TheDrewbert

6,000 ft!?

Also, my credit lines combined with Discover are $20,400

I have old debts from a business I closed in October that I'm still paying down, but even though I have a large enough wad of cash in my accounts to pay them off, I'm paying them off over time and leaving myself a cushion in cash due to the recent uncertain times. I have a pretty stable job, but one never knows. I let the cash sit in my Vanguard funds and grow while I pay the cards off. So that's why I prioritize 0% interest BTs. Citi I haven't asked for a CLI, they just did it on their own. BoA burned their bridges with me on the business side, for some reason they keep flagging my accounts for identity fraud and even made me come into a branch with my passport to prove I am who I am, I don't have branches near me, so I had to do this during a business trip to Houston. Then they STILL flagged the accounts for identity fraud. Too much hassle and their website sucks. I'm better off without them. My travel cards are my American and my Marriott. I'm monogamous with those two brands, and on the off chance I'm not and use an AirBNB or something, I have the Amex Sky Blue... it's not the best card, but I'm really not traveling right now anyway. I could get a CSP because I'm apparently pre-approved, but again, I'm not really traveling right now, so even the American and Marriott points I have just sit there unused. I prefer the cashback till I can start traveling again. AOD is interesting, thank you, that was the kind of advice I was looking for, I'll see if there is a way for me to get in there. 90% of my grocery spend is as Costco, so BCP won't work there. Gasoline I run through Gasbuddy which links directly to my checking account. The reason I'm shy about an Amex pull is that for credit lines over $25k, they can sometimes trigger a FR. Not that I can't do it, I just don't want to. The only other card that is on my radar to possibly open is the Chase Amazon card because I do spend a lot at Amazon. Bringing up my spending chart for those categories in YNAB and it's nearly all Costco and Amazon. I'm not really looking to add cards, I want to simplify life a bit, so that's why I want to consolidate. I have way more credit than I'll ever use, so just trying to keep things simple without shooting myself in the foot. I don't really want one card for each type of purchase. I don't even carry anything more than my Fidelity card in my wallet, though some of the others are loaded into my ApplePay. Thank you for your advice.

So over the years I've accumulated a lot of credit cards. Most of them are empty or are daily drivers that get PIF every month. Now with Covid, I want to reduce the total number of cards I have but try and keep the overall credit limit close to the same. I don't mind if I lose a couple grand in credit line here or there, I have over $140k in revolving credit limit. I own my home and have already recently replaced both vehicles, so I'm not worried about any short term score hits either, but I do want to get back into the 800s, I'm 770 right now. All of the accounts on this list are 7+ years old except for Fidelity which is new. Barclay American, Discover, PNC are all over 15 years old. Some of these have balances, but they're sitting at or close to 0%. None of the cards targeted for closing have a balance. There are others out there (all store cards that I'll keep for the discounts), but here are the 13 accounts that I'm looking at: Start Move Finish Barclay American Barclay American Barclay Holland America Move into American Close BoA Corp Credit Card Closed Closed BoA MLB Credit Card Closed Closed Chase Freedom Move into Marriott Close Chase Marriot Chase Marriot Chase Slate Move to Marriott Close Citi Simplicity BT and keep open Citi Simplicity Discover IT Move into Discover More Close Discover More Discover More Fidelity Visa Keep Fidelity Visa PNC Credit Card BT and then close Close Wells Fargo Credit Card Keep Wells Fargo Credit Card Amex Blue Sky Keep Amex Blue Sky Apple Card Keep Apple Card Here's my rationale: I'm not getting on a cruise ship again anytime soon. I don't even like to cruise and I don't remember why I ever got the Holland America card. I'd keep the American because it's the primary airline out of my city. Once we have a vaccine, I will probably start traveling a lot again. BoA is dead to me for reasons not relevant here. Chase is no longer offering BT for the Slate (you can't even get a new Slate anymore) so it's pretty useless. The Freedom is a 1.5% cashback card, but all of my spending goes on my Fidelity at 2%. I'd like to keep Marriott because I do still use them for visiting family and I'm a lifetime Platinum. Citi Simplicity and Wells Fargo are decent BT cards Discover is my oldest account at 24 year old and they give good BTs Fidelity Visa is my daily PNC is ancient, probably 17+ years old, but only a $5k limit and no 0% BT rates. No cashback or points and I'm closing my PNC Checking accounts. Amex Blue Sky is old and unused. I tried to PC to something else, but Amex will only let me apply for a new card first and I wasn't using a hard pull, so I declined. It's also my highest limit card at $34k. Apple Card is just there to buy Apple products and nothing else. It sits empty except for my monthly Apple Music purchase. I plan to move as much credit line wherever possible and close the extra accounts. So the question to you is: Keeping in mind that I can handle a temporary point drop, am I safe with this or am I shooting myself in the foot?

After 3 rounds of Samsung tablets.... I've decided to stop torturing myself with terrible products that do not last. My most recent one, a Tab 2 10.1 utterly useless anymore. I've factory reset it and stripped it down to just a browser and email client, it's so laggy I can't even use it. My partner's iPad, which is actually older, just keeps on going.

it happens but it is rare. paying less interest matters more for long run financial success. let FICO be damned in the short term. I agree with the last part about paying off immediately, but our definition of rare differs greatly. Barclay chased me twice in 5 months, so I said screw it and paid it all off because I'm certainly not giving interest/income to a company like that. Twitchy company's are subprime to me. I've already been chased by Discover, Barclay, and Chase. That was the reason for this post in the first place. Also, my FICO is already at 705+ even with these outsized balances. that's my biggest concern with everything you're trying to do. I speak from experience. I always had big plans and great reasons for all the risky stuff I did. but that didn't make them smart. planning to run the cards back up soon (even if it's "only temporary" for a "sure-fire" investment or whatever) right after you've been holding balances paying an extraordinary amount of interest every month and just finally are coming into some money to pay them off is just not sound thinking. you're thinking short-term and you really should be thinking long-term. whatever plan you have to use these CLs should be reconsidered immediately. then you should follow the other advice in this thread and pay off all balances immediately to cut off the interest. This was a multi-unit apartment building flip that went sour. I'm going to take a break until the end of the year and then start back into my real estate stuff next year. It's not that I intend to run these lines up, I didn't intend that this time, it's that I push large transactions through those lines. Get hidden trades I'll be researching that before I start up again.

that's my biggest concern with everything you're trying to do. I speak from experience. I always had big plans and great reasons for all the risky stuff I did. but that didn't make them smart. planning to run the cards back up soon (even if it's "only temporary" for a "sure-fire" investment or whatever) right after you've been holding balances paying an extraordinary amount of interest every month and just finally are coming into some money to pay them off is just not sound thinking. you're thinking short-term and you really should be thinking long-term. whatever plan you have to use these CLs should be reconsidered immediately. then you should follow the other advice in this thread and pay off all balances immediately to cut off the interest. This was a multi-unit apartment building flip that went sour. I'm going to take a break until the end of the year and then start back into my real estate stuff next year. It's not that I intend to run these lines up, I didn't intend that this time, it's that I push large transactions through those lines.

Yes, my only blemish on my reports is high utilization. I have no lates, no collections, and only a couple inquiries. After closing, two mortgages will be paid off and I'll go from 77% util to 0% util, one car loan, and the mortgage on my own house. My mortgage goes back 15 years, never late. My oldest credit card is 20 years. The bulk of my credit lines are between 7 to 15 years old.

I've got 100% wind REC contract for my electric.

Again, I can wipe out the balances all at once and do plan to wipe out balances in huge percentages if not 100%, either way, I'll be CC debt free by October 31 or December 31 depending on which strategy I pursue. I do have plans for the lines in the future, so I don't want the limits to come crashing down on me. My cashflow will jump by $2k a month after the sale even before these are paid off. I care if Amex balance chases me because I could pay off the entire $33k of a $35k line and then Amex might turn a $35k line into a $5k line. All I'm asking is if I should pay it in 1 payment or 3 payments to avoid balance chasing. I could quite easily wipe out all the small lines and give everyone else 1/3 of the balance in October. The net goal is cards zeroed out by Dec 31 and credit lines intact. Which is the course of action most likely to get me there?

That was my first instinct, just to aim for the highest interest rate cards first... but as I'll be able to wipe out all of the debt all at once, the balance chasing entered into my mind too.

Amex is the one I'm most concerned.

Amex, Chase, and Discover are the ones I'm most interested in protecting as they are my largest. Can you list the CL and balance on each card and APR, please. Where did your siggy go? It was there a second ago My sig was 5 years out of date... I'm an old-timer around here, but I come and go. Amex CL- 35k, Balance 33k, Apr 17% Discover CL - 13.5k and 11k, balance 11k and 5.8k respectively, APR 24.9 and 0 Chase - 16.5k, 10.7k, 2.5k (this was already balance chased), balance 15.9k, 9.9k, 2.1k, APR 16.9, 18.9, 23.9 Barcalays - 10k, 4.5k (this was already balance chased), balance 9.1k, 3.8k, APR 16.49 and 17.9 There are others too, but I don't care about them.

Amex, Chase, and Discover are the ones I'm most interested in protecting as they are my largest.

I'm going to be closing on the sale of a property soon and will net out about the same amount as my CC debt. I want to primarily use the proceeds to eliminate this debt. I have a number of cards ranging from $2,500 to $35k. The big credit lines are the ones most important to me and I don't want to get chased down as I pay them off. My utilization right now is quite high. Do I pay everything off all at once, do I do it in chunks, do I spread it out over time? I am going into this with the assumption that I'll be balance chased, I'm just looking for a strategy to minimize it. Thanks in advance.