@mac5u wrote:I have been a credit user for over 40 years and in that time, I have amassed a number of credit cards from merchants such as Macy’s and Firestone to your usual bank cards such as Visa, MC, and Amex. I opened the merchant accounts usually when I was making a large purchase and interest-free financing was offered. Almost all of the bank cards I currently have were opened to take advantage of balance transfer offers. I don’t want to get into too many specifics here but let’s say that I have a lot of cards and an aggregate credit line well into the six figures:
- I presently revolve balances on just 5 cards
- All have a 0% promo rate which extends into 2016
- Current utilization of all balances to aggregate credit line is 14%
- Utilization per card runs from a high of 77% to 52%. These numbers go down every month
- I currently plan to continue to take advantage of balance transfer offers as current ones expire and if there is a balance on the card that can't be paid in 6 months time
- In about 26 – 30 months, if I keep on track, I will have paid off my current credit card debt
- During all this time, I have managed to keep my scores around 750- 780
I just moved so I can’t get a HELOC to consolidate everything into one payment. I know I would incur interest but doing so would give me one monthly payment and get me off the balance transfer merry-go-round.
Unless there is a Zombie apocalypse, I don’t think I need access to this much liquidity. I don’t flip houses (although I’d like to learn), so I can’t figure out any reason to keep most of the cards.
One thing I will probably do is where I have more than one card with an bank issuer such as BofA, I'll ask to combine the credit lines and keep just the card with the most favorable terms.
Is there a strategy I can employ to reduce both the number of cards and the attendant lines of credit without killing my scores once I have the cards paid off in 2017? Deciding on which cards to keep is a different question – I’d like your assistance in coming up with a strategy to reduce my risk and keep / improve my credit rating.
You will probably get a better response if a Mod moves this to the Credit Cards forum.
A good first step is to list out all your cards, preferrably in your siggy, so people can understand what is in your wallet. It makes a difference, because I don't think BofA or Citi move CL from one card to another, but AMEX and Chase do in certain circumstances. There are many different options and it all depends on which bank you are dealing with.
As long as you are getting consistent offers for BT from your set of cards (I do from BofA, US Bank, and Discover) then you are probably fine keeping the balances on the cards. As you know, you need to have multiple banks involved to make it work, but once on the merry go round, just keep working it 
@mac5u wrote:Thanks. I'll see if I can get a Mod to move the topic. I thought this forum might be the one since my question basically had to do with my not doing harm to my score. Your guidance is appreciated.
One other question: Does putting cards in sig pose any kind of risk?
You dont put your own in the siggy but the banks generic card and I see no risk to doing it
I was in a similar situation as you. I paid off all of my debt first, then after a while one card was cancelled due to lack of use and I cancelled one on my own because I changed banks. I stopped using store credit cards a long time ago...I got them for the 10% discounts but soon realized it really wasn't worth it.
With the credit cards I had a high credit line too...and like you I really didn't think I needed that much, that's why I cancelled the one and didn't even try to keep the other one from being cancelled due to lack of use. I did want to keep quite a bit of credit available though just to keep utilization down when I do use a card so I did ask for CLI's in the past for the cards I knew I would keep. I have 3 major credit cards now, I really only use two of them and usually only one at a time. I always pay them off every month. I have two cards with BOA and I've been happy with them. I do have fairly high limits on my cards so utilization is usually 1-2 percent a month....sometimes it jumps up to 3-5 percent.
I'm not sure I helped you any, but anyway that's my story.
Fox
@mac5u wrote:Thanks for the information. I would like to use NRB's advice and get this topic moved. Anyone know how to contact the Moderator for this forum?
I have put in a request to a moderator for this to be moved if possible.