When should I start nixxing sub prime cards?

[Anonymous]

Well with the heck of a surprise I got last night (discover It $1k SL) I'm starting to enter new territory I guess. Here's my current card breakdowns:

"non sub prime".  Limit AF  AGE 

discover it (last night) 1k no af 0 mo

Cap 1 QS  9.5k no af 7yr 2 mo (this started as secured and has upgrade to venture now if I want it) 

barclays NFL 3.2k no af 7yr 1mo

"sub prime".   Limit

Credit 1 plat  1.5k no af 1mo

credit 1 normal 1.2k $72/yr af 5yr 0 mo

merrick 1k $79/yr af 4yr 7mo (have not seen one single CLI from them, every other card has Auto CLI several times)

total lines with all cards: 17.4k 

current utilization: all clear except credit 1 and merrick reports $6 monthly 😡 and cap1 sitting at 7k (had to do some big home repairs)

Current util: 40.2%
Cap 1 should be PIF within 3 months 

if y'all need other info on that let me know. 

Other reporting accounts:

2 student loans federal each 9yr 1mo

FMCO financing for new car loan 3yr 8mo

theres some baddies which are clearing off very soon so not worried about that. 

When is a good time to start closing out these sub prime AF cards? I'm not planning on anything like a mortgage or anything like that (basically just got a house for free with no debt as it passed to me when my grandpa passed and we're moving there). 

I'm really loathing these darn AF payments every month although it does force them to report payment history every month. I've been accepting those fees as penance for my previous credit sins lol

I know that closing them won't hurt my AAOA but I'm concerned a lot of things I read that under 15k in revolving trade lines can actually hinder score growth. 

Honestly, I wasn't even planning on being to this stage until next year 😱 any and all advice is welcome just want to do this right to keep the score going up, not down and I don't want to handicap my score either. 

Thanks y'all and much love to everyone here!

[calyx]

You don't "need" those subprime ones.  I would definitely get rid of the ones that have annual/monthly fees.

[Creditaddict]

I say once you have 3 credit cards during a rebuild, as you get a new prime, close a subprime!

You are there... close them all!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply you two! I ran the fico simulator and it looks like I'll take a 10-14 point hit just closing one? How long will that take to rebound any ideas?

[Creditaddict]

Ignore that.... I doubt it and even if so any drop will be short term

[calyx]

FICO simulators are trash, ignore them.  You'll be fine unless your utilization spikes due to the reduction in overall credit, in which case it will rebound as soon as you report a similar % again.

[Anonymous]

Stop paying those fees now. You've already got enough non-fee cards. You're on your way up, up, up, baby! 

The subprime helped at the time, but now they are past their "prime" LOL. 

With your scores, you could easily (probably) qualify for some useful store cards. The key here is "useful," and not all store cards are. (And not that you necessarily should, but you could.) If it's a card for a place that you shop at a lot (like Walmart or Target) and it offers some good discounts, then why not? I love my Walmart and Shell store cards because their discounts are actually quite nice. 

In any case, it's all a matter of time until more and more non-subprime cards will be within reach. Congratulations! I know that my Discover card approval was a real breakthrough and it felt great. 

[Anonymous]

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@calyx wrote:

FICO simulators are trash, ignore them.  You'll be fine unless your utilization spikes due to the reduction in overall credit, in which case it will rebound as soon as you report a similar % again.

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That's the one thing I was worried about a few big home repairs before we move into our home which man we lucked out in a sense, no mortgage, but it was my grandparents and the last few years they weren't able to put the $$ into it that it needed (so util is going to be wack a bit until the dust settles, I wasn't expecting to replace the well lines and pump and electrical nor the hot water heater SURPRISE lol) but we'll have about $3-4K free a month as long as no surprises so can get that down fairly quick. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Stop paying those fees now. You've already got enough non-fee cards. You're on your way up, up, up, baby! 

The subprime helped at the time, but now they are past their "prime" LOL. 

With your scores, you could easily (probably) qualify for some useful store cards. The key here is "useful," and not all store cards are. (And not that you necessarily should, but you could.) If it's a card for a place that you shop at a lot (like Walmart or Target) and it offers some good discounts, then why not? I love my Walmart and Shell store cards because their discounts are actually quite nice. 

In any case, it's all a matter of time until more and more non-subprime cards will be within reach. Congratulations! I know that my Discover card approval was a real breakthrough and it felt great. 

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I literally screamed with the disco approve. They've been sending me mailers multiple times a month and always secured 😫 I said I'm going to try one last time and then it said approved -- I've never been able to get my foot in the door there even before everything tanked with the car wreck. 

I've still got some baddies I'm working on 1 collection I'm fighting with an apartment complex (they're trying to claim we damaged the apartment and left mold when the hot water blew and soaked all the walls and they never fixed or cleaned up or dealt with the damage done by the heater), 2 first premier banks which I sent a 623 on last night to the pres office, and a slew of late payments still reporting from 2015 with the car accident. I did get a PFD settle with midland they should be coming off soon, and worked a heck of a settlement with Citibank for a bestbuy card. Those should give me a good bump but I'm not sure how much/many I wanna pull on here.

I know I'm going to have to run a pull for financing on a tractor and hoping I can get in with John Deere and buy right buy once and be done.