Most of you know of my new found credit situation. I have asked this question at other sites and I want to ask you guys. To recap, I have 1- Chase $2,000 limit 9/00 2- Citibank $9,000 9/00 3- Citibank $9,000 gold 9/00 4- Capital one $2,000 9/00 5- Providian $1,200 5/00 6- FCNB $450 4/00 7- Orchard $300 4/00 8- First Premier 3/00 9- Capital one visa $400 11/99 10- Capital one mc $200 8/00 11- Optima Amex $200 Before you say it, I know these are alot of accounts. I know that alot have to go. My question is when and who. And of course How???I would value all of your opinions on this. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
RE: To the Pros & Ams whic First I would figure out debt to income ratio.Annual salary.Are any accounts secure? Say you had 4 secure accounts would close 3 out and apply refund deposit to one secure account left.Is there areason for 2 $9000.00 accounts, would close one out,it will hurt your debt to income ratio especially if the need ever arises for a home mortage.If you want to keep n Amex card, close secure account ad get a blue card.It also depends on if you have a family or chidren to put thru college.Did you have a creditmania attack for the month of September!!!LOL!!!!!
RE: To the Pros & Ams whic Roni, You asked on the other board about Capital One. They won't upgrade you to Platinum; You'll have to upgrade yourself (close your classic/gold account and apply for their Platinum card). Important: When dealing with Capital One, wait at least 48 hours between closing the old account and applying for a new one. Saar
Bill... Ok, Bill, no kids now. Just 31 years old. Just finished professional education. $100K+ student loans. Payback helped with military obligations which is paying half. Annual income now $93K. Hoping to make 100K+ plus by next summer. No credit attack. Just needed to rebuild and went for it. Never, ever expected to be approved. Credit problems with student loans consolidated w/ zero balances but inquiries and R5s from loans keeping scores down for the moment. Plan to buy a townhome in 2002-2003. I am a worrier and want to get past bad marks aged before mortgage shopping.
RE: To the Pros & Ams whic I am going through this myself, I have 10 accounts and I am trying to cut to four. I hear five is the magic number, anyway I would probably close those little ones numbers 6 through 10, now that you have those citbank cards, I really don't think those little ones are doing you a bit of good. Believe I had no credit and then got all kinds of accounts and now that has brought down my scores because of them, I closed one account his evening and plan on closing 2 more by the end of next month. This is just my opinion of course, I am anxious to see what the other regulars have to say. I had started the process of buying a home last year and was preappoved last December, but hubby job was new so we had to wait, but after that i started getting all kinds of cards and now my score has gone down, I would advise you to close those little ones and keep citibank and providian and just watch what you spend
RE: To the Pros & Ams whic I am curious. You are the second person to say keep providian. What's the deal with that? They are subprime and I have the Chase right. I dont really need a higher limit and that's all providian can offer me. Is there something I am missing here with the Chase/Providian/Citibank triangle here. Why should I keep providian mom. Plus some people have told me that they will ruin my credit report with inquiries as I keep the card. They were the first ones I was gonna cancel. Insight?
A Means To An End..... O.k. here's my 2 cents: I would keep Chase, Citibank Gold (see if they can make the limit to $20k? if you get rid of the other one) and GET RID of everything else gradually. Also Apply for Am/Ex anything (ie Optima, Green/Gold, Blue, whatever!) for variety. Why do you need 2 Citibank cards (one reg and the other gold) with $9k limits each? That doesn't make sense to me. Maybe you could use one for business expenses and the other for personal? I don't know.......just trying to justify. FORGET everyone else (Providian, Cap1, FCNB, Orchard, and First Premier). I don't care what they have done for you. You don't need them. They are way too subprime for you now that you're rollin with the big dogs (Am/Ex, Chase, Citibank). If you must keep one card in the subprime catagory, keep Capital One but tell them your situation (have Citi Gold now) and request that they upgrade you to Platinum w/ $10k limit. If they say no, then TOODLES to them! I am impressed by the way you have established your credit. You have done a fine job.
Thank MP$40 Thanks, Like you I have the optima secured which I got in May. I will close everything gradually like you said. In fact I will close First Premier and the two low capital ones at the next billing statement.
RE: To the Pros & Ams whic Roni Assuming all of your balances are $0, dump the below listed cards, don't apply for any others, make timely payments and always have at leat 60% available credit. I'm conservative, but this approach should keep your credit clean. 4- Capital one $2,000 9/00 5- Providian $1,200 5/00 6- FCNB $450 4/00 7- Orchard $300 4/00 8- First Premier 3/00 9- Capital one visa $400 11/99 10- Capital one mc $200 8/00 11- Optima Amex $200 Regards, JP
No...WHY? No, I started with a First National Bank of Marin secured in 4/99. I closed them in May. My very first entry is my student loans which started in 1991. I defaulted with one lender in 2/99 and thus started my credit problems. Why?
Here's Why! Look Roni, you've got great credit now, but you can't go closing all your accounts out or your FICO will plumit faster than dot com stocks are. Youv'e got to close them little by little, and keep the oldest one THAT REPORTS, to establish length in your file. Remember all of your cards are 1-2 yrs old. Close 1 every 3 months, and try to get increases even on ones your keeping. I would keep all the accounts with $1,000 and over right now, and the oldest reporting trade. Start canceling with the smallest credit limit and work your way up!
RE: To the Pros & Ams whic I don't have any insight with providian, I myself have their platinum ARia at 5K at 12.99 %, I am keeping that, but with all your higher limit cards, I would dump your providian too
Ok, that makes sense! Michael Ok, Michael that is what I was thinking too. Thus I was hesitant to let capital one go completely. They are my oldest account and we have an anniversary this November. YOu said I have great credit. Man I got R5 reported on my once defaulted student loans and a R9 settled with Discover back in '95. I have a shitload of inquiries of course. But I am optimistic because I got the chase and citibank. I was just checking my balances on Orchard,FCNB secured and First Premier. Providian sent me an offer for $99 & they would up me $1,000. About 2 weeks ago I would have taken that offer. In December i will combine my Capital ones and close the MC. Providian goes by February. Question will they(providian) pull my credit as I have been warned. Has anyone had that experience with providian putting inquiries on their report. i am trying to be clean from inquiries. Also so you are saying dont close ORchard, FP and FCNB all at once. Ok, so how does this sound. I will close one card once a month started with FP cause they are really useless. Next month close Providian. December combine Capital ones and close C1 MC, and then one card each month in the new year. Hey Michael, what do you think?
RE: Would It Hurt? I have about 35 accounts reporting in my file, and I have closed 5, and I was planning on closing about 10 at the same time. I am not going to close my accounts that I've had the longest. My Fico score already sucks, so therefore I didn't think that it would hurt if I were to close all of those accts at one time. I was also curious because I have a few accts that are in my file that I'm just an authorized user on, and is it a way that I can get those accts off without de-authorizing myself? Please give me some good suggestions. Thanks Michael wrote: ------------------------------- Look Roni, you've got great credit now, but you can't go closing all your accounts out or your FICO will plumit faster than dot com stocks are. Youv'e got to close them little by little, and keep the oldest one THAT REPORTS, to establish length in your file. Remember all of your cards are 1-2 yrs old. Close 1 every 3 months, and try to get increases even on ones your keeping. I would keep all the accounts with $1,000 and over right now, and the oldest reporting trade. Start canceling with the smallest credit limit and work your way up!
TO LADY CARR As far as the Auth. User accounts just ask the primary card holder to remove you from the account. After 90 days if it still reports, dispute it!
RE: Ok, that makes sense! Mic I would actualy go a bit slower than 1 card per month, if your still going to be applying 4 credit. On the other hand you said that you've got a lot of inquiries, so if your planning to sit out the credit game for a few hands, then you could go ahead and close a few out imediately, then go 1 every 2 months. As for the Providian Inq. I haven't dealt with them a lot, but I do know they like to pull Inq's. However I think that if they are extending the offer to you for a increase it would be a soft inq. that only you and they know. Work towards getting as few cards with as high a limit as you can on them. This is the key to a great FICO score!
RE: To the Pros & Ams whic Keep your citibank accounts.From your earlier post you said you was earning 93K.This will not hurt your credit rating at all,and 18K is reasonable amount to carry.Alot of people have said not to use over 50% of your credit lines.You won't have any trouble on obtaining a mortgage.
RE: To the Pros & Ams whic I would keep them all, as long as they are free. I would close any secure credit account. I do not believe in them, they are costing you money. Always use the banks money, they love to use yours. http://www.creditsense.com
OH, well know I am really conf Keep them all except the secured. That would eliminate FCNB and OPtima only. Back to the drawing board.
