Credit Advice (700+)

[Anonymous]

Background:

- 24 years of age
- 22.5k in student loan debt
- 742 transunion score/741 equifax score (experian unknown)
- $8900 credit limit between three cards (Chase Freedom/Freedom Unlimited/AARP)
- $25k annual salary

I recently applied for the AARP and a Slate simultaneously and am pending (30 days) for the slate. Slate is so I can see my experian for free. As of now I'm 3/13 as far as cards to months ratio goes.

My question is: generally how much credit do you think I should try to achieve based on my salary? It may increase by a few thousand in the next year but not significantly any time soon, but I only have 2 hard inquiries right now and 0 derogatory marks. Always under 5% usage and 100% on time payments.

Any advice for what to do next would be appreciated, should I go for 5/24?

[Anonymous]

My credit history age is 3 years and about 5 months so far. Oldest accounts are 6 years old at student loans and newest are recent.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forums!  My comments in blue below.

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@Anonymous wrote:
Background:

- 24 years of age
- 22.5k in student loan debt
- 742 transunion score/741 equifax score (experian unknown)
- $8900 credit limit between three cards (Chase Freedom/Freedom Unlimited/AARP)
- $25k annual salary

I recently applied for the AARP and a Slate simultaneously and am pending (30 days) for the slate. Slate is so I can see my experian for free.

It's not the end of the world to have applied for the Chase Slate, but it is not what I wpould have recommended.  You can get your monthly Experian report and FICO 8 for free here:

https://www.creditscore.com/

I do not recommend ever applying for a card solely for the reason of obtaining a FICO score.  There are lots of ways to get scores.  I am a big advocate of free scores from CCs but I think it is better to for those to happen almost inadvertently -- you will get them just by applying for cards you like.

Are you saying that you applied 30 days ago for the Slate and the answer is still pending (i.e. unknown) as to whether you will be approved?

As of now I'm 3/13 as far as cards to months ratio goes.

What is a cards-to-months ratio?

My question is: generally how much credit do you think I should try to achieve based on my salary? It may increase by a few thousand in the next year but not significantly any time soon, but I only have 2 hard inquiries right now and 0 derogatory marks. Always under 5% usage and 100% on time payments.

I would not worry about credit limits at all.  Getting bigger credit limits won't help your score even by a point.  Have a low utilization will help a lot, but you can have one card with a $300 credit limit, spend $1000 per month on it, and still have a utilization of 2-3%.

It sounds like all of your cards right now are Chase cards.  And Chase requires a hard pull for each CLI request.  Many other issuers do not, so if you end up with one that doesn't you may want to go for CLIs there.

Any advice for what to do next would be appreciated, should I go for 5/24?

Does that mean "Apply for another chase card?"

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[Anonymous]

I applied a week ago and 30 days until I receive a notice total. It actually went to fraud department and I had to call to confirm I applied for the card.

I've applied for three cards within thirteen months.