What's next

[erickm09]

Hello, I have read these forums so much over the past few weeks and I have gathered a lot of knowledge on the matter. However I still have some questions and woud appreciate the advice.

A month ago my car broke down, so I decided it was time to buy a new car from the dealership rather than another used one(having such bad luck with used cars.)

And so i did. I went to VW and walked out with a jetta. However I got a very high APR(10.5% I believe) and it was due to my credit history. Which was pretty much unexistent. At that point in time(August 10) I had a BOA 321 partially secured card with a credit limit of $500 and it was opened in Jan 2013. The history wasn't bad, I might have had carried a bit of a high balance but never over the limit. I also never missed a payment. 

Anyways long story short, my plan is to refinance the car in about a year. Hopefully with a stronger credit history I will get a better rate. 

After reading some posts I realized my best course of action was to open up a few more credit cards and build an even stronger credit history. So I gathered the courage and applied for the following things(in order):

-BOA: credit limit increase of $1000; I was told to wait for a response. I was denied told to wait a year. However I called for Recon after finding out about the Discover approval and they graduated my card and gave me $1500 limit. I was very excited seeing as how it happened only 7 months later and not after a whole year.

-Discover IT- I applied for a student account, however at the very end it asked for a school schedule which I was able to provide at the time. So i closed the window and told myself to try later when I had the paperwork. Little did I know that it saved my info, couple days later I got a call saying I was approved for $1500 as long as I submitted my school schedule. Which I did immediately. This gave me courage to do the recon at BOA.

-Amex BCE- This was an instant approval. It felt great! I tought it was a hard card to get. I later found out my CL was $2000! Which got me really excited.

-My last card was Chase Freedom- This one was very tricky. I applied and got the 30 day message which discouraged me a lot but I decided to wait for their response before calling for a Recon. I got a letter saying I was declined due to my short credit history. I immediately called for a Recon and the guy who tried to seem helpful didn't help at all and told me to come back in a year. I called for a second time and this time they didn't even bother to look at my file. He just said no. I called a third time, as my last attempt. And this time it was a lady who sounded mean,but turned out to be very helpful. After some questions she said I was accepted for a limit of $500! Kind of low compared to my other ones but at least I was able to get my foot in the door. And most importantly the hard pull wasn't wasted!

OK so now my questions are:

-What else can I do to prepare myself for the refinance of the car a year from now?

-How do I manage so many cards? I am confused most of the time on which one I should use. Should I rotate them depending on the benefits? Should I gather all the cashback just in one? How do I keep them all active and well?(So that I can get CLI down the road.)

I know it's an extremely long post but any help would be appreciated it!

Thanks a lot guys! I really have learned a lot here! 

[myjourney]

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@erickm09 wrote:

Hello, I have read these forums so much over the past few weeks and I have gathered a lot of knowledge on the matter. However I still have some questions and woud appreciate the advice.

A month ago my car broke down, so I decided it was time to buy a new car from the dealership rather than another used one(having such bad luck with used cars.)

And so i did. I went to VW and walked out with a jetta. However I got a very high APR(10.5% I believe) and it was due to my credit history. Which was pretty much unexistent. At that point in time(August 10) I had a BOA 321 partially secured card with a credit limit of $500 and it was opened in Jan 2013. The history wasn't bad, I might have had carried a bit of a high balance but never over the limit. I also never missed a payment. 

Anyways long story short, my plan is to refinance the car in about a year. Hopefully with a stronger credit history I will get a better rate. 

After reading some posts I realized my best course of action was to open up a few more credit cards and build an even stronger credit history. So I gathered the courage and applied for the following things(in order):

-BOA: credit limit increase of $1000; I was told to wait for a response. I was denied told to wait a year. However I called for Recon after finding out about the Discover approval and they graduated my card and gave me $1500 limit. I was very excited seeing as how it happened only 7 months later and not after a whole year.

-Discover IT- I applied for a student account, however at the very end it asked for a school schedule which I was able to provide at the time. So i closed the window and told myself to try later when I had the paperwork. Little did I know that it saved my info, couple days later I got a call saying I was approved for $1500 as long as I submitted my school schedule. Which I did immediately. This gave me courage to do the recon at BOA.

-Amex BCE- This was an instant approval. It felt great! I tought it was a hard card to get. I later found out my CL was $2000! Which got me really excited.

-My last card was Chase Freedom- This one was very tricky. I applied and got the 30 day message which discouraged me a lot but I decided to wait for their response before calling for a Recon. I got a letter saying I was declined due to my short credit history. I immediately called for a Recon and the guy who tried to seem helpful didn't help at all and told me to come back in a year. I called for a second time and this time they didn't even bother to look at my file. He just said no. I called a third time, as my last attempt. And this time it was a lady who sounded mean,but turned out to be very helpful. After some questions she said I was accepted for a limit of $500! Kind of low compared to my other ones but at least I was able to get my foot in the door. And most importantly the hard pull wasn't wasted!

OK so now my questions are:

-What else can I do to prepare myself for the refinance of the car a year from now?

-How do I manage so many cards? I am confused most of the time on which one I should use. Should I rotate them depending on the benefits? Should I gather all the cashback just in one? How do I keep them all active and well?(So that I can get CLI down the road.)

I know it's an extremely long post but any help would be appreciated it!

Thanks a lot guys! I really have learned a lot here! 

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Congrats on your approvals 

Use the cards for what you would spend for daily and do your best not to carry balances over into the next month

Have 1 card report a balance between 1-9% each month the rest should be paid in full

Last but not least DO NOT apply for any more credit you have nice cards to start with so treat them well and in a year your INQ's will have aged.

Your AAoA and scores will have increased and you will be ready to REFI the car loan 

[erickm09]

Thanks for the response! 

I thought so. I just wanted to see what everyone here had to say.

Thanks

[myjourney]

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@erickm09 wrote:

Thanks for the response! 

I thought so. I just wanted to see what everyone here had to say.

Thanks

---

Forgot to tell you in 61 days ask Amex for a 3X CLI its a SP and should make you feel pretty good if approved 

[erickm09]

Sweet! Sure will! 

Thanks a lot.

[zerobacan]

Congrats now whatever you think. if I can get just one more card! That guy w worse score than me got that card... I can also do it. No one can turn me down... forget it... garden garden you did excellent. Dont app anymore I llike I did and end up witha bunch of Credit cards that I don't need... good luck

[Dubious]

Use the BOA for gas, the BCE for groceries and the Discover and Freedom for rotating categories if and when they are beneficial to you. 

[erickm09]

Thats the thing that confuses me.

I bank with BOA so I can get the extra 10% when redeeming.

BCE offers 3% on gas

BUT Discover and Chase have gas at 5% til september. 

So should i focus all the earnings in one card so I accumulate the points? or should I just have them spread out on all the cards?

[erickm09]

Also,

What would be a good strategy to earn CLIs??

Right know this is how my cards look:

BOA= 300/1500(will probably carry the balance)

BCE=90/2000(will pay in full)

Discover it= 70/1500(Will pay in full)

Chase Freedom=0/500.

[Dubious]

BCE is only 2% on gas, 3% on groceries. I think BOA is the other way around, 2% groceries 3% gas. That's why I suggested BCE for groceries and BOA for gas.

Yes, for this quarter use either It or Freedom for gas since that will give you a higher return.