98-financed furniture at Helig Meyers, total 3600. Paid off in April 00 99 June - Applied online for Aria Visa Platinum, approved for 5K at 12.99 % never late, no increase yet either open 99 July- received preapproval for Associates Visa, approved for 300 at 21%, received one increase last november for 175 yippee open 99 Sept- received preapproval for Citibank, approved for platinum for 1000, 10.99 %, no increase as of yet, open 99 Oct- received preapproval for Fidelity, approved for 500, 7.99 teaser rate, now at 14.99, no increases as of yet, open 99-Oct- received preapproval for Sears, approved for whopping 250. high rates, no increase, asked for one last ,month DENIED , open 99 Nov- preapproval for Jcpenney, approved 350, high rates, no increase open 99 Nov Lowes, applied online instant approval for 350, high rates, no increase open 99 Dec- received preapproval for Speigels, approved for 825, never have used this account, don't know why I got it in the first place, plan to close 99- Target, applied online , approved 200, one increase for 100 open 99- Exxon, applied online, approved 225, got increase of 25.00 oh baby! open Don't remember when i got target or exxon Only negative is one 30 day late from last year, no collections, charge offs, etc. I never receive increases from anyone, I think I do have too mnay accounts, plan on closing speigel, lowes, target and exxon and associates. What do you guys think?? I want to keep my aria, citibank and fidelity and hubby wants sears because that is joint argg, and I want to keep my penney's. Does this sound good, I know this is hurting me, i have been denied a few times in the past and I know this has something to do with it. Plus I NEVER get increases from anyone and I always paid on time every month, moe than min. Any other suggestions or observations you see here? Thanks
Thanks Dog, but I have been a little discouraged, was denied for discover etc. and no increases, of course credit is new, maybe after 2 years it will look better??
One thing you can try is the credit analyzer on the Carreon and Associates website. You can find it at http://www.carreonandassociates.com/freetools.htm After you've analyzed your current situation, experiment a little to see what happens to your score when you keep certain cards and remove others. From what I can tell, the department store cards bite at your credit rating more than anything. This analyzer should really come in handy when it comes to setting credit goals.
Thanks Doris, I did it and it gave me a 644, I know it is just estimate though of course and not my true thing, just can't understand why I was recently denied and I have never gotten any increases from my existing cards.
MY OPINION I really feel that creditors are looking at you as a small credit limit person. You've been type cast as a under $1,000.00 creditee, and the only way to get out of that is to get some higher credit limits. My advice is to close the accounts your talking about, pay all others off, and wait about 3-4 months and try Discover again. Discover seems to give credit based on income rather than what everyone else gives you. (It seems that the cards you have determine your credit from what your high limit is on other cards) Once you have a 5-15K Discover Card ask for Blue from Am Ex. If your credit is less than your Discover limit, then call and get an increase they will match Discover! On the credit analizer you should compare your score now and what it will be in 4 months after some of those cards are paid off and closed. Your score will be higher probably by 10-20 points. Also I would make Discover your objective, no other inquiries until you get the card. If you get denied call and ask for a review, if you still get denied ask for a supervisor, and if they can't override it at least get an opinion as to what you need to do to qualify in the near future. If though it looks like you won't get the Discover Card soon then you may wish to open a secured card with a good limit on it from FCNB which gives 25% more than security. $2,500.00 would get you $3,150.00 in credit and that would look better than some of those cards you have.
RE: MY OPINION I also think that you just need a bit more time on your credit report as most of your credit is less than 1 yr old. The credit score will look at the history of the total credit report, so for example you have 6 cards. 1 opened in 1997 5 opened in 1999 You or I would say we have a credit history 3 years old. The creditors would say that the majority of your credit is recent. I am sure if you give it another 5 months to get most of your cards past the 1 yr mark you will get that Discover Card, and then the Amex Card. Also in 5 months you may try to apply for both cards, as you won't have any inquiries for a while.
RE: MY OPINION Thanks, I am waiting a while before applying anywhere, I plan on closing those little ones, I also do have my aria which is at 5000, of course all others are low.
Observations (1) First of all, that 5K from Aria was a very big chunk of credit, which you got very quickly. You could brag about it for the next two years if you wanted. I know I'd be impressed if you did. (2) Second, I think that 5K is crowding out any other big limits. Depending on your income, you may not need any increases because you may already have enough credit. (3) If you want to make room for increases, your plan for closing accounts is good, but you should close them gradually, maybe one every couple of months. You need the appearance of stability. That also means fewer applications, and maybe none for the next six months. (4) Your entire credit record is very new. After a couple of years, everything will be much clearer, both for you and for the banks that want to increase your limits. (5) I don't think Fidelity is doing you much good. They haven't raised your limit after 11 months, which makes them worse than Associates. Instead of trying to get raised from $500 to, say, $5000, get a $2000 card somewhere else and then try for $5000. (6) I don't know when the Citibank clock strikes 12, but you can expect one huge pumpkin one of these days. Believe me, Citibank wants to increase your credit limit. (7) Don't worry about the limits on your Sears and JCPenney cards. You're fortunate to have them. Most retail and gasoline cards are slow to raise limits, because they want you to pay down your balances more quickly instead of asking for more credit. If you enjoy using those cards, then please enjoy them. That's the only reason to have more than one retail card.
Observations (1) First of all, that 5K from Aria was a very big chunk of credit, which you got very quickly. You could brag about it for the next two years if you wanted. I know I'd be impressed if you did. (2) Second, I think that 5K is crowding out any other big limits. Depending on your income, you may not need any increases because you may already have enough credit. (3) If you want to make room for increases, your plan for closing accounts is good, but you should close them gradually, maybe one every couple of months. You need the appearance of stability. That also means fewer applications, and maybe none for the next six months. (4) Your entire credit record is very new. After a couple of years, everything will be much clearer, both for you and for the banks that want to increase your limits. (5) I don't think Fidelity is doing you much good. They haven't raised your limit after 11 months, which makes them worse than Associates. Instead of trying to get raised from $500 to, say, $5000, get a $2000 card somewhere else and then try for $5000. (6) I don't know when the Citibank clock strikes 12, but you can expect one huge pumpkin one of these days. Believe me, Citibank wants to increase your credit limit. (7) Don't worry about the limits on your Sears and JCPenney cards. You're fortunate to have them. Most retail and gasoline cards are slow to raise limits, because they want you to pay down your balances more quickly instead of asking for more credit. If you enjoy using those cards, then please enjoy them. That's the only reason to have more than one retail card.
My experience. It is not the number of accounts, it is how you mannage those accounts. Keep your balances at zero on all your accounts for a couple of months. Exercise your $5000 limit with Aria for a few months. Borrow $4000 from it and pay all the other cards if possible. Then make payments of about $500 on the Aria for a few months or until you pay it off. After all your balances are at "0", apply for 2 or 3 cards in the space of a day or 2. If you are turned down, repeat the Aria loan and wait till you have paid the loan off to repeat the application process. It takes patience and discipline to build goo credit. Profit from the experience. http://www.creditsense.com
RE: Observations ) I don't know when the Citibank clock strikes 12, but you can expect one huge pumpkin one of these days. Believe me, Citibank wants to increase your credit limit. I know Citibank made about 2 inquiries on my credit reports, but never gave me an increase. Thanks for your advice
RE: Citibank The point was that their overall policy is tilted towards credit limit increases, so the card is worth holding. If you don't believe that, then here's another reason to keep it: the interest rate of 10.9%, which is your lowest yet. I have a Chase card at 10.9%, which is still at its initial limit of $1000 after all of 5 months. Yet I plan to keep it. Those inquiries are ones that only you will see. Banks make those inquiries just to evaluate accounts, and the CRA's don't report them to anyone else. The external facts of your credit report, like other inquiries, recently opened accounts, or (possible) excessive total credit, could be inhibiting Citibank. Ironically, the low interest rate may carry with it higher credit standards. Fix whatever they see as problems, and Citibank will tend to move quickly.
RE: Citibank Also, at the Platinum level, a 30 day late would make more difference. Citibank waited to raise my limit until about 6 months after my last 1 day late with them. And that was just to get more 18.9% credit. Then after a year of immaculate payments, including all my new cards, I got an unbelievable 6.9% balance transfer offer, fixed until paid off, along with another limit increase. Now I have $3000 in credit from Citibank, versus $1000 a year ago. I believe they like to raise credit limits when it appears safe to do so.
RE: My experience. There's a lot of wisdom in paying off your balances completely. I completely paid off my $1400 Citibank balance so I could transfer more balances at 6.9%. Two days after my payment was credited, my limit went from $1500 to $2000.
