I have just BT'd or payed out my accounts: Aria -$900 -0 balance 9 months old Cap 1 $1600 - 0 balance 9 months old Cap 1 $700 - 0 balance 1 month old Cap 1 $800 - 0 balance 14 months (closed) RSA $1000 - 0 balance 2 months old Target $300 - 0 balance 3 months old Orchard $500 - 0 balance 2 months old Household $500 - 0 balance 2 months old Citibank 1 $4000 - 9 months - good bit owed Citibank 2 $5000 - 1 month old (BT card) I know I have too many accounts, but which ones should I nuke? Or should I let them all idle at 0 balances to raise my debt ratio?? Whats the lesser of two evils?? Anyone? My efx score is about 603 (down from 610) due to new accounts..
Close them - if you're never going to use them again, I'd close them. If you have too many open accounts it will effect your score - and in keep it lower than it otherwise would be. I have no idea what you mean about keeping them at zero to raise your debt ratio. You want your debt ratio as low as you can get it - so if you close them they will not be included in your debt ratio - which is what you want.
i owe bout 4000$ on the citi accounts. If i close all the little accounts, this will raise my debt ratio to nearly 50%!! Why i was asking which is the lesser of two evils.
What's your goal and what's your credit like? Oh, and what are your terms? Are all the subprimers truly poor in terms? Even without this info. there's a couple of easy moves. At the 6 month mark you can combine your Cap1 accounts. Wait til you get your 6 mos increase then combine the new one into one of the older ones. You can keep the 2 older Cap1's and work the terms and limits to prime. You need their aging. Keep Target for the 1 dept store card. Get no more dept store cards for now. I don't have Citi... but I'm thinking if you're using promo rates right now... wait until the promo's over and combine the Citi's into the oldest one. Oh, I'm sure you know Citi doesn't show limits. Neither does Cap1. Exercise them close to the limits and then pay them down. You can use Yahoo to take 1000 a month off an account... wait til the cycle closes then pay it back. Your score is likely really taking a ratio hit with Cap1's and Citi's not reporting the limits. Transfer you money around a bit if you have to... get those high balances up for 1 cycle to get around this. Who's RSA? by the way. Cap 1 $1600 - 0 balance 9 months old Cap 1 $700 - 0 balance 1 month old Cap 1 $800 - 0 balance 14 months (closed) RSA $1000 - 0 balance 2 months old Target $300 - 0 balance 3 months old Orchard $500 - 0 balance 2 months old Household $500 - 0 balance 2 months old Citibank 1 $4000 - 9 months - good bit owed Citibank 2 $5000 - 1 month old (BT card)
Citi has always reported my limits to Eq and TU from day one, it's Experian that seems to be the trouble, but usually after one or 2 disputes with your limits highlighted from your statements, Experian will put them on your reports. A very nice rep at EX ( yes I did find one lol) told me Citi refused to verfiy my limit, I explained the scoring factors regarding limits etc and he fixed it right on the sopt after I faxed them to him, I had previously gotten them reported with just a letter but I had combined limits and of course Citi neglected to correct this, the last time was the only time I didn't get results through the mail .
