Need advice on what to do with cards

[uchihamadara85]

Hi, I am 19 and new to ficoforum.  I was first approved for the discover it student card around december 2012. I was declined for two other cards, but I don;t remember what they were. then during the summer i applied for two more student cards thinking I would get rejected by at least one, but I got approved for both the capital one journey and the citi dividend platinum select. 

Now fast forward to this month, I applied for the chase freedom, Amex bce and the fidelity amex, and I got approved for all of them. These are some greats cards, and now I regret applying for the capital one journey and the citi student card becasue I feel like they arent very useful anymore, especialy the capital one. I was thnking about cancelling at least one of them, but i've been told that its a bad idea. Those two cards have only been open for a few months, but i dont know how back on an impact it could have on my score. I was also thinking that I could get a product change for the citi and the journey, but i dont know if thats possible. I want to know what some of you guys wold do if you were in my situation. Cancel? Upgrade?

Cap1-1000

Citi- 2000

discover - 1000

Chase freedom - 2000

Amex BCE - 2000

Fidelity - 1000

[user5387]

You've got a great lineup, and I would focus on building history and getting CLIs and so on.

Getting lots of cards early on can be a dead end -- it's better to have fewer cards with higher CLs.

Cancelling cards will have no immediate effect on AAoA, but might hurt your utilization.

[CollegeStudent530]

Just keep your cards in a sock drawer if they have no annual fee. I carry 2 cards with me and use the other ones for special purchase/promotions only. If you feel the urge to cancel it, do it. If you can resist it, stop thinking about credit cards and just let it grow. We are both pretty young and have a great line up already. 

Congrats on the BCE!

[coldnmn]

Great line up of cards if they have an annual fee and won't product change I would close them. If not hang on to them and put a small charge every 3 months or so for utilization. 

[uchihamadara85]

Thanks for the advice. None of my cards have an AF so I'll just keep them.

[tinuviel]

---

@uchihamadara85 wrote:

Thanks for the advice. None of my cards have an AF so I'll just keep them.

---

That's not a bad idea for now. The Cap1 and Citi cards may not be as useful to you, but their CLs do help to pad your util. You have a good line up of cards and at this point what you need to focus on is allowing them to age. Eventually you can expect to get CLIs on some of your cards and you may reach a point where you decide to close the cards that aren't useful to you. Personally, I'd build up at least a couple of year's history with them, since they aren't costing you anything. When you do eventually close them, remember that they will continue to show on your reports for about 10 years, so your AAoA won't be immediately affected.

Welcome to the forums, and good luck as you begin to build your credit.

[jamesdwi]

---

@user5387 wrote:

You've got a great lineup, and I would focus on building history and getting CLIs and so on.

Getting lots of cards early on can be a dead end -- it's better to have fewer cards with higher CLs.

Cancelling cards will have no immediate effect on AAoA, but might hurt your utilization.

---

Having mulitple good cards is rarely a problem, as long as you don't get saddled with the dreaded $500 CL prime card usally a borderline approval, low income, or approved on recon will grow at 1/2 the normal rate if at all. The OP's cards have decent limits will grow with time. And will help his AAoA be more stable as time goes on. Having just a few cards to start out isn't a way to get high limit cards in my opinion, when there are only 3 or 4 creditors or less no one wants to be the first to move you to a higher teir so you run the risk of staying where you are with only small auto-cli's over time you will get to good limits but it will take years unless you have a factor that speeds the process, above average income, very high fico. New cards tend to have a higher limit if you are a garden club member, old ones grow slower.

Not many here talk about tiers but you can see if you read the posts, prime tiers would be $500-$999(approved but we don't trust you much),  $1000-$4999 starting out in primeville, actual CL related to income and existing CL's, $5000-$9999 arrived in primeville, $10000-14999 doing well, $15,000-19,999 good customer, decent income,  $20,000+ long term customer and/or above average income, and  760+ FICO.  

[samm90]

Like others have said, great cards. Keep them all and in another year convert the journey to a quicksilver. Once you make over 35k and graduate if you add the us bank cash+ you can get 5% back on 95 percent of your purchases.

[Swapmeet]

In case it wasn't explicit, stop applying for things. You are off to a great start. Keep all those cards open, let the inquiries age off, then pc to cards that you want. The history that you build while letting the inquiries age will practically guarantee your success.