kayvebear

You're card utilization would probably merit an F over at Credit Karma. Well, I am working on it. Paid off paypal in full yesterday, and will be paying Macy's and BOFA off in full this month too. Then I am down to 3 cards, though unfortunately they are the largest. It is going t take me some time.

Yes, any additional accounts you open will have the open date reported as 2005, with a perfect pays as agreed history. Neat, huh? Very neat ... but why would they do this?

Had an Amex account in 2005, closed it in 2005 (Creditor closed it). Reapplied for AMEX in 2010, and when checking my credit report it shows that the account has been open since 2005. ??

You can get creditors to reduce your APR once account is already up and running? Is it similar to asking for a credit line increase?

Here are my current balances / limits. They are in order by APR (USAA being highest, Chase #2 being the worst. I do not to increase my credit limits in the future, and don't want to get negatively categorized like the above poster mentioned as someone only deserving small lines. Should I consider then closing all my small lines of credit in attempt at getting larger lines in the future? USAA $5,929.00 / $6,000 CAPITAL ONE $710.10 / $750 CHASE #1 $1,399.00 / $1,500 BOFA $428 / $500 MACYS $438 / $500 TARGET $0 / $300 PAYPAL $188 / $1,400 CHASE #2 $0.00 / $500

bump

I have a lot of credit lines open. (2) of them I am an 'authorized user' on, which were opened in 1990. (2) of them are my own lines since 2003 or so. The rest of them were opened in the last 1-3 years... they have horrible APR's, low limits, and I don't plan on ever using them again. I have heard that you never want to close a line of credit as it is bad for your credit / score, but I have also heard that the average age of your line of credit (when it was opened) is a factor as well. I am now thinking it may benefit me to close my 6 month old Target card etc. to increase my average age of card's life. Thoughts / advice?