some guidance needed

[RyGuy4690]

I hope I am in the proper area. Long time reader, have not posted.

I currently have been making great progress on my credit cards and I would like a bit of advice. 

I had the Chase Slate card with 5k CL and was able to combine it to my Chase Sapphire to make it a 10k CL without a problem and closed the Slate because the APR was very high

I have:

Chase sapphire 10k CL

BoFA Visa cash rewards card visa sig with 5k CL on it 

Amex Blue cash with 1.2k cl

Amex PRG NPSL

US Air MC Barclays with 4.1k cl on it 

Discover card with 1.8k cl on it 

Citi MC with 7.5k cl on it with a balance of $5300 or so on it- need to pay this down  I know

Macys store card with 1.9k cl on it

Best buy store card with 1.4 cl on it

All the balances are paid besides the Citi MC and this was just done recently

when will the reports update to show this? 

Amex PRG is my primary card 

So, my question is what should I do at this point with the cards? Should I request CL increases or what? 

my TU according to barclays us air card currently is 712 

seems like Amex blue cash has a very low cl on it along with the discover and store cards 

[Anonymous]

What you should do depends on many factors including your specific financial goals. You already have a good set of cards, including many with AFs. You might want to consider which cards make sense for you since more than 1 or 2 AF cards don't make sense for most people unless they have extremely high spends. Your US Air, CSP, and PRG are all AF cards. When your free year (or first paid year if no waived AF) is up, you might want to close some of them. To give you an idea, I consistantly spend over 60k on my CCs each year, but I only keep one AF card open past the first year (I have like 10 AF cards now, but most will be closed or PC'd before the next AF hits since I got them for sign-on bonuses). Look at your monthly CC spend and figure out if even 1 AF card is worth it. If your AF is $95 a year, are you making $95/year or more in rewards over what you would with non-AF rewards cards? If the answer is no, don't pay the AF other than for a sign-up bonus. 

As for CLIs, there is nothing wrong with asking for CLIs if your credit profile is strong, inquiry count is low, and your income/history with the issuer supports the CLI. If it is a softpull CLI like with Amex, it is almost always good to ask for a CLI. Hard pull CLIs are a little more tricky since you have to balance the hard pull against the benefit of the CLI. I usually prefer getting new cards for bonuses and then consolidate my credit limits to other cards when I close them. This effectively gives me CLIs, but I get to save hard pulls for new sign-up bonus offers. Not everyone is crazy about sign-up bonus hunting though, so for you CLIs might make sense. 

Again, it is hard to tell you what you should do. Is your goal getting your score up for a mortgage? Improving your score over time? A new auto loan? Higher credit limits on specific cards to allow easier utilization management? Or do you not mind hurting your score a bit to get more cards for sign-up bonuses? Your goal as well as your existing credit profile (score, credit mix, income, etc) will determine what makes sense for you. 

[Anonymous]

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@RyGuy4690 wrote:

I hope I am in the proper area. Long time reader, have not posted.

I currently have been making great progress on my credit cards and I would like a bit of advice. 

I had the Chase Slate card with 5k CL and was able to combine it to my Chase Sapphire to make it a 10k CL without a problem and closed the Slate because the APR was very high

I have:

Chase sapphire 10k CL

BoFA Visa cash rewards card visa sig with 5k CL on it 

Amex Blue cash with 1.2k cl

Amex PRG NPSL

US Air MC Barclays with 4.1k cl on it 

Discover card with 1.8k cl on it 

Citi MC with 7.5k cl on it with a balance of $5300 or so on it- need to pay this down  I know

Macys store card with 1.9k cl on it

Best buy store card with 1.4 cl on it

All the balances are paid besides the Citi MC and this was just done recently

when will the reports update to show this? 

Amex PRG is my primary card 

So, my question is what should I do at this point with the cards? Should I request CL increases or what? 

my TU according to barclays us air card currently is 712 

seems like Amex blue cash has a very low cl on it along with the discover and store cards 

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Let's start with the AMEX cards.  How long have you had them and have you ever asked for a CLI before?

[Anonymous]

You can ask for periodic Soft Pull Credit Line Inceases with Citi and Discover
I would work on those every 6 month

[RyGuy4690]

since 2009

the PRG is NPSL

I have asked for a cli on the amex blue before and was denied because of high balances elsewhere which are now payed down 

[RyGuy4690]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What you should do depends on many factors including your specific financial goals. You already have a good set of cards, including many with AFs. You might want to consider which cards make sense for you since more than 1 or 2 AF cards don't make sense for most people unless they have extremely high spends. Your US Air, CSP, and PRG are all AF cards. When your free year (or first paid year if no waived AF) is up, you might want to close some of them. To give you an idea, I consistantly spend over 60k on my CCs each year, but I only keep one AF card open past the first year (I have like 10 AF cards now, but most will be closed or PC'd before the next AF hits since I got them for sign-on bonuses). Look at your monthly CC spend and figure out if even 1 AF card is worth it. If your AF is $95 a year, are you making $95/year or more in rewards over what you would with non-AF rewards cards? If the answer is no, don't pay the AF other than for a sign-up bonus. 

As for CLIs, there is nothing wrong with asking for CLIs if your credit profile is strong, inquiry count is low, and your income/history with the issuer supports the CLI. If it is a softpull CLI like with Amex, it is almost always good to ask for a CLI. Hard pull CLIs are a little more tricky since you have to balance the hard pull against the benefit of the CLI. I usually prefer getting new cards for bonuses and then consolidate my credit limits to other cards when I close them. This effectively gives me CLIs, but I get to save hard pulls for new sign-up bonus offers. Not everyone is crazy about sign-up bonus hunting though, so for you CLIs might make sense. 

Again, it is hard to tell you what you should do. Is your goal getting your score up for a mortgage? Improving your score over time? A new auto loan? Higher credit limits on specific cards to allow easier utilization management? Or do you not mind hurting your score a bit to get more cards for sign-up bonuses? Your goal as well as your existing credit profile (score, credit mix, income, etc) will determine what makes sense for you. 

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I have just the nomral CS not the CSP

you are absolute right 

I put a sizable amount per year on the PRG and the beneifts and points are worth the af

On the US air mc the benefits are great and are worth the af because I fly us air at least once/twice a year 

[Anonymous]

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@RyGuy4690 wrote:

since 2009

the PRG is NPSL

I have asked for a cli on the amex blue before and was denied because of high balances elsewhere which are now payed down 

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I'd go into your account and ask for a CL increase to $3.6K

[RyGuy4690]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@RyGuy4690 wrote:

since 2009

the PRG is NPSL

I have asked for a cli on the amex blue before and was denied because of high balances elsewhere which are now payed down 

---

I'd go into your account and ask for a CL increase to $3.6K

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what sort of time is needed for them to see others are paid down now etc?

[Anonymous]

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@RyGuy4690 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@RyGuy4690 wrote:

since 2009

the PRG is NPSL

I have asked for a cli on the amex blue before and was denied because of high balances elsewhere which are now payed down 

---

I'd go into your account and ask for a CL increase to $3.6K

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what sort of time is needed for them to see others are paid down now etc?

---

How long did you pay the balances down?

[RyGuy4690]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@RyGuy4690 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@RyGuy4690 wrote:

since 2009

the PRG is NPSL

I have asked for a cli on the amex blue before and was denied because of high balances elsewhere which are now payed down 

---

I'd go into your account and ask for a CL increase to $3.6K

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what sort of time is needed for them to see others are paid down now etc?

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How long did you pay the balances down?

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over the past 2 weeks or so