First off, I wanted to thank all of you for your free and friendly advice! Y'all rock! OK, after following it for a while, I got a little overzealous and picked up almost every card that came my way. Now, I think I should clean house (and wallet) and cancel some of these cards. The age of the cards shouldn't matter too much as they've all been opened in the last 8 months. Here's my list: American Express Gold: No Limit American Express Blue: $5K CL American Express Clear: $2K CL Capital One: $2K CL Discover: $2K CL WalMart Discover: $2k CL Working Assets Visa: $4K CL USAA: $9K CL (with $1K on it) Home Depot: $10K CL (with $500 on it) Only the last two carry balances. (Home Depot is slowly getting paid off due to 6 mo no interest/payments which will be paid off before 5 months of that are up). I'm thinking of putting the AMEX Clear, the Cap1, and the Walmart Discover on the chopping block. I should axe the AMEX Gold too as it's the only other one besides the Cap1 that has an annual fee, but I do like the "status". (I know, it's completely petty. Sorry). The Home Depot doesn't have an annual fee, so I'm thinking I should keep that open after it's paid off?
Other than for cards with annual fees, why close any? You have already taken the FICO hit for the inquiries, and the effect is fading. You want the credit history with "never late, paid as agreed", but that will take time. If you do shift your business by closing one card, planning to open a card on better terms with a different company, open first, then close. The score reviewed to open will be higher if it shows low debt to available credit, particularly with few new accounts. Assuming you manage your finances tightly, using CCs as a method to pay what you have income to pay, not as a way to borrow, just use mainly 1 or two, occasionally use each of the others, maybe once a year, and let the history, and CLs, increase. Never depend on purchase rates for carrying balances, if you choose to carry any. Lock up the rest where they will be safe. Carrying very low balances compared to available credit, but having choices, makes you look low risk, and attractive to other creditors. You can then select increasingly better fixed terms, slowly over time. The time to become an attractive borrower is when you don't need it.
Advice like this is why I thank god I stumbled on to this forum. This advice will also help me in the future when I can finally get my credit right.
ontrack gave you good advice. If you like the status of AMEX and don't mind paying the fee, keep it. Even having multiple cards from the same issuer can be good, as you may get a good offer on one and not another. With multiple cards and low utilization, you will also open yourself to offers for low rate balance transfers. If you manage them well and take low interest money, put it somewhere that gets a higher rate than you have to pay, and take as long as possible to pay it back, you can actually make some money.
