I'd like to work this year on transitioning out of the rebuilder cards I've collected over the last few years. They've served their purpose, but as of last month, I've paid off all cards and three small collections. My scores have started to increase, and should get better over the next couple of months as the collections show as paid. One of the three collections agreed to PFD, and the other two did not. I will work on GW letters for those.
I have a few ideas on how to proceed with these cards. I do not want to add any new inquiries since we will be buying land and building a house sometime in the next year. We recently sold our house, which was in my wife's name only since she owned it before we were married, and she had solid credit, I did not.
Cards to actively use
1) Ollo = CL 1800, paid. 2% CB on gas, groceries and pharmacy, 1% on all other.
2) Capital One QS1. CL 1450. 1.5 percent CB, 39 AF
3) Capital One QS. CL 1000. 1.5 percent CB, no annual fee
4) Comenity MC, CL 1250, 3% CB on home furnishings, 1.5% other, No AF
5) Mission Lane, CL 900. I have not yet seen an annual fee on this one, but no CB.
Cards to close soon.
1) First Premier Bank, CL 925 , Monthly Fee 12, AF 79 hit in Jan.
2) First Premier Bank, CL 1000, MF 12, AF 79 hit in Jan
3) Credit One, CL 1350, MF 8.25, no AF
4) Credit One, CL 1050, No MF, 39 AF
Cards to close and replace by next year
1) Merrick, CL 1800, MF 6
2) First Savings Credit, CL 1250, AF 49
3) Taz Visa, CL 1250, AF 49
With the monthly fees, not only is it expensive, but makes it difficult to achieve AZEO. From a tip on this forum, I setup the four MF cards with Bill Pay to create the negative balance on the statement to offet the fee and still report zero. I will close the two premier cards next month, and call Credit One to see if I can get a product change to at least eliminate that monthly fee.
For the Capital One cards, I have not tried a CLI since 2017. I had carried a balance on them and was not using them actively. Now that they are paid off, I will try to increase my usage but still pay them off before the statement date, then after a few months of this try a CLI. I'm assuming this will be a SP.
I would like to eventually be able to Product Change these Capital One cards to something better, but don't need the HP at this time.
I'm going to work on actively using the Ollo Card for Gas, Groceries, Pharmacy, and use the Comenity also.
The Comenity card was a conversion from a Wayfair card that I had obtained several years ago using the SCT. I looked today and the credit line increase button was not showing where it usually does for Comenity accounts. I also have a Good Sams card from Comenity that does show the CLI button.
I would appreciate any ideas you'd have given that I don't need any additional HPs right now. I'll focus on CLIs for the 5 cards listed to keep, and close the MF cards for now.
My Fico scores last month were 668 EX, 715 EQ, and 655 TU. TU shows all three collections where EQ shows one. Also, I have 5/24 inquiries on TU and only 1/12,24 on the other two.
My Fico9 was 703
I don't have my Mortgage scores right now because I had paused my subscription on FICO and it will restart on 3/17.
Thanks
Cap-1 does not HP to do a PC
Thanks for your reply. I've never had the Open Sky CC. What kind of fees do you have on that card?
My Average Age of Accounts is 3yrs 5 months on Experian. Oldest account is 7 years 10 months but my oldest credit card account is the Capital One at 5 yrs 2 months, so I will keep the Cap1 cards both open for the age.
it takes awhile to build the age, but I have many cards open about 4 years ago so I can add/replace these cards one or two a year without much effect on AAofA.
I'm alternating usage on the four cards with cash back now and finding I don't have much of a need for the other cards now that I've paid them off in the last couple of months. Three of my cards have statement dates near first of the month so I stop using those a week before the statement date to pay them off then use the Comenity card which has a mid month statement date. That way I can try to show zero balance on all but one.
Thanks. I thought Cap1 might just be a SP for PC. I may contact them soon to see if I can product change the QS1 to either a QS or something else without a fee.