Where do I go from here?

[LowFICO2020]

Current stats:

Fico 8 score (main page)

Equifax: 652

Transunion: 645

Experian: 659

Insights:

Payment History: Exceptional (0 late payments)

Amount of Debt: Poor (98% revolving utilization)

Length of Credit History: Good (4years, 2months)

Amount of New Credit: Very Good (3 months)

Credit Mix: Exceptional (20 accounts)

So clearly, the reason I have such low scores is high revolving utilization.

I've recently paid off my entire balances and am waiting for the POP on the credit score (should be within 2 weeks).  According to the "simulator" my scores should be around or over 750 then but I dont know how accurate that is. 

My question is basically about direction from here.  I have a lot of low tier cards with low limits.  I've set up most of my cards with one subscription so that they stay used and set up autopay on each to pay off each month completely.  Some of them have "monthly" fees (not much but still dumb) and some have annual fees.  

Ideally I'd like to apply for better cards in the future and cancel these but I think I need to wait until I get the better cards before cancelling anything.  

In the meantime I figure I just have to deal with so many cards and keeping up with them.  There are about 5 more cards I'm going to have use in a rotation for food expenses so they don't go inactive.

The ultimate goal is to get a few high limit cards and cancel many of these others (except my longest tenured ones)

Any insight, helpful tips, etc?

[Varsity_Lu]

20 cards at 98% util.  Detail this for us.  What cards, what limits, what amounts are you carrying on each?  There are people here that can give you a plan.

[LowFICO2020]

@Varsity_Lu wrote:

20 cards at 98% util.  Detail this for us.  What cards, what limits, what amounts are you carrying on each?  There are people here that can give you a plan.

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Yes 20 accounts 

I had something like $16,500 in balances 

Like I said in the original post, I have recently paid them all off. 

As of right now I have zero balance

[GZG]

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@LowFICO2020 wrote:

@Varsity_Lu wrote:

20 cards at 98% util.  Detail this for us.  What cards, what limits, what amounts are you carrying on each?  There are people here that can give you a plan.

-----

Yes 20 accounts 

I had something like $16,500 in balances 

Like I said in the original post, I have recently paid them all off. 

As of right now I have zero balance

---

what you should do is figure out how you got at that point and make a plan for making sure it doesn't happen again

if you decide to do that by closing a bunch of crappy cc accounts, or perhaps building up a $10-$25k emergency fund, or writing out a budget to make sure any purchase you make you are paying for immediately and not carrying future balances, a bunch of ways to go, but figuring out that part is >>>> more important than 'what card next?'

[Vinjints]

If you just paid them all in one shot I'd wait until the dust settles and see who keeps what accounts open. If you had 20+ accounts that you were all maxed on, I'd try living off a handful and not touch the others.  Might be necessary to develop better habits for a bit before trying to gain additional cards. 

[FicoMike0]

Congratulations on paying the balances! You should see some big score gains coming down from 98%.

I'd start closing low limit fee cards. As fees come due call and see if they'll waive fee, if not close.

To maximize scores you should

have at least 3 bank cards ( no problem!),

Do azeo, search the term,

And manage utilization, less than 29% individual, 9% total.

A lot of this stuff is based on reported balances, that's the balance on the day, once a month, when your account posts. Know those dates! If you're at 98% on that day, then pay to zero the next day, utilization is still 98%. 

With so many accounts, you need to be aware of the azeo principles. Too many accounts reporting a balance, even a small one, Penalty! All accounts reporting zero, penalty! You want a majority, but never all, of your accounts reporting zero.I

[Varsity_Lu]

OP,

My apologies. I didn't read your post in detail and just skimmed the top and bottom.  Sorry.

Still, it could help to know what cards you have.  Some are probably worth keeping. Old ones, no AF, elevated spending categories, etc.  I'm sure some could/should be closed.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@LowFICO2020 wrote:

Current stats:

Fico 8 score (main page)

Equifax: 652

Transunion: 645

Experian: 659

Insights:

Payment History: Exceptional (0 late payments)

Amount of Debt: Poor (98% revolving utilization)

Length of Credit History: Good (4years, 2months)

Amount of New Credit: Very Good (3 months)

Credit Mix: Exceptional (20 accounts)

So clearly, the reason I have such low scores is high revolving utilization.

I've recently paid off my entire balances and am waiting for the POP on the credit score (should be within 2 weeks).  According to the "simulator" my scores should be around or over 750 then but I dont know how accurate that is. 

My question is basically about direction from here.  I have a lot of low tier cards with low limits.  I've set up most of my cards with one subscription so that they stay used and set up autopay on each to pay off each month completely.  Some of them have "monthly" fees (not much but still dumb) and some have annual fees.  

Ideally I'd like to apply for better cards in the future and cancel these but I think I need to wait until I get the better cards before cancelling anything.  

In the meantime I figure I just have to deal with so many cards and keeping up with them.  There are about 5 more cards I'm going to have use in a rotation for food expenses so they don't go inactive.

The ultimate goal is to get a few high limit cards and cancel many of these others (except my longest tenured ones)

Any insight, helpful tips, etc?

---

Your profile and situation appears to closely match that of "Marillion". The similarities are so great that it looks like you are describing the same file. He started a couple threads on this same topic. Read through those threads for background and advise. 

You should shed some junk cards before your applying for prime cards. Begin by cancelling cards with monthly fees after paying off their balances. 

 Then settle on 5 cards for normal use and pick another 5 cards to use sparingly, say once every 4-6 months.  Predator cards with annual fees are highly unlikely to be closed with under 12 months or even 2 years of non use.

You can pay down or pay off card balances before statement post dates so cards show low reported utilizations or $0 balances. That will help maintain low utilization and stabalize scores at a higher level.

* Select accounts to close based on lowest limits, highest annual fees and least likely to be converted to no fee alternatives. Do keep your oldest or 2nd oldest card open if the oldest is bad to the bone.

[FICOdawg]

I would use the debt snowball.    Be prepared for some of the credit cards to balance chase you.     I'm a personal fan of debt snowball pay off lowest balance first.

[LowFICO2020]

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@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

---

@LowFICO2020 wrote:

Current stats:

Fico 8 score (main page)

Equifax: 652

Transunion: 645

Experian: 659

Insights:

Payment History: Exceptional (0 late payments)

Amount of Debt: Poor (98% revolving utilization)

Length of Credit History: Good (4years, 2months)

Amount of New Credit: Very Good (3 months)

Credit Mix: Exceptional (20 accounts)

So clearly, the reason I have such low scores is high revolving utilization.

I've recently paid off my entire balances and am waiting for the POP on the credit score (should be within 2 weeks).  According to the "simulator" my scores should be around or over 750 then but I dont know how accurate that is. 

My question is basically about direction from here.  I have a lot of low tier cards with low limits.  I've set up most of my cards with one subscription so that they stay used and set up autopay on each to pay off each month completely.  Some of them have "monthly" fees (not much but still dumb) and some have annual fees.  

Ideally I'd like to apply for better cards in the future and cancel these but I think I need to wait until I get the better cards before cancelling anything.  

In the meantime I figure I just have to deal with so many cards and keeping up with them.  There are about 5 more cards I'm going to have use in a rotation for food expenses so they don't go inactive.

The ultimate goal is to get a few high limit cards and cancel many of these others (except my longest tenured ones)

Any insight, helpful tips, etc?

---

Your profile and situation appears to closely match that of "Marillion". The similarities are so great that it looks like you are describing the same file. He started a couple threads on this same topic. Read through those threads for background and advise. 

You should shed some junk cards before your applying for prime cards. Begin by cancelling cards with monthly fees after paying off their balances. 

 Then settle on 5 cards for normal use and pick another 5 cards to use sparingly, say once every 4-6 months.  Predator cards with annual fees are highly unlikely to be closed with under 12 months or even 2 years of non use.

You can pay down or pay off card balances before statement post dates so cards show low reported utilizations or $0 balances. That will help maintain low utilization and stabalize scores at a higher level.

* Select accounts to close based on lowest limits, highest annual fees and least likely to be converted to no fee alternatives. Do keep your oldest or 2nd oldest card open if the oldest is bad to the bone.

---

Funny you mentioned cancelling my bad cards because thats exactly what I did. I just made sure it wasn't my oldest card.

I ended up cancelling Avant, Aspire, First Premier, Mission Lane and Merrick cards.  Although they were my highest limits, they had annual (and even some of them MONTHLY) fees and I'm just not interested in paying for those fees on cards.  (They were not my oldest card).

I still have two cards that have annual fees but they are manageable and are two of my older accounts (not oldest) so I think I'm going to try to get them to waive the fee (The cards are Capital One Quicksilver ($39 fee) and Self ($25 fee).