picture for me and my extreme side than in the box!
2a. new accounts age pretty quickly but inquiries don't go away but for a while I actually started getting hit down on new accounts for 1-2 years vs before it was always 1-3 or 1-6 months they were concerned about and then I just felt like they had already made a choice and they were just providing reasons for their choice and sometimes it felt more personal than credit... the banks that still allow credit analysts to make full decisions are the ones you have to find what the personal opinion is and try to work off that opinion... some you will NEVER CHANGE! (those are when you see me rant! but at the end of the day, I rant and then move on... I don't live my life by it)
3. No, I mean sure I would love to see an 800... but my partner has been in the 780-810 range for the last year+ since paying off debt and while sometimes he can get higher limits, he has more issues with a shorter file length then I do and sometimes I end up with better results with a much lower score.
Fifth Third is a great example: He was approved $5k with a low 10.99 after the year.
I was approved $9500 but at a 18% rate after the year.
Chase had approved me for up to 6 cards at one point before I consolidated.
Chase made him move limit from his Freedom to open his 2nd personal card
but my 6 cards were only like $10k more limit than his 1 card so it's all in how you look at it and what you want more I guess!
but score doesn't play all that much into it so often but it's almost the only thing people think they understand about credit.
People find out i love credit and help people fix credit and they say, What's your score? When I say 710, they usually go... OH, hmmm (they don't know where to go because they think that's not that great and how you going to help me when you can't even have an 820 score!)
Thanks for the great, detailed answer, CA!
I wholeheartedly agree to the two key points you made.
It's important to know when a lender employs real people to make decisions, and then how to go about convincing them. Getting credit can often become more than a numbers game ; reconning well is an art!
Also, great answer on the FICO front. We often forget that the score is a means to a larger end, that's getting access to good and profitable credit, which in turn is a means to an even bigger end: save money (and be happy).
I think you do a great job at helping folks build and rebuild. One metric on the means doesn't have to define you.
Best of luck for your credit (and life) ambitions!
(Edited to correct formatting. My phone got it messed up!)
@Anonymous wrote:
Do you still have a clip of when you were on Suze Orman in 2009? If you mind, can you share as I'd like to listen to it.. Why did you go on there?
I recently found it and it's still as bad as I remember!
I have always loved Suze Orman and always wanted to meet her... I wish I had met her from the other side of the camera
I really wasn't doing well then and no one really knew... it all looked good on the outside I suppose but even the show didn't show what was really going on it just magnified in one spot and that spot wasn't on me which wasn't fair.