Should I Garden

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone!

First post here. As a person in their early 20's and starting my professional career, I was wondering if I should focus on gardening. Below are my current cards.

Amex Gold Premier Rewards.....charge card
Capitolone Quicksilver........10k
Barclay Arrival Plus............7.5k
Discover..........4.5k
Chase Sapphire. 6.5k


Thanks everyone!

[Anonymous]

There's no single answer for everyone in your shoes.  Here's a few questions, the answers to which might be able to help people guide you better.

Could you have any important credit needs coming up in the next few years?  (Like an auto loan in the next 18 months or a mortgage in the next 36 months?) 

If so, then garden.  Your goal in that case should be allowing accounts to age, lowering CC debt, etc. in preparation for the car or home loan..

If not, then ask yourself whether there is another card or two that you see yourself as wanting at some point, a card you'd actually really like and could keep forever (be biased here in favor of cards with no annual fee). 

If you do think you might eventually want another card or two, garden for a while while you research a couple that would be great fit for you.  But just bear in mind that five cards (your current number) is more than enough to drive your score to 850 eventually.  Having a sixth card won't help you do that at all.  It's just that the sooner you find that sixth card and add it, the longer it will be contributing toward your AAoA.  

Congrats btw on a really nice profile at such a young age.  You are in great shape.  The only thing you do not mention is whether you have ever had an installment loan.  If you haven't, you would benefit from adding one at some point in the next year.  People here can tell you how to do this very cheaply and in a cool way that will give you a lot of FICO points quickly.

[lg8302ch]

Welcome to MyFico

Nice set of cards - congrats !  The question about gardening is not so easy to answer for me because I do not know when you got these cards.  For example if you got all the cards in the past year then my votes got for gardening,  if you have everything covered and no needs for a specific card then my answer is still gardening but if you have the cards for like 2 years and there is absolutely a card you need ..then apply... When I started adding cards I have set myself my own goal just that I can control my apping a bit and that was 6 months between an app. Like this I started to think twice if I needed the card or if I just want the card...also I planned ahead and knew which ones I wanted to target.  It has worked out well for me like this ..so far not a denial yet but I had to recon Chase Freedom because I did a spree and this was card #4... This showed me that the plan with the 6 months between apps works and I will stick to that. But that is up to each member.. some love to spree and get all cards at once. So there is not a one size fits all. 

Love to see you in the garden