I admit it. I am a credit junkie. More specifically, I am a credit card junkie. Applications give me my rush. The thrill of awaiting that approval either by email or US mail gives me a rush everytime. I know it is sick. But, this is the bed that I have made. Are there any credit counselors out there. Not for bad credit but for credit worthiness addiction. Where do I stop? I have way to many credit cards. I am a long way from having 5 accounts. The last time I checked I was at : Capital one gold - 4.5K Citibank plat sel - 9K Citibank plat div - 9K Chase classic -2K Providian smart -1K Wachovia gold -3.5K AMEX (opt plat?) -4.9K Target Visa -4K Macys -1K Chadwicks ($300) Victoria Secret (350) Spiegel ($1400) Mobil/Exxon ($500) Bloomingdale (new approval) Target guest ($200) 15 card?????? DANG! This is ridiculous. I plan to close out the platinum div b/c the apr was so high...they raise it to 24.9%. I was planning on closing Target guest. I plan to close the providian smart once the intro rate is over. I dont know why I applied for that one. I think all these new accounts are hurting my score. But I closed 2 household, 2 providian and 2 capital one accounts this year and I still have too many cards. I get more faster than I can close the others. Is anyone else having this problem or is it just me? I think this board draws me to applications. When I am not on this board for a while, I dont think about applicatons. But when I start reading post and read about this card and that card, there I go to www.findacard.com (psych) and the rest is history. Roni is making a Serious pledge to stop all this nonsense. This has gotta stop. My score will never rebound from all the new inquiry and new account abuse that I put it thru annually. Thanks for listening. Any opinions?
My experian score is not obtainable.... My equifax score is 641 My transunion score............sucks! last checked 540...cant get anything with TU.
You know I have spent more than too much time on this site. I need a break. roni is gonna have to say goodbye to creditnet for awhile. Goodnight folks.
Open cards, hardly used with large limits and low balances really help the credit ratios. I would put your least favorites in the sock draw, allowing them to age gracefully.
im there with you roni My efx score jumped from 634 to 669 yesterday. I did some bad things (applied). oh well.
Here's what I'd do: KEEP Capital one gold - 4.5K Chase classic -2K AMEX (opt plat?) -4.9K Macys -1K Spiegel ($1400) Bloomingdale (new approval) COMBINE into 1 plat card Citibank plat sel - 9K Citibank plat div - 9K TOSS Providian smart -1K Wachovia gold -3.5K Target Visa -4K Chadwicks ($300) Victoria Secret (350) Mobil/Exxon ($500) Target guest ($200)
It seems to me that the board should provide support for those who are trying to refrain from applying. I know I have been "on the wagon" for over 6 months and it has certainly been worth it, score-wise. I did decide to accept the Blue preapproval. If you recall (or maybe you don't), I accepted it online back last March, but my information got lost in cyberspace. After that little screw up, I got disgusted, and stopped applying or accepting anything other than automatic increases (no inquiry) with cards I already had and used regularly. I opted out of the PRM mailings from the CRA lists, but I still receive an avalanche of preapprovals every week. Now I get a lot of satisfaction from burning them in my fireplace. However, I find myself in a similar situation as roni - too many cards - just a different mixture ( I don't like the store cards, don't have any except Spiegel). When I accepted Blue, I was hoping for enough of a credit line to close some of my other accounts. But since they have no way of knowing that, I only got the $2,000 limit they seem to handing out to everyone. I have more than enough available credit for my income, I know, but I want to get rid of the cards with low limits and high APR's - the ones that continue to treat me as "sub-prime." I don't want to mess up my ratios by closing one before I can replace it. At this point I am going to close 2 accounts with low limits, and consider Blue a replacement for them. Perhaps after while, I can get the limit increased on the Blue account and close another one of the ratty ones. Anyway, while many on the board are building and need to acquire more cards, there are a lot of us who need to stabilize, or whatever you want to call it. Maybe we can have our own group and give each other the moral support necessary to replace all the good feelings we get from being "approved" for a card. So roni, if you want to start such a group, I will be your first "Recruit." We can figure out our strategies for stabilizing and staying prime. I want the credit analysts to salivate when they see my name.
That's IT!!! It is intoxicating!!!! I mostly lurk around this board, found it about 9 months ago. Used to have bad credit but now have excellent credit, but realize I'm rather intoxicated with Credit Cards and this board (I tune in quite a few times a day). Have 12 of them plus a mortgage, always pay on time and use them responsibly. The good part is this board helps me make sure I pay all accounts on time and manage credit wisely. Perhaps the downside is that I continue to be tempted to get more credit! I'm always on the edge of thinking about applying for other credit cards--when I see a 0% APR it is a struggle not to apply. Right now only have balances on three of my twelve cards; balances combined totaling no more than $5,000, so it's quite manageable. I think I get a rush out of not only applying for cards, and receiving them in the mail, but also showing myself and in some way the world that I can mange credit--it's been about two years so far of me being smart about credit. I agree, if you've ever had bad credit and now have good credit, it's all rather intoxicating
Well, to continue the football analogy, in this version of the game, after xx number of touchdowns, they start taking away points instead of giving you points. So we have to stop, hehe. Ummmm maybe it's halftime. hehe.
Roni, You should combine the Citi Dividend into the Citi Plat Select. That's a 18K limit and probably a lower interest rate. Also you will have the option to apply for Citi AA and Gold AA the next year and combine againg to Citi Div.
You have made a good point, hr. I was concentrating on the negative. But the good is that I have learned to be quite responsible by checking in with you guys on a daily. That has to be worth something. I havent had a bad mark added to my report for a long, long time. Lizardking, I forgot to mention my $6100 MBNA line of credit. I like store cards however, and I just may hold on to them for a while. The damage of getting a new account is already done.
(I know you may be bored w/ me by now but please help) Ok, I take it that the decision is unanimous : I shouldnt apply for anymore credit. Ok fair enough. But I will need the assistance of the crew to keep me off the application hotline. I plan to do the following to improve my credit situation according to your suggestions: 1: Mature my capital one account further. I have $4,500 w/ them now at 11.9% interest (I think). I plan to ask for platinum in 6 months. That is awesome. Capital one has been good to me afterall. 2: Combine my 2 plat citibank cards into one $18,000 tradeline if they will let me. My Plat Sel is at 13.9% interest w/ isnt too bad. I should maybe call them in 3 months and ask for an apr reduction. 3: Keep Wachovia and go for platinum I have 8.9% interest on my Wachovia which I used for a balance transfer when citibank raised my dividend apr from 13 to 24.9% yikes. It is a gold card and I may get it raised to platinum range in a year. I may keep them guys. 4: Use my platinum optima card like a creditnet champ......lol 5: Keep Macy's and Bloomingdales and close Chadwicks, target, spiegel, . Still waiting on decision from Ann Taylor...... 6: Keep Exxon/Mobil because I drive daily 90 minutes to work round trip using 3 tanks of gas a week. I budget my money better w/ this card. 7: What do I do w/ that high apr Target Visa? use the $4000 trade for balances and close in 1 year. I may use this card for personal items each month and then pay off.....monthly. 8: Close providian smart forever.... 9: Be completely out of creditcard debt in 12 months. the result will be 1 citi plat at $18K if all goes well, 1 capital one platinum card, 1 classic chase card, 1 american express plat card, 1 wachovia platinum card, exxon, macy's and bloomingdales. Victoria secret? I'm keeping her.....lol ( I got more planned than just credit repair..........hehe.)
Roni, I really like most of your ideas, including dumping Providian. You're way past the stage where you need anything from them. I have much the same problem as you, with a total of 18 cards. I really enjoy my 4 retail cards, and won't be closing any for a while. To deal with all this, I've made a rule for myself: as soon as I start seeing too many accounts mentioned as a reason for denial, then I start closing accounts. Until then, I will only dump occasional losers like my Providian MC. Since you seem to get approved most of the time, you aren't getting declined very often because of too many accounts. Therefore, you have no compelling reason to close retail accounts if you enjoy them. I think your simple plans to trim your bank card portfolio are sufficient. Best wishes for your credit future.
ok, I have a thought on closing new accounts and I will preface this with "it's just my opinion". But... when we get a good account (>24mos) we can close it and keep the positive effect for 36 mos or so (it's been estimated by experts). So, if a closed positive tradeline (over 24 mos) gives you continuing positive results... don't you think it works in reverse? I do, and maybe in a higher proportion (since we know they system is rigged against us in every conceivable way)... So let's take the scenario of a new account, 6 mos old and still having a negative effect on our score until 12 mos... neutral to somewhat positive effect til 24 mos... and continuing to be positive until a max points 36 mos... after that we get an A... but we can't go higher than that for that tradeline... So we close it at 6 mos and think we've done a good thing... but if the same rule applies that the account continues to affect us for 36 mos after closing it... then I believe that a negative impact account (under 12 mos) will continue to negatively affect us for 36 more months... I was also told by a car expert that an account under 24 months really doesn't help the score and if people knew it they wouldn't rush to pay off their cars in a year... they'd wait until 25-26 months to be sure to at least hit the magical 24 mos... So my rule is I won't open an account unless I'm willing to stick it out for at least 25 months... period. I instead work on account terms and loc. Using that logic, I've worked myself into 3, yes 3 platinum cards with very platinum terms in 36 mos after a bk7. 3 accounts just hit the 24 month mark a month or 2 ago and my scores skyrocketed... just more thoughts on closing accounts... I think we need to think about whether we want the accounts in the first place (the relationship with the company). After you decide you like a company, you can always improve your card with them...
