Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - NoSoup's Guide to Obtaining and Maintaining Excellent Credit

Supple Cow · 12-27-2006, 11:51 AM

Okay, WHOA new developments. When you have the time, Mr. NoSoup, I am truly indebted to you...

In my frenzy to obtain credit this last several weeks (any credit at all), I applied for a bazillion cards (most before seeing this thread) and got a bazillion noes. Apparently, a couple of them were not noes, they were just we-can't-tell-you-onlines. I didn't know this, and in my mail this week, I got two more credit cards. This leaves me with 4 cards (plus I am an authorized user on my mom's... making 5). I really just need two - the AMEX because of the 6-month 0% APR and the current necessity to keep a balance for a few months, and one other because the AMEX limit is very low and I want to have a higher balance in case of emergency. That's the background.

Remembering what you said about having excess credit cards that aren't in use, I called up to cancel one of the Visa cards today (I hadn't even activated it yet - just got it in the mail a few days ago), and the guy told me some interesting stuff and talked me into activating and keeping it for 3 months before cancelling. Now I want to know if he was full of crap so I can cancel it if I need to. He said that because I had just applied for the card (probably about two weeks ago), that my credit rating (I think he mentioned the snapshot the rating agencies take) would take a bigger hit if I cancelled it now than if I kept it with a low or zero balance for three months and THEN cancelled it. Is this true?

If so, will it also be true of my 4th credit card? I have only that last one which has yet to be activated because I haven't received it yet. I also applied for it only weeks ago (probably about 3-4 weeks through my bank), but I know I definitely don't need that one. Should I call and cancel it now or should I wait to get it, activate it and then wait 3 months to cancel it?

(I notice that a lot of people are PMing with presumably more sensitive information. I know that I'm being kind of obnoxious with my questions, but I ask so many partly because I figure others can benefit from the answers as well. So thanks again, in advance!)

12-27-2006, 11:51 AM	#38 (permalink)
Supple Cow Americow, the Beautiful Location: Washington, D.C.	Okay, WHOA new developments. When you have the time, Mr. NoSoup, I am truly indebted to you... In my frenzy to obtain credit this last several weeks (any credit at all), I applied for a bazillion cards (most before seeing this thread) and got a bazillion noes. Apparently, a couple of them were not noes, they were just we-can't-tell-you-onlines. I didn't know this, and in my mail this week, I got two more credit cards. This leaves me with 4 cards (plus I am an authorized user on my mom's... making 5). I really just need two - the AMEX because of the 6-month 0% APR and the current necessity to keep a balance for a few months, and one other because the AMEX limit is very low and I want to have a higher balance in case of emergency. That's the background. Remembering what you said about having excess credit cards that aren't in use, I called up to cancel one of the Visa cards today (I hadn't even activated it yet - just got it in the mail a few days ago), and the guy told me some interesting stuff and talked me into activating and keeping it for 3 months before cancelling. Now I want to know if he was full of crap so I can cancel it if I need to. He said that because I had just applied for the card (probably about two weeks ago), that my credit rating (I think he mentioned the snapshot the rating agencies take) would take a bigger hit if I cancelled it now than if I kept it with a low or zero balance for three months and THEN cancelled it. Is this true? If so, will it also be true of my 4th credit card? I have only that last one which has yet to be activated because I haven't received it yet. I also applied for it only weeks ago (probably about 3-4 weeks through my bank), but I know I definitely don't need that one. Should I call and cancel it now or should I wait to get it, activate it and then wait 3 months to cancel it? (I notice that a lot of people are PMing with presumably more sensitive information. I know that I'm being kind of obnoxious with my questions, but I ask so many partly because I figure others can benefit from the answers as well. So thanks again, in advance!) __________________ "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." (Michael Jordan)