I don't know. At a certain point, it just becomes ridiculous, jumping through made-up hoops and making things more complicated than they need to be. I think the better route would be to just - pay your bills on time, don't open too many cards you don't need, and keep track of your cards to make sure that you get some cli love 1-2 times per year. Maybe that's just too simple for some people but I think I'll just stick to what I know.
@parakleet wrote:
I don't know. At a certain point, it just becomes ridiculous, jumping through made-up hoops and making things more complicated than they need to be. I think the better route would be to just - pay your bills on time, don't open too many cards you don't need, and keep track of your cards to make sure that you get some cli love 1-2 times per year. Maybe that's just too simple for some people but I think I'll just stick to what I know.
Your approach is totally fine. Some people get by with just 1-2 cards. Then there are credit card/credit score fanatics like some of us here that like to devise clever strategies to maximize our credit score and leverage that for other goals that we pursue. 
@HiLine oh don't you worry, I've got pleeeeenty of cards I don't "need" lol. And I've definitely got my eye on cards that I never really thought about before coming on this forum. I'm also patiently waiting for my 3x Amex cli on the 61st day!
Ah OK! I guess you've had a fair share of the credit craze perpetrating this board. The trick is to reach the equilibrium where you have just the amount of credit with some wiggle room to move either up or down slightly when need be. Slowing down is just as important as speeding up. 
@HiLine wrote:First of all, subprime cards are a bad idea. Avoid them like the plague unless you have no other options.
Second of all, closing trade lines soon after opening raises a tall red flag.
Thirdly, for consumers with a thin file, only open accounts make a positive impact in a manual review.
On the other hand, opening 10+ accounts that do not charge an annual fee is the ideal way to start building credit. After 2 years you can apply for whatever credit cards you want without being concerned about the impact on AAoA.
As compared to what? There's different classes of subprime, and I'd suggest if I looked in your wallet I'd find a card which based on approval criteria would be considered subprime by every major lender on the planet.
When you're rebuilding or establishing credit, work one's way down through unsecured rebuilders or new to credit cards (lucky if you're a student doing this), if those fail, chase secured cards, and if that doesn't work, go the deep subprime route though this usually can be skipped as there are a few secured cards which don't check credit period. Or if you have money to play with, establish a big secured card and shortcut some of the more annoying things regarding credit building.
Not exactly magic, but realistically wrap your arms around the 2-3 best revolving tradelines you can obtain when starting and go on with life. If that's subprime, fine, I'll stack my old BOFA 1-2-3 secured card up against many of the people with better credit than I have, sometimes even on this forum too. I would strongly encourage anyone not to throw out useful tools over some silly label.
As for the OP's question: I thought about doing this, and felt the disadvantages were too large. It fundamentally doesn't show stability, and I'm willing to bet there's a penalty for short-tradelines in the FICO model just as there are bonuses for tradeline seasoning. AAoA is not a large enough portion of the model to try to game in this fashion, the downsides greatly overshadow the upsides.
That's in addition to the difficult questions as others have intimated that'll possibly come up in the next 10 years, and I would suggest that either "I was just trying to establish accounts for AAoA purposes" or "I realized I didn't really need all those cards" both are going to be viewed as negatives.
@Revelate wrote:
@HiLine wrote:First of all, subprime cards are a bad idea. Avoid them like the plague unless you have no other options.
Second of all, closing trade lines soon after opening raises a tall red flag.
Thirdly, for consumers with a thin file, only open accounts make a positive impact in a manual review.
On the other hand, opening 10+ accounts that do not charge an annual fee is the ideal way to start building credit. After 2 years you can apply for whatever credit cards you want without being concerned about the impact on AAoA.As compared to what? There's different classes of subprime, and I'd suggest if I looked in your wallet I'd find a card which based on approval criteria would be considered subprime by every major lender on the planet.
By definition, a subprime credit card is one that is issued to people with substandard credit scores or limited credit histories. It is widely understood that subprime cards include cards that charge maintenance fees, have high APR's, and have low credit limits (in the hundreds), and that get issued to people who have no credit history or major negative items on their credit reports, such as those offered by First Premier, Credit One, the former Orchard Bank, and the likes. Secured credit cards can also be considered subprime, but once they graduate they become prime cards. You want to avoid subprime cards because future lenders will see their records on your credit profile, and that may raise a red flag.
I wasn't aware of classes of subprime. Please enlighten me. 
I assume you did not mean to convey a literal meaning in your second phrase? I suggest that subprime cards be avoided like the plague unless there are no other options, and I follow that principle myself.
@HiLine wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@HiLine wrote:First of all, subprime cards are a bad idea. Avoid them like the plague unless you have no other options.
Second of all, closing trade lines soon after opening raises a tall red flag.
Thirdly, for consumers with a thin file, only open accounts make a positive impact in a manual review.
On the other hand, opening 10+ accounts that do not charge an annual fee is the ideal way to start building credit. After 2 years you can apply for whatever credit cards you want without being concerned about the impact on AAoA.As compared to what? There's different classes of subprime, and I'd suggest if I looked in your wallet I'd find a card which based on approval criteria would be considered subprime by every major lender on the planet.
By definition, a subprime credit card is one that is issued to people with substandard credit scores or limited credit histories. It is widely understood that subprime cards include cards that charge maintenance fees, have high APR's, and have low credit limits (in the hundreds), and that get issued to people who have no credit history or major negative items on their credit reports, such as those offered by First Premier, Credit One, the former Orchard Bank, and the likes. Secured credit cards can also be considered subprime, but once they graduate they become prime cards. You want to avoid subprime cards because future lenders will see their records on your credit profile, and that may raise a red flag.
I wasn't aware of classes of subprime. Please enlighten me.
I assume you did not mean to convey a literal meaning in your second phrase? I suggest that subprime cards be avoided like the plague unless there are no other options, and I follow that principle myself.
Deep subprime: FP, Credit One, OpenSky, SDFCU secured or any other which doesn't do a credit check
Subprime: Capital One, Fingerhut, vast majority of store cards, most secured cards
Subprime approval criteria, call em near prime if you want to split hairs (even though I think that's 660? I forget my mortgage tiers offhand which is classic prime vs subprime definition): Freedom, all Amex charge cards, old Citi Forward, Discover More/It, etc. If you can be approved at 640 FICO /shrug.
I don't accept the argument that maintenance fees, or high APR's, or low CL's equates to subprime. By that definition, my BCP is subprime, and admittedly the fact that they approved me suggests it's getting near that category the same way Chase's Freedom has. We tend to make up monikers on this forum that aren't necessarily accurate, though I'll admit my own are just as much opinion.
Secured cards still have their purposes regardless of credit strata as well.
A label of prime means less than zero rationally. A card that works for me, whatever the reason, and that I can establish payment history on, is really all that matters when it comes to building credit.
I'll just ask, what other options do adult non-college student thin, mixed, or negative files have? You're stuck taking a "subprime" (stupid label in my estimation, again see Chase Freedom with subprime approval criteria and it's a good card for almost anyone) somewhere along the lines, and there's no negative moniker to it. The whole "oh lenders may think badly of me in the future" has been long since debunked, plenty of people are in with Chase and Amex with FP tradelines on record, even on this forum. Banks don't chase away profitable customers in general.
@Revelate wrote:
@HiLine wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@HiLine wrote:First of all, subprime cards are a bad idea. Avoid them like the plague unless you have no other options.
Second of all, closing trade lines soon after opening raises a tall red flag.
Thirdly, for consumers with a thin file, only open accounts make a positive impact in a manual review.
On the other hand, opening 10+ accounts that do not charge an annual fee is the ideal way to start building credit. After 2 years you can apply for whatever credit cards you want without being concerned about the impact on AAoA.As compared to what? There's different classes of subprime, and I'd suggest if I looked in your wallet I'd find a card which based on approval criteria would be considered subprime by every major lender on the planet.
By definition, a subprime credit card is one that is issued to people with substandard credit scores or limited credit histories. It is widely understood that subprime cards include cards that charge maintenance fees, have high APR's, and have low credit limits (in the hundreds), and that get issued to people who have no credit history or major negative items on their credit reports, such as those offered by First Premier, Credit One, the former Orchard Bank, and the likes. Secured credit cards can also be considered subprime, but once they graduate they become prime cards. You want to avoid subprime cards because future lenders will see their records on your credit profile, and that may raise a red flag.
I wasn't aware of classes of subprime. Please enlighten me.
I assume you did not mean to convey a literal meaning in your second phrase? I suggest that subprime cards be avoided like the plague unless there are no other options, and I follow that principle myself.
Deep subprime: FP, Credit One, OpenSky, SDFCU secured or any other which doesn't do a credit check
Subprime: Capital One, Fingerhut, vast majority of store cards, most secured cards
Subprime approval criteria, call em near prime if you want to split hairs (even though I think that's 660? I forget my mortgage tiers offhand which is classic prime vs subprime definition): Freedom, all Amex charge cards, old Citi Forward, Discover More/It, etc. If you can be approved at 640 FICO /shrug.
I don't accept the argument that maintenance fees, or high APR's, or low CL's equates to subprime. By that definition, my BCP is subprime, and admittedly the fact that they approved me suggests it's getting near that category the same way Chase's Freedom has. We tend to make up monikers on this forum that aren't necessarily accurate, though I'll admit my own are just as much opinion.
Secured cards still have their purposes regardless of credit strata as well.
A label of prime means less than zero rationally. A card that works for me, whatever the reason, and that I can establish payment history on, is really all that matters when it comes to building credit.
I'll just ask, what other options do adult non-college student thin, mixed, or negative files have? You're stuck taking a "subprime" (stupid label in my estimation, again see Chase Freedom with subprime approval criteria and it's a good card for almost anyone) somewhere along the lines, and there's no negative moniker to it. The whole "oh lenders may think badly of me in the future" has been long since debunked, plenty of people are in with Chase and Amex with FP tradelines on record, even on this forum. Banks don't chase away profitable customers in general.
I would have to agree with this statement.
In my situation it might not have been the "best" thing to do, opening so many new lines of credit at once but......
For two years I had only FP, Credit One and Cap One.
By the definition in this thread....ALL sub-prime cards.
In a period of about 90 days...I opened...
USAA x3
NFCU x2
AMEX x3
Discover x1
Barclays x1
So, I do not think that lenders look at these "sub-prime" cards as a risk factor considering that I went from; $2500 revolving credit to over $50k in 3 months.
*8/10/13
@Revelate wrote:
@HiLine wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@HiLine wrote:First of all, subprime cards are a bad idea. Avoid them like the plague unless you have no other options.
Second of all, closing trade lines soon after opening raises a tall red flag.
Thirdly, for consumers with a thin file, only open accounts make a positive impact in a manual review.
On the other hand, opening 10+ accounts that do not charge an annual fee is the ideal way to start building credit. After 2 years you can apply for whatever credit cards you want without being concerned about the impact on AAoA.As compared to what? There's different classes of subprime, and I'd suggest if I looked in your wallet I'd find a card which based on approval criteria would be considered subprime by every major lender on the planet.
By definition, a subprime credit card is one that is issued to people with substandard credit scores or limited credit histories. It is widely understood that subprime cards include cards that charge maintenance fees, have high APR's, and have low credit limits (in the hundreds), and that get issued to people who have no credit history or major negative items on their credit reports, such as those offered by First Premier, Credit One, the former Orchard Bank, and the likes. Secured credit cards can also be considered subprime, but once they graduate they become prime cards. You want to avoid subprime cards because future lenders will see their records on your credit profile, and that may raise a red flag.
I wasn't aware of classes of subprime. Please enlighten me.
I assume you did not mean to convey a literal meaning in your second phrase? I suggest that subprime cards be avoided like the plague unless there are no other options, and I follow that principle myself.
Deep subprime: FP, Credit One, OpenSky, SDFCU secured or any other which doesn't do a credit check
Subprime: Capital One, Fingerhut, vast majority of store cards, most secured cards
Subprime approval criteria, call em near prime if you want to split hairs (even though I think that's 660? I forget my mortgage tiers offhand which is classic prime vs subprime definition): Freedom, all Amex charge cards, old Citi Forward, Discover More/It, etc. If you can be approved at 640 FICO /shrug.
I don't accept the argument that maintenance fees, or high APR's, or low CL's equates to subprime. By that definition, my BCP is subprime, and admittedly the fact that they approved me suggests it's getting near that category the same way Chase's Freedom has. We tend to make up monikers on this forum that aren't necessarily accurate, though I'll admit my own are just as much opinion.
Secured cards still have their purposes regardless of credit strata as well.
A label of prime means less than zero rationally. A card that works for me, whatever the reason, and that I can establish payment history on, is really all that matters when it comes to building credit.
I'll just ask, what other options do adult non-college student thin, mixed, or negative files have? You're stuck taking a "subprime" (stupid label in my estimation, again see Chase Freedom with subprime approval criteria and it's a good card for almost anyone) somewhere along the lines, and there's no negative moniker to it. The whole "oh lenders may think badly of me in the future" has been long since debunked, plenty of people are in with Chase and Amex with FP tradelines on record, even on this forum. Banks don't chase away profitable customers in general.
FYI,
Chase freedom used to have a subprime catagory. I used to have one with a $200 limit that I kept for about 2 years until I finally gave it the axe.
These cards have their purpose, and they can be a good option for folks who otherwise don't have a lot of options. I prefer to steer folks towards secured cards rather than First Premier or Credit One.
FICO 8: 
Goal: Gardening!
Goal: Gardening!
