After my BK. It was great getting all my cards. Starting at 2k with a Cap1 Plat. Then it started. That grew to a QS 4.5k. Then the QS1 was 6k after CLI's.. Then came the Venture approval 10k. Combined the QS1 to Venture for 16k.. Then comes the Discover that grew from 1.2k to 7.8k. Next was the QS WEMC 5.5k. And finally last weeks Cap1 Premiere at 10k. In 18 months to go from 0 to over 30k just with Cap1 alone. It sank in. I dont need, or ever will use that much credit. Time to trim it down,
With all the stories out there now of CLD's and so on. I called Cap1. Venture went from 16k to 7.5k. My new Cap1 Premiere Dining from 10k to 5k. That freed up 14.5k with Cap1. I wont touch Discover. It was hard to keep 1 card at 1-3% and overall across the board with all accounts was always 0% until I raised 1 account slowly so my statement balance on 1 card would be 3% without getting hit with score decreases. Total of all acounts sits at 1% with FICO now. Now my total CL's are mangeable.
It hit today after making a large payment on my truck payment to bring it down below 9%. Scores below went right up. Especially EX to over 740?!?! Booyah. Now it is time to hit up the SSL loan before the truck is paid in Sept. to keep a installment loan on my records. To go from 560's to where I am now in 18 months. Amazing. And of course thanks to all here reading all the advise. I figure I'd beat them to the punch and do it on my own. Just in case Cap1 is next to follow the CLD train. Now my DTI is back to 40-50%. Less stress and worrying about having too much credit with one lender. I always PIF and will keep it that way. Thanks for reading.
I have many reasons BBB. First. Mission accomplshed for the rebuild. It may sound weird on here. I am a firm believer not to overextend yourself to what you bring home a year and what total credit lines a person has. God forbid something happens medically, ect.. I could never pay off all I had in credit with what I make in a resonable time. If I was 40-50 yrs old and made 100k a year. Heck yeah, keep getting more baby! I was doing that once the rebuild started. It was fun and exciting. But. Reality kicked in. I am 61. Retirement is less than 2 yrs away after 33 yrs of service. I played that game in the 90's. Man I paid for it. BK was basically for a IRS garnishment/lien that finally caught up with me. The old CC's were so old. They no longer exist on my reports. All CA's went poof after discharge for those CC's. Even the released lien is gone. Except for EQ.
People may trash Cap1 at times. Without them I wouldnt be where I'm at. It got me the Disco. Which I want to grow. Thanks Austin. And I wanted to make room for NFCU. Basically like a buffer. Then slowly back off Cap1. Get the good stuff. But always stay within a comfortable place that I can pay if anything happens, and not repeat the 90's again. Hope you understand. I dont ever want to be one of those posters you guys help that got way over their heads. I want to enjoy my retirement with the money I worked my arsh off for me. Not to give it to a CC company.
I get it, FireMedic. 
And I also get Brutal's line of thought. I just think you have to do what's right for you. Back in the day, I asked for CLD several times, so I get that line of thought, but I do agree with Brutal that you probably weren't in danger of AA.
@Anonymous wrote:I get it, FireMedic.
I totally agree with BBS. In a way I felt I'd rather do it than them. I work hard and risk my life to get where I'm at. Right now, yes, AA would be a long shot with Cap1. But look how fast Chase pulled the carpet out from under long time folks and new apps. Com, Sync, ect. Threads were started. All these companies have changed their ways since becoming a member here. Chase, Citi, Discover, Cap1, the list goes on and on. The companies that lost out last quarter have tightened up their ways. There could be a thread soon, or not, one day Cap1 will join them all. We dont know.
The other side. I was fortunate I didnt have to go the secured route and move up. I started out low and got some top of the line Cap1 cards. Next step is the big boys like NFCU. It will be years for AMEX, Chase, Citi and so on. I didnt burn anyone. Just their BK rules. I'll be almost 70 when my BK falls off. They may never see my wallet.
So. Really in the end. It's my scores that bring me more satisfaction than anything else. I made it through the storm. And survived. Still standing! 
From 3 months after BK (02/16) and my first card reported, to today's update. Pretty friggin awesome.
FWIW I'm another who has taken some voluntary CLD's.
If I'm not using it, and it makes no material difference to my utilization, I'd rather reduce my lender exposure as algorithms will look for out of the ordinary customer accounts, and having aggregate CL above some level may well be a trigger.
Case in point the recent CLD's we've seen in Cap 1 land where a couple folks with larger CL's (30K+) were reduced, but the smaller sized CL's weren't touched... and I've barely used my Cap 1 card in comparison to many.
My thinking is if I ever need more credit I will likely be able to get it... even with another major downturn I'm on the path to gold platedness anyway and that's not likely to be a impossible challenge even in more difficult markets to obtain more if I need it.
@Revelate wrote:FWIW I'm another who has taken some voluntary CLD's.
If I'm not using it, and it makes no material difference to my utilization, I'd rather reduce my lender exposure as algorithms will look for out of the ordinary customer accounts, and having aggregate CL above some level may well be a trigger.
Case in point the recent CLD's we've seen in Cap 1 land where a couple folks with larger CL's (30K+) were reduced, but the smaller sized CL's weren't touched... and I've barely used my Cap 1 card in comparison to many.
My thinking is if I ever need more credit I will likely be able to get it... even with another major downturn I'm on the path to gold platedness anyway and that's not likely to be a impossible challenge even in more difficult markets to obtain more if I need it.
My feeling is the more the merrier.
If someone CLD's me, so what?
The only retrenching I've done has been to close some cards that
weren't really useful for my purposes, and to move some limits from less useful
cards to more useful ones.
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Revelate wrote:FWIW I'm another who has taken some voluntary CLD's.
If I'm not using it, and it makes no material difference to my utilization, I'd rather reduce my lender exposure as algorithms will look for out of the ordinary customer accounts, and having aggregate CL above some level may well be a trigger.
Case in point the recent CLD's we've seen in Cap 1 land where a couple folks with larger CL's (30K+) were reduced, but the smaller sized CL's weren't touched... and I've barely used my Cap 1 card in comparison to many.
My thinking is if I ever need more credit I will likely be able to get it... even with another major downturn I'm on the path to gold platedness anyway and that's not likely to be a impossible challenge even in more difficult markets to obtain more if I need it.
My feeling is the more the merrier.
If someone CLD's me, so what?
The only retrenching I've done has been to close some cards that
weren't really useful for my purposes, and to move some limits from less useful
cards to more useful ones.
UW does look at your overall credit exposure, having too much can lead to denials (or at least that's one of the reasons they've given to forum members historically).
Granted this may be at absurdly high limits, but I have no use for the 150K+ revolving I have currently and that 90% through natural card acquisitions rather than CLI chasing. At this point I'm strongly considering just closing cards out but I don't want to fiddle with my credit when a move may be in the cards in the near term future (<1 year).