I feel that I may have a little too many credit cards. By looking at my signature below, would you recommend that I close or try to consolidate any of these? I currently have a 0% balance on all of my cards
Dang, you could buy anything you wanted.. lol
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Dang, you could buy anything you wanted.. lol
LOL! Doing that is what made me eventually discover this site. It's been a looooooonnnnnnnggggg road!! I started out with a 390 average FICO score, now my average is around 750.
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i think closing them would hurt your score, but i wouldnt close them if they have no balance on it. - thats just me...
but i'm a rookie to all this, i'm probably wrong...but i will stick around for some more answers.
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Dang, you could buy anything you wanted.. lol
LOL! Doing that is what made me eventually discover this site. It's been a looooooonnnnnnnggggg road!! I started out with a 390 average FICO score, now my average is around 750.
Mind giving me some advice?
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Everybody's different. Some folks think they have too many cards when they have more than one. Some like having 20 or more.
It sounds like you have a higher number of cards than what you feel comfortable with. What would be a better number for you? Are there particular cards you would like to keep?
Looks like you have 14 cards, if you asked me to throw away half of them, I would do the following based on my personal preferences:
1. I'd combine the Penfed credit limits to one card. I'd keep the Visa Plat for rewards, you might prefer the AMEX if you purchase a lot of travel.
2. Combine the Chase cards down to one. I'd consolidate to the Sapphire Preferred because I like the Ultimate Rewards program.
3. Combine the two Citi cards into the Forward because for me I like the rewards on that card better.
4. Keep the BOA for bank diversification.
5. Keep Discover More for bank diversification.
6. Keep the AMEX Blue cash because of rewards and bank diversification. Do you use the Zync?
7. Keep Walmart for free FICO. I,d toss BestBuy and Bloomingdale's in the sock drawer because I don't shop at either of those places.
So that would actually take you down to 9 cards with good bank diversification and a variety of rewards programs. If you could consolidate the credit limits it would give you higher limits. That's how I would cull your cards. What do you care about? Which cards do you use?
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I would combo CITI and Chase and call it a night.
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Thanks Tyra!! I actually think that is an excellent suggestion, across the board!! Would Chase & Citi object to consolidation? Is this something that they typically do? I do travel often and both the PenFed AMEX and Sapphire Preferred Card seem to fit this bill nicely. I also drive a TON for work and 5% cash back on gas purchases which the PenFed VISA gives me is very nice as well... I average $40/mo cashback with that puppy But your other suggestions are A+++ Thanks again!
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You can't have too many credit cards IMO but you can have too many cards with a balance. Being top heavy can be a problem for some people but not for others. Management is the key.
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Close all retail cards except one. As a matter of fact, just close all cards over $5,000. No one needs that much credit.
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I would keep any that aren't charging you an annual fee.
It's doubtful that keeping them will hurt you, but closing them might..............
BTW... I have at least twice as many cards as you have, a few with $7000-7500 limits ...
charge a little bit on each one and pay in full each month.
The only card I carry a balance on is a Lowes card where I purchased a clothes dryer recently (0% for 18 mos)...
my score is going nowhere but UP.
EDITED TO ADD: I had a ch 7 BK in 2002............... I have no idea what my score was at the time, but it had to be LOW ..... just keep plugging away................. keep your nose clean and there is nowhere to go but up.. and you don't have to move mountains... just baby steps over a few years will get you there. Most of all, don't be afraid to use credit.. using some credit will help you.
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I cut mine back to just the cards in my sig.
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WHOOOSH!
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Some of these responses have me scratching my head. Maybe the coffee hasn't kicked in yet.
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Me too lol
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Close all retail cards except one. As a matter of fact, just close all cards over $5,000. No one needs that much credit.
That's not true at all. Maybe for you but certainly not across the boards. Some people put MORE than 5 Grand on one card in a month and because of rewards and or cash back it pays for them to have high limits. And it doesn't hurt them when the PIF and by paying all bills etc with high limit cards they are actually making money doing so with the rewards each month..
Also higher limits help out quite a lot in uti. Who wants to make an $1,100 dollar purchase and have your Scores tank because you have suddenly have uti of 22% from just one purchase.
Just because you have high CLI's doesn mean you have to use it and being responsible with high limits helps out when applying for other things down the road. But basically I'd say keep the big limit cards (after you combine the 2 that you can combine) Sock drawer the Best Buy or get rid of it. Keep Wal-Mart (for TU Score) and if you're not using AMEX Zync why pay the Annual Card fee.
Closing all accounts over 5 K is pretty drastic and uncalled for if he doesn't have a problem managing his credit. But for someone who can't handle high limits and is getting themselves in trouble, by all means cut them up and pay them off and keep only 1 or 2 cards.
To each his on I guess but that wouldn't work for me.