So I probably should have asked first. With everything that’s been on my plate, I lost track of time and I figured I found the right info with all the reading I've been doing.
My scores have been raising. In early August I received a NFCU prequal in the mail. I was stoked to say the least. I waited for my scores to be at their best in August, and after some reading I pulled the trigger. 0.99% intro APR for 12 months on purchases and on balance transfers made within the first 60 days. 18% APR after. Plus spend $250 on Amazon within the first 90 days and get a $50.00 statement credit. At the time I had 2 TU, 1 EX and 1EQ for inquiries. FICO 8’s were 652 EX, 651 TU, EQ 652. Pulled the trigger 09/14 and approved for $9600! I was super excited (Still am). I used it for a balance transfer from a closed Best Buy store card for $1600.00 to pay it off.
Some history. I had 3 new lines in 2022. A Torrid store card for $350.00 opened on 02/22. They pulled EXP. A Credit One (yes I feel terribly dumb) for $400.00 on 09/22, they pulled TU. As well as a Best Buy store card, $2000.00 limit 09/22. They pulled EQ.
The Best Buy and Credit One cards are closed by credit grantor. Each had a returned payment. That was due to my abusive ex who decided he’d mess with my credit. I tried explaining but to no avail. I’m actually glad the Credit One is closed. I’ll be paying it off this next month. Stupidly enough, I keep forgetting about that account and the alerts never work. Best Buy I was upset about definitely, though now it’s paid off.
These are my current stats as of 09/13/23:
FICO 8: EQ 669; TU 665; EX 677
Amex EveryDay 10k
Chase Freedom 3k
Discover It 4k (Auto CLI $2500 08/23)
Wells F Rew 6k (Auto CLI $1500 08/23)
Capital One QuickSilver1 (CLI $250 09/23)
PayPal Credit 5093.00k
Torrid $350.00
AAoA: 4 years 6 months
AoOA: 8 years 0 months
68% Util
No baddies, 100% on payments
As of 09/17/23: (3 new apps)
FICO 8: EQ 669; TU 662; EX 669
FICO 8: EQ 655; TU 640; EX 646 (BANKCARD SCORE 8)
Inquiries: EQ 1; TU 3; EX 2
I felt good about it, though I was definitely questioning the decision. I wish I had gone with the, "hold off, garden" method. Here are my apps in order.
08/14 Navy Platinum 9600k Hasn't hit my reports yet.
09/16 Discover It Cash Back 4k 0% for 15 months on balance transfers, double cash back, etc. 28.24% APR (ouch)
09/16 Dell Financial Services 4k 18% APR
09/16 Barclays Jetblue Plus 6k 29% 70k bonus
I got greedy. I wanted DFS before it changes to Comenity. I've had dealings with WebBank and I had a $4500.00 preapproval on the website. I also had the site preapproval for Discover It Cash Back and Gas and Restaurants too. Cash back is a no brainer to me. 
The Barclays, I love Jetblue. I have a vacay in mind months from now and I wanted to grab the offer. One of the other big things for me, I knew I may not have a chance for at least the Dell past 09/17 since Comenity seems fairly stingy with me... (they stop apps for WebBank on 09/18) ... but also, once NFCU hits I was worried I may not get the chance for Disc Cash Back or Dell possibly... I still think I'm greedy, lol. After NFCU and Dell I think I should of just went gardening for a few years, or however long and thats it.
I was feeling pretty good though and got caught up. I got out of a very abusive relationship months ago and I've gained back a lot of my independence. I'm very watchful and I hate that I didn't just stop with NFCU and Dell... I'm also liking the idea of balance transfers though, intro 0% apr... Hoping to drop some of my utilization. After 1 or 2 apps my plan was to garden for at least 2 years and to make sure I take that much needed vacay,
So what I'm asking is, do any of you have any suggestions? I don't want my creditors to freak out. I'm not looking to go crazy spending. My ex caused a lot of financial issues and hardships for me, so I'm catching back up so to speak. I'll be working on paying things down, but I figured balance transfers would help and so would the util.. but now I"m thinking otherwise because of the score drops. Not to mention the age of my accounts. Torrid drops off of my EX 02/24. But thats still, incl. Torrid, that's still 7 new cards in an almost 2 years span? Though Torrid was 02/22, and BB was 09/22, so a 7 month distance. Wish I would of done that yesterday.
Should I call and cancel the Discover or the Barclay maybe? Or just let them all be, garden and pay down things with even more gusto? I feel like a moron lol, and I'm actually scared. I've worked hard to get this far, and I don't want any AA on my accounts. Any help here is much appreciated, especially if it calms me down a bit. But if not, I get it. Truth is good.
Thanks so much everyone!
@AmethystClouds wrote:So I probably should have asked first. With everything that’s been on my plate, I lost track of time and I figured I found the right info with all the reading I've been doing.
My scores have been raising. In early August I received a NFCU prequal in the mail. I was stoked to say the least. I waited for my scores to be at their best in August, and after some reading I pulled the trigger. 0.99% intro APR for 12 months on purchases and on balance transfers made within the first 60 days. 18% APR after. Plus spend $250 on Amazon within the first 90 days and get a $50.00 statement credit. At the time I had 2 TU, 1 EX and 1EQ for inquiries. FICO 8’s were 652 EX, 651 TU, EQ 652. Pulled the trigger 09/14 and approved for $9600! I was super excited (Still am). I used it for a balance transfer from a closed Best Buy store card for $1600.00 to pay it off.
Some history. I had 3 new lines in 2022. A Torrid store card for $350.00 opened on 02/22. They pulled EXP. A Credit One (yes I feel terribly dumb) for $400.00 on 09/22, they pulled TU. As well as a Best Buy store card, $2000.00 limit 09/22. They pulled EQ.
The Best Buy and Credit One cards are closed by credit grantor. Each had a returned payment. That was due to my abusive ex who decided he’d mess with my credit. I tried explaining but to no avail. I’m actually glad the Credit One is closed. I’ll be paying it off this next month. Stupidly enough, I keep forgetting about that account and the alerts never work. Best Buy I was upset about definitely, though now it’s paid off.
These are my current stats as of 09/13/23:
FICO 8: EQ 669; TU 665; EX 677
Amex EveryDay 10k
Chase Freedom 3k
Discover It 4k (Auto CLI $2500 08/23)
Wells F Rew 6k (Auto CLI $1500 08/23)
Capital One QuickSilver1 (CLI $250 09/23)
PayPal Credit 5093.00k
Torrid $350.00
AAoA: 4 years 6 months
AoOA: 8 years 0 months
68% Util
No baddies, 100% on payments
As of 09/17/23: (3 new apps)
FICO 8: EQ 669; TU 662; EX 669
FICO 8: EQ 655; TU 640; EX 646 (BANKCARD SCORE 8)
Inquiries: EQ 1; TU 3; EX 2
I felt good about it, though I was definitely questioning the decision. I wish I had gone with the, "hold off, garden" method. Here are my apps in order.
08/14 Navy Platinum 9600k Hasn't hit my reports yet.
09/16 Discover It Cash Back 4k 0% for 15 months on balance transfers, double cash back, etc. 28.24% APR (ouch)
09/16 Dell Financial Services 4k 18% APR
09/16 Barclays Jetblue Plus 6k 29% 70k bonus
I got greedy. I wanted DFS before it changes to Comenity. I've had dealings with WebBank and I had a $4500.00 preapproval on the website. I also had the site preapproval for Discover It Cash Back and Gas and Restaurants too. Cash back is a no brainer to me.
I was feeling pretty good though and got caught up. I got out of a very abusive relationship months ago and I've gained back a lot of my independence. I'm very watchful and I hate that I didn't just stop with NFCU and Dell... I'm also liking the idea of balance transfers though, intro 0% apr... Hoping to drop some of my utilization. After 1 or 2 apps my plan was to garden for at least 2 years and to make sure I take that much needed vacay,
So what I'm asking is, do any of you have any suggestions? I don't want my creditors to freak out. I'm not looking to go crazy spending. My ex caused a lot of financial issues and hardships for me, so I'm catching back up so to speak. I'll be working on paying things down, but I figured balance transfers would help and so would the util.. but now I"m thinking otherwise because of the score drops. Not to mention the age of my accounts. Torrid drops off of my EX 02/24. But thats still, incl. Torrid, that's still 7 new cards in an almost 2 years span? Though Torrid was 02/22, and BB was 09/22, so a 7 month distance. Wish I would of done that yesterday.
Should I call and cancel the Discover or the Barclay maybe? Or just let them all be, garden and pay down things with even more gusto? I feel like a moron lol, and I'm actually scared. I've worked hard to get this far, and I don't want any AA on my accounts. Any help here is much appreciated, especially if it calms me down a bit. But if not, I get it. Truth is good.
Thanks so much everyone!
1. Welcome to the forum.
2. Yes you made mistakes.
3. No you shouldn't close anything.
4. Yes you should garden for a good long time.
5. Yes you should pay down things with more gusto.
6. Keep your utilization low and cut your spending.
Time heals all wounds, so no reason to be scared.
Mistakes and lessons learned I think would be a better way of putting things.
No point in closing what you have opened, damage has already been done.
Get a nice little spot to park yourself in the garden and hang out for a good long while.
Pay off what you owe as fast as you can and let things settle down. From what you have now you should be covered for a good while.
No point in closing what you have opened, damage has already been done.
Get a nice little spot to park yourself in the garden and hang out for a good long while.
Pay off what you owe as fast as you can and let things settle down. From what you have now you should be covered for a good while.
@AmethystClouds wrote:Thank you for helping! I am very glad and appreciative of all of your insight and guidance. I am going to keep spending to a minimum, paying down with what gusto I can, and hopefully I will finally start really hitting that utilization.
So I have NFCU for a balance transfer. 30 days to do it basically. 0.99% for 12 mo.
Barclays JetBlue Plus for 0% for 12 mo.
Discover 0% for 15 mo.
Any suggestions for my balance transfers? Obviously I don't want to use the entire balance. I'd like to know how I might proceed. Should I work on the cards that have the highest util to try and bring them down? I'm happy to post usage on each card if that will help.
@SouthJamaica@longtimelurker@Priory_Man
Thank you so much again! I have many others of you to thank too, over the years lurking and soaking up information has helped me so much from these forums. I did go overboard and I am concerned, but I'm happy to garden and hopefully all will be well.
Also my apologies for taking so long to respond. I've had so much going on and my kitty hasn't been feeling well. 😩
Updates: Utilization down to 58% on TU and EQ. 63% on EX.
671 EX, 650 EQ, 662 TU (TU only one thats 09/17)
Discover shows the $2500 CLI on EX (not EQ or TU).
NFCU, Disc It Cash Back, and Dell haven't reported.
Barclays (that was fast!) hit 09/19 on TU and EQ (not EX).
Hope your cat feels better.
As to balance transfers:
1. Be wary of Barclays. They once closed my accounts, and the only reason I could think of was that I was taking advantage of some attractive balance transfer offers.
2. Be aware that NFCU seems to always send the balance transfers by paper check, ensuring that it doesn't get there for a week and a half or so.
3. Discover is good but you'll be paying a balance transfer fee.
4. Be sure not to use any card for purchases which has a balance transfer balance on it, because you'll lose the grace period on your purchases.
