True, but I have already booked my hotel stay for a trip I'm making anyways and it would cost me ~$200 for the night. I don't travel much these days unless it's business-related (which is expensed), so when I do, I like to stay in more expensive locations. I also currently don't have the freedom to stay places based on sales and other deals.

This right here is exactly why closing or keeping a card depends on an individuals personal needs and goals.

770 FICO

Currently have Starwood AMEX, Discover, Citi Thank You Preferred and Chase Freedom.

Spend about 1k a month and pay balance in full.

Don't travel outside of a few vacations and don't spend heaps on gas, groceries, etc.

What should I look into next?

Id get a 2% card like the double cash.

just referred the wife for chase sapphire, instant approval. that will be $500. do not pass go, do not collect $200.

im still yet to stretch my rewards dollars for nice vacation, been using a lot of statement credits unfortunately

that will be changing soon, we settin the sails.

My Freedom card got hijacked over the weekend. Chase caught it right away tho which was good.

I haven't read any of this thread, and I'm a pretty big fish when it comes to this stuff.

I just looked at my credit score online, and it is 604. That is with a 95% credit utilization. My total credit debt is about $3,300. I have the ability to pay that all off by next weekend. The credit simulator said that alone would raise my score to 675. Is that a no brainer to do? What's the difference between 604 and 675. Also, it listed a couple things I had in collection for ~$150 each. Would it be wise to use my resources to take care of those?

The last couple weeks (and ongoing indefinitely, though I fear not much longer) my employer has been running something of a promotion/bonus that allows me to take home ~$1,800 per week. Question is, do I pay all my stuff off now, or wait and see how much cash I can pile up. Currently I have ~$2,500 liquid and all my monthly payments are current, which is the best situation I've been in in some time.

Any advice is much appreciated, thank you.

I'm not as much of an expert as others ITT, but I think you should immediately pay off the CC debt as it's going to be at a much higher interest rate than whatever you're getting from holding the money and not paying it off. So by holding it off and "piling up cash" you'll just be losing money in the long run every month you have the debt outstanding.

I'm sure others ITT can help in more detail with the collections, I know there are certain ways to get negative items off your credit report, going from 604-675 is a good start though.

I have two credit cards. Looking to open and keep another card or two this year to help build my credit history and optimize my spending. I don't want to get hardcore into bonus whoring / churning but I don't mind picking the right card for whatever I'm buying.

Have:
Fico 768
BankAmericard Cash Rewards 1%/2%/3% all/grocery/gas
DiscoverIt 5% rotating

Looking at:
Amex Blue Cash Rewards Everyday for 3% grocery (I might actually save more on the preferred, but annual fees tilt me)
Citi DoubleCash for 2% all (Sadly, no targeted bonus)

Any other card suggestions? I don't travel much. The only targeted bonus I have is for an AmEx gold 50k points bonus (125 annual fee?).

Your FICO is pretty good, may be able to get the wallis Mae MasterCard 5/5 on gas/grocery but onl 250 spend a month per category.

Chase freedom is just like discover it with it's categories but all in different quarters(except q4 both do amazon)

Where did you check your targeted offers? Creditcards.com card match?

If you want to pay off your debts and improve your credit score etc then you start with the highest interest debt first. Regarding your collection accounts they're small enough that their impact is not huge, but why not pay them off if you want.

Next is establishing an emergency fund, like a buffer if you lose your job or your car engine breaks or you break a leg or something. Then you start savings goals (2k, 5k, etc). It's a powerful motivator to not spend when your bank account balance continues to get larger and larger, particularly if you've never had that much money in there.

Sounds like you have an aversion to cards with an annual fee (amex PRG is $175 increasing to $195 now btw). There are a few good cards without annual fees and you've touched on most of them. You can add the Chase Freedom for the additional set of 5% categories. The doublecash is probably your best bet in terms of a simple solution. The Fidelity 2% Amex is good too, but may not be accepted everywhere due to being an Amex

Both AmEx and Citi have a form on their site that you can fill out to see what offers you have w/o a credit pull, and that matched what I've gotten in the mail (nothing from citi, but the gold offer from amex)

Thanks for the info Custer & JL

Do credit match imo. Also does a soft pull

tried it and got

Chase Sapphire Preferred / 40k points after $4k in 3 months
Chase Slate $0 balance transfers for 2 months
Chase Freedom $100 after $500 in 3 months
Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards $100 after $500 in 3 months
First PREMIER cards (looks sketchy)
Simmons First Visa Platinum Rewards 1 travel reward point per dollar spent
Simmons First Visa Platinum

May be worth getting the freedom, for bonus and another set of rotating 5%s

Eh Chase Freedom has rotating 5% cats and no annual fee. Any bonus is just gravy, no point in not getting it. Free $100.

Thank you for the replies. Another question I have. While I'm having temporary earnings of about 2k per week, can I leverage those pay stubs into higher limit cards, or refinance my car? Because it looks like I'm earning >$100k a year for the time being.

Income is self reported so it may be fine. Your Credit Report wont show income. CLs are determined by other lines of open credit and Credit Score(at least to my knowledge).

Only reason to wait is if you don't really need/want the card immediately because the bonus has been higher in the past and likely will be again.

As ccuster said, you self report your income. You can put whatever you want there, but it's usually recommended to stay close to what you can backup.

Wondering what if anything I can do to increase my credit score?

I am self-employed, own my condo & car free & clear, pay off all cc bills in full every month & have zero debt.

According to Cap l 1 free credit tracker my score is 702.

I have $158,540 of credit
Credit utilization is 10%
95% of on-time payments.
One derogatory history (I did a short sale on a 4 plex about two years ago, bank wrote off about $150,000 that I owed them).

Already got a fist-full of credit cards. Suggestions??

if u got rid of 150k debt for free congrats, sounds to me like ur the guy with the answers

Cosigned on a car for the gf this weekend and found out my score is ~100 points higher than Credit Karma had been telling me. Standard. You get what you pay for.

Hire a really good lawyer who has a personal vendetta against banks & the Wall Street machine

Don't worry.keep cosigning for her and credit karma will be right soon enough

Reread the beginning of the thread. You should check Credit Karma and Credit Sesame and compare the scores. If they're different you look at your actual reports and see what's causing the difference.

This was a lot funnier than what I was planning one saying.

Wtf are you cosigning for a girlfriend? I wouldn't cosign for anyone that wasn't my kid.

Thanks.

We've lived together for quite some time and she's very responsible. I'm not an idiot.