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Hi everyone! Long time lurker first time poster in need of some advice.
cards I have currently:
1. BofA Cash Rewards: 5,700 limit. Opened in April 2012 with 700 limit. 20.99 current apr.
2. Citi forward, now double cash: 1,820 limit. Originally got it up to 4500 but with a job loss and pandemic they lowered it down to this. Have had the card since October of 2012. 10.99 APR.
3. Discover more: 6,400 limit. Opened this card the same day as citi forward/double cash. Started with 1500 and they have been nothing but kind to me and raised it when they can. 17.24 apr
4. chase freedom: opened in may of 2013 with a 2,400 limit. With Job loss and pandemic hit they've lowered it 1000 now. 18.99 apr
5. chase southwest rapid rewards plus. Opened in June of 2013, 3600 limit. 15.24 APR.
6. Amex BCE: December of 2013. 2000 limit. 23.99 APR.
7. Amex SPG, now Marriott bonvoy. December of 2013. Originally started with 4000 limit. Now at 5k.
8. capital one venture one: 10k limit. Opened in September of 2015. 21.90 APR.
9. Citi Aadvantage Platinum Select: opened in September of 2015 with a 4K limit. With the pandemic again and job loss from before they brought the limit down to 2,380.
with all that being said, I had 70% utilization at the beginning of the year. With finding a new job and graduating and combining my unemployment checks I have brought my debts down from 28,500 to about 12,800. As on capital one I have a balance of 4023.46, on discover I have a balance of 3527.72 and my other Amex I have a balance of 4870.05. I do have enough money in my savings that I can use to pay off one other card I'm really interested in the CSP, Citi premier, and US Bank Cash plus as I haven't applied for a card in about 6 years and would like to increase my overall lines as well. I have a current income of 32,500 and I live at home. I do have some travel coming up and my parents are more then happy to reimburse me back for any charges if they need to. What do my chances look like? Any advice? Also current scores as of the 7th: EX: 712, TU: 704, and EQ: 686. AAOA: 8 years or so
Thanks everyone!
-D
Based on your post, the only parameter that impacts your Fico8 is your high utilization ratio. Your debt is not very high and if you can pay it almost off, you may boost your credit score to ~770+. Afterward, you may apply for a few decent cards with high SUB.
CSP earlier this year had a SUB of ~100k (AF waived) but I guess, it requires better credit score (check Chase prequal). Its SUB got reduced recently and you may consider other cards for the moment.
If you have upcoming travels, you may consider Amex Gold. It has AF~250$, while high SUB also (check Amex prequal).
Hi xenon! Thank you for taking the time to respond back to my post.
I'm sort of getting there. I currently have about 4600 in my checking account and about 2200 in my savings. I can take about 2000 of that and payoff my old SPG or either my discover or capital one. Or I can continue to pay the minimum on time and save and then get rid of a card balance in one go. For some reason I can never get the chase prequal
to show up haha. I've had a PRG in the past that I've had and closed since I didn't get much use out of it then. I heard chase has a 5/24 rule now so I'm not sure what to make of that. I should also add that I've never had a missed payment or any lates. Ever so I assume that helps. What would you recommend as those are really the only cards that I'm interested in. I have pretty much everything else I could need credit wise. I've always wanted a CSP (for the dining and UR) and the Cash plus would be idea since I pay my family's phone bill every month, Citi premier because I like their rewards structure and have been a customer for years. I'm guessing the utilization would probably deny me for all 3 cards?
I appreciate it! Sorry, brand new to the forums but I've learned a lot in my short time here some of these threads.
Welcome aboard, @Thediamond! You're in a great place for all things credit-related.
Something jumped off the page at me: your credit limits are very low, and your APRs are very high, considering how old some of your accounts are. With your current scores, I'm wondering why?! Have you requested credit limit increases and/or APR decreases with any of your accounts? If not, you might want to consider doing that with the banks that don't do a hard pull for CLI requests. In other words, you won't be hurting your scores by asking for CLIs, as long as the bank involved doesn't do a hard pull. If you need guidance on which banks do or don't, just ask! You could increase your overall credit limit--which would also decrease your overall utilization--without having to apply for any new cards this way.
This troubles me:
"I currently have about 4600 in my checking account and about 2200 in my savings. I can take about 2000 of that and payoff my old SPG or either my discover or capital one. Or I can continue to pay the minimum on time and save and then get rid of a card balance in one go."
In my opinion, making minimum payments should be reserved for when you have no other choice, such as job loss. Looking at your APRs, and thinking about only making minimum payments....ugh....my head hurts thinking about all the interest you'll accrue! This is my personal advice, my $0.02 worth, which you can take or leave: ALWAYS pay more than the minimum, unless you're literally unable to. Even if you're zeroing in on paying off one card, don't neglect the others by only making minimum payments. This is a good habit to get into. An even better one is to pay in full every month, but all in due time!
Hello SoCal! (Are you from SoCal? If so, I am too!).
I haven't requested anything in years. I basically lost my job from a car accident (got hit by a driver without any insurance+no medical insurance). So in order to pay my bills I used my credit cards and piled on more debt. I just figured with all that debt I could slowly start paying all of it off here and there but unfortunately for me many of the banks either cut my limits or raised my APR. In that time I'm fortunate that I haven't missed any payments or other issues other then that debt. I've tried with Citi on my DC (AA doesn't have an option for me on there weirdly enough) and they just saw the spend is to low and too much revolving debt. Discover however bumped up my CL from 5500 to 6400 a couple weeks ago. I know! Believe me I hate paying the interest and I'm fortunate enough that I have a job again that pays okay for now and can make more headway into it (yay for living at home). If I could PIF all of them right now, I would. That and I stuck with paying in cash for years so as to avoid adding more debt. Does any of this make sense? Lol. That and I don't want to scare AMEX for a CLI. I'm more of looking as to what the best course of action would be. I'd love to apply for them around my birthday (in may). Or if I have a chance of getting approved now, I don't mind burning an inquiry or two. Unfortunately I'll be paying the minimum for a little while longer but I think I've made progress PIFing 6 out of 9 cards and cutting it down from 70 overalls util to about 33 or so.
again, thank you for reading my post. Much appreciated!
@Thediamond what are your individual card utilizations? I'm in a similar situation that I started really getting aggressive about a few months ago. Some cards around %90 UTIL. I've been trying to formulate a plan that saves me interest and bumps my scores at the same time. Getting each account below %49 made a big difference in my scores but even then when I app'd few a few new cards I got a pretty low SL (assuming because of current balances, even with scores over 800)
@JFox418 - on my old SPG: about 95 %.
Discover: 55%, and about 40% on my venture one. Everything else is PIF'ed as of rn.
@Thediamond wrote:@JFox418 - on my old SPG: about 95 %.
Discover: 55%, and about 40% on my venture one. Everything else is PIF'ed as of rn.
Can you make a payment on the SPG to get it down to %48? Then a payment on Discover to get it down to %48 as well? SPG is dinging you hard right now. I just picked up 28 points by getting two cards over %50 down to %48. The next tier is getting them down to around %28.
I could but I'd rather just PIF a card and not have to think about it.
@Thediamond wrote:I could but I'd rather just PIF a card and not have to think about it.
Guess it all depends on what you want to do and when. I'd definitely worry most about that %95 card. That one is hurting you the most and would most likely keep you from being approved for anything. If that was PIF then your %55 card would be the worst one and like I said, over %50 dings you pretty bad.