New to MyFico, need help rebuilding/cleaning up wallet

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I am brand new to MyFico, but have been working on my credit score for just over a year. Started with all 3 around 580-600. My rebuild started with a CreditOne card and CFNA Firestone (out of necessity) and then progressed to Discover IT secured last December. This July my scores were high enough to give some big boy cards a shot so I pulled the trigger and got AMEX Blue, AMEX Delta Gold, and a Barclays JetBlue. My issue is between January and getting the Amex I was desperate to increase my overall credit limits so I went out and got store cards and really anything that would approve me to show I had available credit. I got a CFNA Bosch, and a Walmart Card that I will never use. I have heard a lot of negative things about the CreditOne card so I wanted to see if maybe I should cut some of these out of my wallet. I have pretty much killed my AAoA already. Below is a summary of my wallet, oldest to newest:

Credit One - $550 CL - Opened Feb 2015 - No longer using

CFNA Firestone - $1200 CL - Opened June 2015 - Sock Drawered

Discover IT Secured - $200 CL - Opened December 2016 - Gardening, should graduate in a month or so

ExxonMobile - $500 CL - Opened May 2017 - Use for all fuel purchases

Walmart - $200 CL - Opened May 2017 - Never used/will not use

CFNA Bosch - $900 CL - Opened May 2017 - Never used/will not use

Barclays JetBlue - $1500 CL - opened June 2017 - Highest CL, use sparingly

AMEX Blue - $500 CL - Opened June 2017 - Rarely use

AMEX Delta Gold - $1,000 CL - Opened June 2017 - Use for most purchases

TL;DR - I have a lot of cards I am not using that I opened to increase my overall CL (see above). Should I close some?

Thanks for your help!

[medicgrrl]

Definitely close any that charge an annual fee and you're not using. The other's I would let stay in the drawer just to help you keep your file thicker and utilization if ever needed.

[rmduhon]

While I'm not prying into why you don't want to use the Wal-Mart card, I will say that you can get that up to a decent limit for utilization padding if you use it occasionally and pay it off whenever the charge posts.
Obviously that's your choice.

[Anonymous]

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@rmduhon wrote:
While I'm not prying into why you don't want to use the Wal-Mart card, I will say that you can get that up to a decent limit for utilization padding if you use it occasionally and pay it off whenever the charge posts.
Obviously that's your choice.

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That is a good point, I don't shop at walmart much due to it's location to my house so that is why I don't use the card. I will probably take it out once a month and see if I can get a CLI to pad my utilization. The $200 CL is what has really turned me off to keeping it around. After 12 months I will see what kind of increases I can get.

Thanks for the advice

[rmduhon]

Hubby started with $150. So I know the feeling. If you have Sam's nearby it can be used there also.

[AverageJoesCredit]

You can also order online with Wally, easy peasy Cover Girl, lol.

[rmduhon]

I forgot about in line orders

[Anonymous]

What I'm not understanding is WHAT your trying to do, friend

With all the applying and not allowing anything to mature at all...all this stuff since December?

Let the babies learn to walk, allow some grass to grow

How many accounts are you allowing to report with balances per month....

Your score can't grow, if you're killing by a thousand small cuts as it's trying to grow up
3 in May
3 in June

Looking to pad utilization??
How about NOT blasting your toy limits with spend, that's works too w/o the HP or cutting in account age and adding accounts you don't want in the 1st place.

I think you are expecting too much w/o considering the TIME factor...you use terms like 'use' and 'sparingly' regarding TLs that are less than 90 days old , they still have milk on them

Seriously, if you don't chill and allow some grass to grow and control usage...you'll keep getting stuck with the types of low SL and crap rates you're being offered now, in awe of $1500 CLs

7 account openings in the past 8 months isn't where you want to be and again based upon what you were approved for after having two TLs since 2015 says something is off...

Yeah their 'big boys' but they came at you with weak offers...why?
High utilization, late payments something is off and it feels like utilization management

An easy issue to correct with usage timing and/or avoidance just discipline
Good luck

[Anonymous]

Well, buddy,

There is a reason I just joined MyFico. I am looking for helpful advice on how to rebuild. The last few months I did what I thought was necessary. Looking back at the store cards, it was most likely a mistake to open 2 of them. Live and learn. I knew the inquiries and new accounts would take time to start helping my credit score, that was on purpose. I needed a card or 2 that I can run $2500+ of expenses through each month for work and my "toy" limits were not an option. I travel very frequently and am in charge of purchasing my flights/hotels/meals etc and am then reimbursed through my company.

As for "blasting my limits" lets see... I carried a balance of about $20 on my $550 credit one card for months, Firestone was $500 for a couple months for 0% APR that was paid off and has been 0 balance for over a year. Once I opened my Discover, I carried around a $10 balance and brought my Credit One to a 0 balance (where it stands now). 

You want to understand my "weak" offers? Barclays pulled TU - 0 late payments, 0 baddies, 10% utilization. My weak offer was due to my oldest card being 2 years old according to the rep I had a long detailed discussion about my credit with. 

Amex pulled EX where I have a chargeoff from 2011 which hurt my score a little. 

Since opening my Amex and Barclays I have run $2500-3000 per month, paid the balance before the statement hit, and only let one report. So of all the new cards I have my utilization is less than 10% and the only cards that report a balance are my Amex gold (usually just under $100) and my ExxonMobile which I just let post whatever I spend in gas then PIF. 

I know that just waiting would have been better for my score and looking back, I regret opening the unecessary accounts, but, in my eyes, it was worth it because I am finally not strapped for cash. I am not worried about being able to buy my flight for work or being broke until my reimbursement comes in. To me, this was HUGE to get $2,500 of available credit. Upon opening I knew the next steps were going to be just to wait, and I am fine with that. One CLI from Amex or Barclay and I will be at a point where I can live comfortably after a long road from a sub 600 score.

I do appreciate your advice, backhanded or not.

[Anonymous]

Hi @Poncho. Welcome to the forums.

I can assure you that @Gemini101 was not trying any backhanded b.s. but teaches us by giving us things to think about so that we all can benefit and learn from each other's mistakes along the way. That way, the next person to come along might be less likely to think "Hey, what MikkiD did worked out okay, I'll do that" when another path might have been more efficient.

We've all made a variety of missteps along the way and most of us will continue to make more but if we can correct course sooner we will reap the rewards faster.

At least that's what I'm shooting for.

Cheers!