Some financial background on myself... my wife and I made several credit mistakes over a decade ago. My wife had perfect credit but only one credit card with a $1,500 limit. I had non-existent credit at the time. We went into our local Chase bank and tried to apply for an auto loan... this was 2008, pre-financial crisis. They denied our loan but talked us into raising the CL on my wife's card to $8,000 - and the banker actually advised us to find a car for less than $8,000 and charge the whole thing on the card. We went car shopping with this advice, and found a car we both liked, but the salesman at the dealership told us it was illegal to purchase a car entirely with a credit card. He ran our credit for an auto loan and we got instantly approved for a loan... from Chase bank (lol). So needless to say at this point I was very confused. We ended up putting the down payment for the car on the credit card (which was a very bad mistake) to pay taxes and fees and the paid for the bulk of the vehicle with the Chase auto loan. I had very little knowledge of credit cards at that time - I wasn't even aware that I could be added to my wife's card as an authorized user to build my credit. So I opened a Capital One card under my name with the credit I built from the auto loan. This card had a $2,000 limit. Neither of us understood proper credit utilization, or for that matter, how to properly budget expenses, so it wasn't very long until we were carrying a balance over 50% on both cards.

When the financial crisis hit in 2009, I lost my job. I ended up taking a lower paying job close by, but for the next two years we struggled to pay our bills, until eventually maxing out and defaulting on both credit cards. I did prioritize the car payments, so we did not lose our sole vehicle and we paid off that loan no problem, but both cards went to collections and did not end up dropping off our credit until the middle of 2021. The $8,000 card was solely in my wife's name, and the $2,000 card was solely in my name.

In 2018 I changed careers and it was the best decision I ever made. I quit my low-paying, dead end job in Early Childhood Education, and started an entry-level position as a temporary associate in a warehouse. Within the last 4 years, I have been promoted 4 times - temp to hire, lead, analyst, and most recently, supervisor. My manager recently told me that I am on track to have his job eventually, so things are looking up. With the promotions came more money, and after a long time we finally had room to breathe. I now have a salaried position so my income is consistent every week, and I make more than twice what I was making in 2008.

In 2020, when I was a slotting analyst, I was making enough money that we weren't struggling to pay the bills anymore, and the covid stimulus payments really helped. I took a chunk of that money and opened a secured card through Park National / Elan Financial with a $1,500 limit. Over the next two years my credit has improved from 540 to 757 as of a few days ago. I currently have 6 credit cards, here is the timeline of when I opened each card:

• Park National Bank Secured Visa Card (Elan) - March 2020 ($1,500 limit)
• Amazon Prime Store Card (Synchrony) - April 2021 ($1,500 limit initially, currently $6,000)
• Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Card (Chase) - September 2021 ($3,000 limit)
• American Express Cash Magnet Card (Amex) - September 2021 ($3,000 limit initially, currently $15,000)
• American Express Blue Cash Preferred (Amex) - March 2022 ($8,000 limit)
• Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature Card (UMB) - March 2022 ($15,000 limit)

So I currently have 6 credit cards with a total limit of $48,500. My current credit utilization is less than 5% and I pay off every card every month so I have not paid a single dollar of interest in the last 2 years. My secured card does have a $35 annual fee. After I had been paying that card on time every month, I applied to the Amazon store card because I heard it was easy to get approved. We do a lot of shopping at Amazon so I also wanted the 5% cash back. Later in the year, my credit went up a bit and I wanted to see if it was good enough to get a traditional credit card - I applied for the Amazon credit card and the Amex Cash Magnet card at the same time - and was approved for both. I mistakenly thought I would be able to 'merge' my Amazon store card with my Amazon credit card - I quickly found out that was not the case.

I also the mistake of opening two Amex cards back to back, so I missed out on the SUP for the Blue Cash Preferred card - but I wanted this card for the 6% cash back on groceries - we have already spent $700 at Kroger on the card so far this month. A couple weeks after I got the Blue Cash Preferred card, I applied for the Fidelity Rewards card for the unlimited 2% cash back, which is slightly better than my Amex Cash Magnet card at 1.5% cash back. So Fidelity is now my main card with the highest limit and best cash back rewards, except for Amazon which I get 5% back on either the store card or the Chase card, and the Blue Cash Preferred card which I get 6% on groceries and streaming services. I also requested CLI on both my Amazon cards and my Cash Magnet card this month - the Cash Magnet and the Amazon store CLI were approved, but the Amazon Chase card was not.

I would like to eventually close my Park National secured card - I would like to reclaim my $1,500 deposit. However I am unsure of the ramifications of that, and I was just charged another yearly fee of $35 last month so I'm thinking I should keep it open for at least another 10 months or so, but I'm not sure. I'm also considering closing my Amazon Chase card since I was using it for 2% cash back at restaurants and fast food but now my Fidelity card has the same cash back on everything. I don't use the Cash Magnet card anymore (Fidelity has replaced that one as well) but they just increased my limit on that card from $5,000 to $15,000 so it really helps my credit utilization. I have my 401k, brokerage and cash management accounts at Fidelity, so I like having my main credit card on that same website as well.

Basically, I'm a huge credit noob but slowly becoming more educated in this area, and I would appreciate any advise I could receive from anyone here. What steps can I take to further increase my credit, what mistakes have I made that I can avoid in the future, and are there any other cash back cards I should be looking at that can give better cash back rewards than the cards I currently have? Thank you in advance.