are you making enough money doing this and/or building enough credit for all this to be worth it? seems potentially dangerous to me, but tbh im not sure why i think that.

Applying for 5 new cards every 3 months seems like overkill imo

You're probably better off just building up a responsible credit history with the accounts you already have

How important is it to get out of CC debt ASAP? I used to have great credit, but now it's ~690 after building up a lot of debt after going busto on high variance investments about 2-3 years ago.

I'm a poker player so no real fixed income, I'm owed a LOT of $ by people though I don't anticipate receiving much of it any time soon and I have pretty great earning potential (+200k past year online with very consistent results and no big swings at all), but still no immediate returns as I'm still in makeup though receiving ~2k a month to play out of the country. Would you strongly consider getting some kind of large personal loan from a friend even if the rate is pretty high to improve my credit? FWIW I basically never use my cards anymore and at the moment am just paying a little more than min payment on my cards

Unless you're considering making a major purchase some time soon (where your credit score will be relevant in your life), I wouldn't take out a high rate personal loan to offset your CC debt. Sounds like as your loans get paid back you'll get there anyway.

But if you do need to improve your credit score quickly, JL mentioned that credit utilization (CC revolving debt balance / total CC credit available) is ~30% of the total score, and sounds like that's where your score is getting hit the hardest (if you don't have any late payments). Maybe try achieving utilization improvement in 2 ways: request line of credit increases while also paying down debt. Also make a basic plan with achievable targets: if you're at 50% utilization today, shoot for 10% decrements every couple months until you get to ~20%. (Top FICO scorers are <10% as a high watermark.) I imagine you'll see some real improvement in your score.

ETA -- another easy thing to do that could improve your economics is to call your CC companies and negotiate for lower APR (if you haven't done this already). If you haven't been late on payments and are in good standing, you should at minimum be able to knock off a couple points on all your cards.

I am not applying for cards to build credit. I already have credit. I apply for cards for rewards and travel and perks and benefits. Typically, I apply for cards for signup bonuses. Here are some examples from this year:

Citi AAdvantage Visa - 40k AA miles, enough for 3 domestic coach 1ways
Citi AAdvantage Amex - 40k AA miles
Citi HHonors Visa - 50k HHonors, enough for 1 night at a top Hilton property, or more at lower class properties
Citi HHonors Reserve - 2 Weekend night certs, usable at any Hilton that's not all-inclusive + HHonors Gold status

Chase SW Visa - 50k RR points, varies on ticket price. Approx. 2 domestic RTs
Chase Sapphire Preferred - 40k UR points, $400 cashback, or 2 nights at a top hyat property, or domestic RT on united etc
Chase Ink Plus - 50k UR points, $500 cashback, or see above

Amex HHonors - 40k HHonors, see above
Amex BCE - $100 cashback

Barclays US Air - 40k miles, RT coach ticket to hawaii during off peak, RT domestic ticket during peak

BOA - Hawaii Airlines, 35k miles
BOH - Hawaii Airlines, 35k miles, Almost RT US to hawaii, saver 1way to Australia, or transfer 1:2 HHonors points (70k each card or 140k total, see above for redemptions)

My goal is to be able to travel for cheap, including hotels and airfare and to get to see some cool places that I otherwise wouldn't have. Most of these cards have annual fees and spending requirements for the bonuses. The annual fees are typically waived the first year. I will close most of the cards before their anniversary date, and I just cycle my spend to whatever cards I'm trying to meet the requirements for.

JL, one thing I never understood with cycling cards is the cost of closing those accounts before the year. Isn't that a big deal to not close those cards out?

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. On most of the cards I listed, the annual fee is waived the first year. So as the first year comes to a close, they will assess the annual fee on the card's anniversary date. If it's a card I don't plan on keeping, I will call the retention department at about 10-11 months and tell them I'm thinking of closing the card, the fee doesn't seem worth it etc, is there anything they can do. Sometimes they will waive the fee another year, sometimes they will offer you a mileage bonus to keep the card, sometimes they will say there's nothing they can do.

There is no monetary cost to cancel the card. If you meant cost as in the effect it may have on my score then that's a little different. I don't intend to actually close the card, I will ask if there is a downgrade available to a card with no annual fee. This keeps the credit limit established (good for utilization) and the history with the lender.

Only if I can't get a retention deal AND there is no downgrade available will I actually cancel the card. The cost here is in the credit limit (utilization), but it's typically possible to move most of the limit to another card with the same lender before cancelling so you keep nearly the same limits. The other issue is it will affect the average age of accounts, but if it's a card I've only had a year it may actually be a positive change.

Another option is to trade credit limits. At the moment, I'm at Chase's maximum exposure / lending limit based on my income. If I apply for another card, it will be denied due to sufficient credit with Chase. I can call the Reconsideration line and offer to transfer a credit limit and close a current card to allow me to get approved for a new card. This way, I kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

I get that it's better to cancel a card if there's no free downgrade option. I'm asking because I don't like the idea of having a graveyard of credit cards and would prefer to close them out when I know I'll never use them again.

So the negative effect to your credit score when closing a card has to do with average age of accounts and credit limit and not the actual closing of an account?

What's up with equifax saying my security Q&A don't match my records? I think I'd remember taking out a mortgage 4 years ago and what my middle name is. They want me to fax them my driver's license. I didn't know fax still existed. pia

Yep. On the other side of the equation, opening a card doesn't do anything to your score directly, it's the inquiry that drops your score and lowering of your average age of credit that drops your score, and the subsequent lowering of your utilization that increases your score

There are typically 3 questions for confirmation. Any info they have are totally based on public records so you should be able to google it about yourself or otherwise get the info.

Sometimes they can be unintentionally tricky. For example, I had to think twice the other day when I was asked "in which town did you go to school" (I went to UMiami) because they gave me both "coral gables" and "miami". When the campus is actually in coral gables.

Another time, I was working with a friend and they asked "which of these companies do you have an auto loan with". None of the listed companies were her loan owner. But after a bit of googling, we found out that one of the listed companies was the associated branch of her loan owner specifically for toyota/scions. Had we picked "none of the above" it would have been incorrect.

For anyone looking to take the risk and sell their Chase UR points or any other airline etc points, google flighthunter bruce. He gives 1.5-1.6 cents per point. He paypals you the money first - just had a successful trade with him; my 19500 UR points for his $305 before paypal fees, for a net of $295

JL have you or anyone else in this thread for that matter ever tried opening an account with 0% APR, taking all of the credit they give you and investing it in stocks/etc, and then putting the principal back in right before your 0% period ends while keeping the profits? Seems like a top-tier credit trick, but I have yet to attempt it. Maybe sometime down the line when I clear my student loans off and can afford to take some bigger risks.

Hell, you could even just put the credit in a high yield savings/checking account for that matter, 0 risk whatsoever

Most companies charge you 4% - 5% of the amount in a cash advance fee or convenience check fee (depending on how you do this), so you'd have to earn at least that back to make it worth it.

In other words a high yield savings or checking probably wouldn't make the fee back in a 12 month period. Obviously it isn't a bad play but just remember if you take $10,000 off the card and end up losing money you may be risking your credit "career" for the next few years at a chance to make some quick cash.

I was thinking people would use something like Amazon Payments and equivalents to just pull money off of the card, that wouldn't have a fee associated with it

Amazon payments has a $1k limit on CC transfers monthly. If the mint were still in effect you could just buy $10k in coins and deposit them, and there are still some options these days but they are not nearly as good.

To answer your question directly, no I haven't. I only got into credit cards recently and with the down market and less options for getting cash advances of your entire limit and not paying associated fees I'm not sure it's worth it these days.

I certainly have leveraged signup bonuses and shopping portals for buying and reselling goods to make a profit or to breakeven and bank a ton of points. I know one blogger bought/sold his way to a Southwest Companion Pass (one of the best perks in the airline industry atm) through the rapid rewards portal and used the sears trick I mentioned earlier in the thread.

Most recently I bought and resold Kindle Paperwhites at Staples using my Chase Ink Plus (5% UR points at office supply stores, and 0% for 6 months). I drove around to a bunch of Staples' and bought all the Kindles they'd let me as they were selling for ~$50 over retail on eBay since Amazon is currently backordered. I bought over 50 Kindles in total, made ~30k UR points on the purchases alone, unlocked the 50k UR point signup bonus on the Ink, and made ~2k profits. Of course, I would have been pretty happy even if I broke even...

I didn't check this list myself, but I thought of you guys when I saw this:

http://thepointsguy.com/2012/12/the-top-travel-credit-card-offers-for-canadians/

so after getting my credit score from transunion and it stated im a 702 I went into my bank (scotia) today and asked for an $18,000 consolidation loan. It got denied but I was approved for $5000 at 6%.

The bank lists me as a C grade.

I have a full time job with two vehicles paid off combined worth to them is $25,000. I havent had anything bad on my credit history and all my payment history is fine.

So im a little confused if I have $25,000 in assets which isnt even including some of the other stuff I own, why I was only approved for $5000

Sorta pissed but its better than nothing.

Quick question.

How quickly does the utilization metric get updated? Say you were at 50% util and paid it down to 10% in one payment, how fast would your credit score get a bump?

As soon as your credit card reports your balances to the credit reporting agencies (typically a day or two after you get your billing statement for that particular card)

What's up with VantageScore? Do lenders use those numbers at all in weighting decisions? I have 800+ FICO scores, but I'm only rated as a "B" with an 879 out of 990 for the VantageScore (per Transunion on the Credit Karma site, didn't check VantageScore at Experian and not sure Equifax even gives out VantageScores).

Been trying to research differences but it's pretty vague/unclear at the sites I've visited.

Curious to see if anyone knows more about this, thanks in advance!

Would you mind posting some of the blogs you follow? Would like to read up on this as well.

Check the Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantagescore

It's calculated differently, see this image I took from creditcardforum:


And feel free to read their summary here

Sure, here are some, but beware that most of the bloggers make money on credit card referrals so you have to deal with a lot of posts about certain cards over and over for little reason other than they are trying to get paid:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/dealswelike/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/deltapoints/feed/
http://www.extrapackofpeanuts.com/feed/
http://blog.frequentflier.com/atom.xml
http://feeds.feedburner.com/frugaltravelguycom
http://hackmytrip.com/feed/
http://feeds.feedburner.com/HavePointsWillTravel
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/feed/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/milesquest/feed/
http://milevalue.com/feed/
http://millionmilesecrets.com/feed/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/mommypoints/feed/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemileatatime/feed/
http://www.onlinetravelreview.com/feed/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/pointmetotheplane/feed/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/points...martinis/feed/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/rapidtravelchai/feed/
http://www.theflightdeal.com/feed/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/feed/
http://feeds.feedburner.com/thepointsguy
http://www.thetravelersloophole.com/feed/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thewanderingaramean/feed/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/verygoodpoints/feed/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/feed/

These are all feed links right out of my reader so if you want to read the actual blog you will have to remove the /feed/ or google the name of the blog to find the main site. The Boarding Area blogs are pretty good. My personal favorite is Frequent Miler, but he focuses more on shopping portals and gift cards than credit cards. Non BA, my favorite is Hack My Trip. And TheFlightDeal is awesome if you live near a major airport like I do.

Were you using the cars as collatoral? If so, that's not really a consolidation loan. If not, then the value of the cars would make no difference for the consolidation loan, which is by definition unsecured.