levistrauss

All,

I have some general questions regarding my Chase cards with respect to pruning, management and 5/24.

I currently have:

United MileagePlus - 10 years old
British Airways - 7 years old
Slate - 12 years old
CSR - opened last year

In addition, I have the following business cards:

United Mileageplus - 7 years old
Southwest - 7 years old

Each card was acquired for their relevant bonuses over the past 10 years but I have not closed/combined any account due to lethargy. I would like advice regarding how best to optimize the number of Chase cards due to the possibility of more juicy reward cards in the future. While opening the CSR the Chase analyst was quite clear that he was awarding me the card very reluctantly since I already have so many cards. He also dipped into my BA card for the $10K limit leaving that card with just $2K.

My thoughts:

Cancel the BA card and combine limit with some other card. And close the Southwest card and combine with United Biz card since I am not using it and don't fly Southwest much at all.

Once that is done I would like to apply for the Chase Ink Biz card with 80K UR points. Is the whole plan feasible or can someone suggest a better plan to optimize all the cards to ensure that I don't run afoul of Chase.

Critterlynn

Since you already had to reallocate credit from another chase card to open the CSR, it would appear that you are already maxed out with you available credit with Chase. Transferring credit to other cards when closing them out will leave you in the same situation.

If you're looking for instant approval, it might be best to just close them out. Of course doing this will ding your credit because you will have a higher credit utilization, but if your balances are low and you have good credit the effect will be minimal.

levistrauss

Thanks for the reply. Does Chase have any limits on the number of cards? Is closing 2 cards enough or do I need to close more? I am not using any of the cards except CSR.

Also does the INK card count under 5/24?

Critterlynn

Actually I just noticed you were inquiring about a business cards which I know very little about so none of what I said may apply. Having said that, I'd be careful closing too many of them. It will drastically shorten your credit history which will also affect your score. In fact, I'd only close the ones that you think you might want to apply to again to get a sign up bonus in the future.

Also, I don't think it matters how many cards you have, only how many you have opened in the last 2 years. If you just want to increase your chances of auto-approval, you could just have them lower your credit limits and keep them open. But like I said, if you ever want to receive the sign up bonus again, you'll have to close them eventually.



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svirfnebli

Assuming you only have chase cards you're only 1/24. 5/24 counts for all credit cards not just chase. Also making assumptions that you're using the CSR as a regular spender and not using the others I would do the following

Mileageplus Personal - > Move available credit limit to CSR, then cancel
British Airways - Move available credit limit to CSR, then Cancel
Slate -> Product Change to Freedom for the 5x categories
CSR -> keep

Mileage Plus Business -> Keep this card, has decent benefits
Southwest Card -> If you dont use the benefits transfer credit limit to MP Business and cancel.

Will you take a hit? Maybe but it should be too severe since your available credit should remain relatively constant. Then open the Ink Preffered Business. They might deny you initially but when you call in for reconsideration move credit from the mileage plus business card.

MDtR-Chicago

Average Age of Accounts includes closed accounts, as well as open, as long as they still appear on the report - generally 7-10 years after you close them.

The real issue is ensuring you keep the single oldest card open, so that you have a very old card to count toward the Length of Credit History metric. But you only need one card for that (and maybe 1 or 2 as backups, in case your oldest card is closed out of your control).

If that 12 year old Slate is the oldest account in the entire portfolio, it probably makes sense to keep it around.

Here is a good discussion from myfico on short/long-term effects of closing accounts: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Cred...7190?jump=true

levistrauss

Thanks - I was thinking of something along the same lines. This should leave me in good position to apply for the next juicy Chase card to come along.

levistrauss

I have many cards (30 total) most of them with 8-10 year range and the oldest card is 21 years old. So the Slate is quite old but not the oldest. I will convert it to the Freedom as suggested by the previous poster. Thanks for your reply :-)

Levi

edealinfo12345

If you have 30 cards and Slate is not the oldest, I recommend that you cancel all you Chase cards except for the CSR, which as you admit is the only Chase card you use. With 30 cards, canceling your portfolio of Chase cards will have little effect on your credit score because your available credit on all your other cards must still be high (and credit utilization low). You need to make your life less complicated. Keep things SIMPLE.

What do you think is better? A FICO score of 800 with just 5 credit cards or the identical score with 25 cards?

edealinfo12345

I agree. It seems like a whole bunch of people, needlessly, hang on to numerous cards that they don't use, under the fallacy that otherwise their credit score will dramatically change if they cancel those cards.

As you said, retaining the oldest card is MOST important, + the second oldest card as a back-up. Everything else can be dumped.

levistrauss

Having multiple credit cards is certainly not very hard - most of them are zero maintenance. All of them were opened for a reason - the only thing I have not done is to prune them to prepare myself for new cards from a single issuer as that was never an issue in the past. I have never been denied a credit card in the last 10 years.

I personally place a great value on diversity and texture of credit. I have cards from all major issuers (plus USAA) and a bunch of great Credit Unions like Penfed and Nave Fed. I have a bunch of business cards that don't show up on my report and that enables me to run up large balances and pay them off without any impact on my credit. Is 30 the right number? Who knows. But I am not sure 5 can give you adequate coverage in case of adverse action from one or two issuers especially since the big banks act in tandem as seen in 2008.

I do agree with you about cancelling Chase cards that I don't use since that allows me to wait for the next juicy card and get approved without too much hassle.