Personal Credit Thread

[dodint]

But if you do want to close up, check the age difference between the oldest and next oldest accounts.

This did pique my interest so I pulled an old credit report out to have a look. I was surprised to find out that my oldest card, with the $2500 limit, is from 2012. The next card with a $12,400 limit is from 2013. I thought they were from before that but I guess not. I know I shifted my banking from Navy Federal to USAA a few years prior to that so I guess it was part of that migration.
Those two accounts have the same reward structure.

[tifosi77]

The thing about emergencies is you sometimes aren't able to allow for the approval process or funding delays to play out. I'd rather have the immediate access to the credit on hand, and then use the other vehicles to transfer that balance.

I'm in the abstention choir already, I certainly understand that. So the way I do it is all my monthly bills are spread across different cards ($90 here, $120 there), and then I use one specific card as my 'daily driver' for gas, the grocery store, Jersey Mike's, yadda yadda. That way I get incremental usage month-over-month that I can pay off every cycle, and I can maintain currency with all the credit accounts and their associated rewards/mileage programs. And then the cards that I have tied to my monthly expenses are literally sitting in a wallet that never leaves my office desk, and are not linked to Amazon, or Google Pay or anything else. So that's like..... 90% abstention? Eh, I guess that should really be a binary thing.

Anyway, YMMV. But that's why I'd be reluctant to straight up close existing credit accounts and leave myself with a single low-limit option.

[NTP66]

Well, depends. Not sure what kind of help dodint's Justice credit card will be in an emergency.

[dodint]

I suppose that's why it's the personal credit thread and not the one-size-fits-all credit thread.

[mac5155]

Speaking of this. We opened a citi card last year to pay for my wife's transmission to be rebuilt and then reap the $800 reward. Silly me forgot to close it and the monthly fee hit in September. My wife didn't tell me, so the payment went late. They charged interest and a late fee like the scumbags that they are. So I called and complained and paid the annual fee to bring the balance back to zero, they waived the late fee and interest. But I wish I'd have closed it before so I avoid the fee altogether.

[RonnieFranchise]

Interest rates on cards are obscene these days. We carry more debt than we should and usually use my bonus to pay it down in the spring.

Seems like every time I do something with my Credit Union I wonder why I don't do more stuff with them. Their card is 1.9% the first year and 8.9% after. Good deal. Throwing the balances on that and then I can use the others for whatever the bennies are.

[NTP66]

I imagine that the interest rate on every one of my cards is north of 20%.

Edit: 21.24% on my Chase Sapphire Preferred... lol

[count2infinity]

I have an 817 transunion credit score and an 819 equifax credit score... ama.

Actually don't. I just pay my bills on time and that's what the scores happen to be. No clue how they get to where they are.

[NTP66]

819? Sounds like you still have a ways to go, grasshoppa

[RonnieFranchise]

Cosigning on our kids student loans really dragged our scores down (I mean, not terrible but not where they used to be). My oldest apparently got tired of my texts about his payment being due tomorrow, he's been paying early the past few months.

[count2infinity]

I'm fine with never training a day in my life but still being "excellent" in something.

[skullman80]

Anything above like 760 or whatever the cutoff for excellent is doesn't really matter. That will get you the best rates regardless. The mythical 850 is fun to try and get to but it's really meaningless.

I have an 805 or something last I checked, but it would be the same if it was a 770 cause it's still considered "excellent".

[NTP66]

My wife was in co-sign hell with her BIL long ago. She made most of the payments, and after him not paying the loan for months (and never telling her), she got fed up and paid off the $40k balance. Her score dropped to somewhere in the low 600s and took a while to recover. And of course, she'll never see a dime from him.

[Beveridge]

Never cosign anything ever no matter the party.

[NTP66]

Source of the post The mythical 850 is fun to try and get to but it's really meaningless.

Oh, it's happening. Just a matter of time.

[RonnieFranchise]

How are all your hard pulls for credit card applications not driving it down?

[dodint]

I paid my first student loan payment yesterday. The 'forgiveness' ended up being getting credit for 40 payments made during deferment, so $17,600. Assuming I can do this FedGov thing for 80 more months.

[NTP66]

How are all your hard pulls for credit card applications not driving it down?

I stopped doing that a few years ago, and can't go back far enough to see that data, which I tried to do after dodint's question the other day. Not all were hard pulls, either, but still. I tried matching up stuff I was doing to some of the drops in that chart, and just can't figure out what they were from. I did not open any new accounts in the months that it took hits.

[skullman80]

Source of the post The mythical 850 is fun to try and get to but it's really meaningless.

Oh, it's happening. Just a matter of time.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Credit scores baffle me. We have a mortgage, one car payment (which is paid ahead and over the minimum fwiw), and one credit card. Our score has dropped because we've been using the one card for gas more often, which lowers the total available credit. Even though we pay it off every month. It's still excellent, and we're not in the market for any type of loan or mortgage anytime soon. I guess adding a credit card for the sake of adding credit ability would raise the scores, but man, I don't want to do that for the sake of raising credit.

And my wife's score is always 10-30 points higher than mine...and we've been married with nearly all joint accounts since 2003. She LOVES reminding me of that too

[RonnieFranchise]

Yes they like people who have a lot of available credit but don't use it. Which all else being equal if it's available, there's some risk you could use it, no?

[NTP66]

Yes they like people who have a lot of available credit but don't use it. Which all else being equal if it's available, there's some risk you could use it, no?

Just did the math, and I have $90k of available credit across all of my cards. Definitely risk, but it's on you to manage yourself.

[Beveridge]

A credit score is a I love debt score, so makes sense that more available credit is a good thing.

[Dickie Dunn]

Just checked mine because I knew it was a ridiculous number. Combined credit limit of $205K, which seems like it should be illegal.

[NTP66]

****'s sake, how may credit cards do you have open?!