Thinking about apping for some new cards.

[Aim_High]

Welcome to My Fico forums, @Thediamond!  

Okay, you asked for advice and I'm going to go in a completely different direction that some of the above postings.  Not that I disagree with much that has been said about how to manage your situation, but I wanted to give you my perspective on general direction.  You're "thinking about apping for some new cards."  I would suggest you not do anything with adding new lines of credit at this time.  There are a LOT of moving parts going on here.  You lost your job.  You are carrying debt. You are living at home with parents. You are graduating soon.  You experienced adverse action with both Chase and Citi lowering multiple credit limits. Still, you have over 100% of your annual income available to you in credit as we speak.  Those lines of credit are mostly modest, especially after the adverse action cuts. and they are spread over (9) cards for an average CL of about $4200.    However, you're in the process of moving out and paying down the debt. Hopefully, your FICOs will improve as debts are paid down. 

So my suggestion is to wait.  Let the dust settle.  Work on paying down and/or using your existing lines of credit.  Ask for credit limit increases or consider consolidating or closing lower limit lines to improve your profile.  You'll get better approvals and higher limits on the cards you really want if you follow this course of action rather than rushing to apply for more credit right now.  JMHO, and good luck with however you decide to proceed. 

[Thediamond]

Hello @Aim_High ! Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. The job loss happened years ago but I managed to survive and had a job (not a decent paying one, plus was in school for a long time but that's over now). So I just graduated but found a job that's paying me a higher salary (at 55k) while allowing me to live at home and let's me save money since I'm local and the COL here is rather expensive. My score according to chase is 754, while the others am not sure if they've updated. I can probably wait a few more months. I was thinking with paying off another card my chances would be better along with the rise in income. Nonetheless, I truly appreciate your thoughts and opinion .

[jonblaze24]

With having so many open accounts and having so much debt still, why would you even think for a second of opening a new account? Your best bet is to continue to pay off your debt, while you lower your utilization roll the dice on some CLI's (ones that don't do a hard pull)....and once your debt decreases/score increases, apply IF NECESSARY. You'll have a much better shot at a great starting limit then. Still, it doesn't seem like you are in a position where you NEED more credit available to you, more so WANT it which sometimes isn't the best way to go about it. 

Just my 2 cents.