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$1000.00 to spend on Credit Card Bills-What would make most impact?

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bott6698
Established Contributor

$1000.00 to spend on Credit Card Bills-What would make most impact?

Hello, I have very high UTL and is the only thing majorly impacting my fico  score. I am trying for a quick boost

in Score only but only have $1000 to spend. Please inform me what will make the most impact to my score thanks.

 

 Here are my accounts now:

Kay- 1,386  on 4,000CL
THD 974 on 1000CL
Zales 633 on 633CL

Macy 565 on 600CL

Toys R us 485 on 500CL

Orchard 308 on 320CL

Best Buy 295 on 320CL

 

My plan is to pay off Orchard and Best buy completely and 100 on 4 cards not including the kay card because it is well under UTL compared to the others. I am thinking paying off the 2 small ones will show less accounts reporting a balance and spreading 100 each on the others would help UTL.

 

But what do you feel is my best option to pay for a quick boost?

 

Thanks  

10/11/2017 EQ 640 TU 639 EX 652 12/10/2016 EQ 621 TU 607 EX 626 10/10/16 EQ566 TU591 EX 587
01/31/2008 EX 502 EQ 466 TU 481
3/14/2008 EX 578 EQ 539 TU 543
4/16/2008 EX 622 EQ 532 TU 578
5/19/2008 EX 604 EQ 591 TU 592
1/1/2009 EQ 625 EX 576 TU 569
02/13/2009 EQ 648 EX 617 TU 590
09/28/2009 EQ 568 TU 591
Thanks to all Fico supporters for your encouragement and advice
Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
GregB
Valued Contributor

Re: $1000.00 to spend on Credit Card Bills-What would make most impact?

My understanding is that any card over 80% utilization is considered maxed-out. You should work to get as many as possible under 80% as possible. If you have no other CC, then all your cards have a balance. You are getting penalized for that with FICO.

 

It looks like you have a bunch of cards with notoriously high interest rates. Perhaps you should pay the highest interest rates down first and stop new charges.

Message 2 of 7
IOBA
Senior Contributor

Re: $1000.00 to spend on Credit Card Bills-What would make most impact?

Definitely pay down from the limits!

 

 

Message 3 of 7
clocktick
Valued Contributor

Re: $1000.00 to spend on Credit Card Bills-What would make most impact?

I was thinking about the interest rates too.  Do you know what they are?
11/30/08 TU 648 EX 672 EQ 656 SEPT 2014 TU 787 EX 789 EQ ???
Amex BCP $24.1K/Clear $8.5- Sallie Mae $27.5 -Cap One QS $7.5 - Chase Freedom $7.5/United $5k/CSP $20k/Ink- Citi DP $9.5/Dividend $13k/HHHx2 $15k/16.4/Reserve $4.5k Best Buy $1940 HD $1701- Discover IT $15k - Elan $8k GEMB Lowes $20k - Macy's $2k - Kohl's $800




Starting Score: 648
Current Score: 736
Goal Score: 765


Take the FICO Fitness Challenge

Message 4 of 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: $1000.00 to spend on Credit Card Bills-What would make most impact?

Hi bott6698!

 

With a little more information I think you might get more input as to the best way to attack your debt and meet your goals. You mentioned that you're going for a "quick score boost", but given the information that you've provided, I'm not sure that you're going to see a score boost until you can gain some significant traction with debt pay down-- getting your UTI down much further than what you'll immediately be able to do with $1k.

 

The $1k will definitely help. BUT, the problem is that being maxed out on all  but one card (are these all of your cards?), as others have already mentioned, is absolutely killing you. Additionally, having all of your cards reporting a balance is hurting you. You need to get your overall UTI down, the UTI for any individual card down, and less than half of your cards reporting a balance. Unless you've got some more money to throw at your debt, I don't think that $1k is going to result in an appreciable increase right away.

 

So, the first question is this-- what do you need a "quick score boost" for? If it's to obtain more credit I'd caution you to wait (if at all possible), and attack your debt using a modified snowball approach where you use the $1k to pay off as many cards as you can (two is going to be the max you can PIF), and then, depending on what your goals are, to start either attacking the lowest balances, or the highest APRs, or (my favorite approach) a combination of both.

 

Are you paying above the minimum balances on this debt as of today? If so, once you distribute the $1k that you have you'll need to utilize the funds that would have made the monthly payments on the PIF'd cards to pay down another card. As of right now, here's where you're at utilization-wise. I'd suggest paying off BestBuy & Orchard, and then splitting the remaining amount between your two highest APR cards (but not Kay). Again, I don't think you're going to see much in the way of a score boost until much more of the debt has been paid off, but I think this will put you on the road to that score boost, and will save you some money in interest.

 

 CLBal%UTI
Kay4000138634.65%
THD100097497.40%
Zales633633100.00%
Macy60056594.17%
TRU50048597.00%
Orchard32030896.25%
BB32029592.19%
Totals7373464663.01%

Message 5 of 7
anderl
Frequent Contributor

Re: $1000.00 to spend on Credit Card Bills-What would make most impact?

Paying $1000 down on your balances would put your utilities right under 50%. Normally, this wouldn't do much  for  a score boost,BUT I do know that Fico loves for at least HALF of your total # of acc's to report a $0 BALANCE. So, I would start by getting my acc. balances down to $0, one by one, smallest to largest.
Message Edited by anderl on 09-28-2009 01:01 PM
Amex Platinum Charge(NPSL); Starwood Amex Preferred CC(20K CL); Diners Club ELITE MC(20K);Diners Club Premier MC(20K,could've sworn the rep said 25k, oh well lol);Delta Amex Reserve CC(21K CL); Amex PRG Charge(NPSL); United Presidential Plus Chase World Elite MC (15K CL); AARP Chase Visa Signature(35K CL); NFCU Visa Platinum(20K CL) NFCU LOC(15K); NFCU Go Rewards MC(17.5K); Disover IT 7.8K;
First Tech Federal Visa Platinum(15K CL); Simmons First Visa Platinum(9K CL); Wells Fargo Visa Platinum(7.5K CL); CitiBank Sears MC(6K CL); JCPenney Card(7.5K CL); Lowes(2.5K CL);Barclays Mile & More Lufthansa 12.5K.
Message 6 of 7
bott6698
Established Contributor

Re: $1000.00 to spend on Credit Card Bills-What would make most impact?

Lil Mirth, It is because I am working on selling my house and buying a new one. 4kids are not working so well anymore in a 3 bedroom 1200 sq foot home.  I am at 591TU and 568EQ and not sure on EX but need atleast a mid score of 620 to get financed on a new home and would like to be up at more of a 650 range. I got thrown into a clean bucket recently when my only Collection dropped off it seems from another post I had which makes this UTL really crush my score bringing me down 80 points! These are all my CREDIT CARDS but I also have a maxed out LOC for 20K that was for an addition on my home and my overall UTL is at 89% right now. So I am trying to find ways to increase to where I need to be over the next few months. If I pay off orchard and best buy I will show less cards reporting a balance... The LOC is already $450 per month and my goal is once I have my cards paid down to go after the LOC and hopefully also make some profit on my home to go towards the LOC as well.

  

 

 

 

10/11/2017 EQ 640 TU 639 EX 652 12/10/2016 EQ 621 TU 607 EX 626 10/10/16 EQ566 TU591 EX 587
01/31/2008 EX 502 EQ 466 TU 481
3/14/2008 EX 578 EQ 539 TU 543
4/16/2008 EX 622 EQ 532 TU 578
5/19/2008 EX 604 EQ 591 TU 592
1/1/2009 EQ 625 EX 576 TU 569
02/13/2009 EQ 648 EX 617 TU 590
09/28/2009 EQ 568 TU 591
Thanks to all Fico supporters for your encouragement and advice
Message 7 of 7
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