@Anonymous wrote:If your overall goal is to pay off the cards ASAP rather than optimizing your score immediately, I'd pay off the lowest balances first... that way your payments in following months will hit your principal balances more on the remaining cards instead of spreading that money out to pay interest on a lot of cards.
I was in a similar situation when I started paying off my cards and couldn't figure out why I never made any real progress in paying them off until I started this strategy. Before I would pay a little over the minimum payment on each card which barely dropped balances month-to-month, but once I started focusing on paying off the lowest balances first and targeting my payments to affect the actual balances I started seeing balances and cards get paid off way faster.
I see you subscribe to the Dave Ramsey school of thought.
It's not THE worst idea but it's more of a psychological trick than anything else.
Pay off something easy and pat yourself on the back, you like pats on the back don't you?
Keep paying down those small balances and then eat away at the big ones. 
I recommend the OP pay down the FP cards immediately to at LEAST 1/2 of the CL and lock them away or give them to someone you trust not to futz with them so you don't use them again. Then continue to pay down as often as you can afford to.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:If your overall goal is to pay off the cards ASAP rather than optimizing your score immediately, I'd pay off the lowest balances first... that way your payments in following months will hit your principal balances more on the remaining cards instead of spreading that money out to pay interest on a lot of cards.
I was in a similar situation when I started paying off my cards and couldn't figure out why I never made any real progress in paying them off until I started this strategy. Before I would pay a little over the minimum payment on each card which barely dropped balances month-to-month, but once I started focusing on paying off the lowest balances first and targeting my payments to affect the actual balances I started seeing balances and cards get paid off way faster.
I see you subscribe to the Dave Ramsey school of thought.
It's not THE worst idea but it's more of a psychological trick than anything else.
Pay off something easy and pat yourself on the back, you like pats on the back don't you?
Keep paying down those small balances and then eat away at the big ones.
I recommend the OP pay down the FP cards immediately to at LEAST 1/2 of the CL and lock them away or give them to someone you trust not to futz with them so you don't use them again. Then continue to pay down as often as you can afford to.
actually not really, for me it worked as a strategy of paying off faster rather than a pat on the back... I really don't care for being patted on the back anyway as it makes me feel like a child lol.
But realistically speaking, the more you can apply towards the actual balance each month, the faster it'll be paid off. So the fewer cards to split up the payments, the faster the remaining cards can be paid off. Big bites will rid you of a pizza faster than small bites lol.
My point was only if his goal is to pay off the balances ASAP, your strategy helps for credit scores which my suggestion would ignore. It's really just a matter of priority, for me after struggling with the balances for years my priority became "get rid of this crap now" rather than "try to have pretty scores that I'm not using anyway" since I wasn't apping for anything new during my time of getting out of debt my score really wasn't a concern at the moment... plus, once the balances are paid off, the score will come anyway.
I hope you didn't take it personally. I was just explaining my view on that method of debt paydown.
As far as pats on the back, It's a metaphorical pat on the back. 
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:If your overall goal is to pay off the cards ASAP rather than optimizing your score immediately, I'd pay off the lowest balances first... that way your payments in following months will hit your principal balances more on the remaining cards instead of spreading that money out to pay interest on a lot of cards.
I was in a similar situation when I started paying off my cards and couldn't figure out why I never made any real progress in paying them off until I started this strategy. Before I would pay a little over the minimum payment on each card which barely dropped balances month-to-month, but once I started focusing on paying off the lowest balances first and targeting my payments to affect the actual balances I started seeing balances and cards get paid off way faster.
I see you subscribe to the Dave Ramsey school of thought.
It's not THE worst idea but it's more of a psychological trick than anything else.
Pay off something easy and pat yourself on the back, you like pats on the back don't you?
Keep paying down those small balances and then eat away at the big ones.
I recommend the OP pay down the FP cards immediately to at LEAST 1/2 of the CL and lock them away or give them to someone you trust not to futz with them so you don't use them again. Then continue to pay down as often as you can afford to.
actually not really, for me it worked as a strategy of paying off faster rather than a pat on the back... I really don't care for being patted on the back anyway as it makes me feel like a child lol.
But realistically speaking, the more you can apply towards the actual balance each month, the faster it'll be paid off. So the fewer cards to split up the payments, the faster the remaining cards can be paid off. Big bites will rid you of a pizza faster than small bites lol.
My point was only if his goal is to pay off the balances ASAP, your strategy helps for credit scores which my suggestion would ignore. It's really just a matter of priority, for me after struggling with the balances for years my priority became "get rid of this crap now" rather than "try to have pretty scores that I'm not using anyway" since I wasn't apping for anything new during my time of getting out of debt my score really wasn't a concern at the moment... plus, once the balances are paid off, the score will come anyway.
The problem with the "snowball" method and why I hate is so much is that it is not the fastest way. The part you overlooking is that you pay more interest this way. This is a math problem and there is only one correct answer and that's to pay off highest APR first. If you want to worry about score of feel like you are getting somewhere that's fine but there is only one way to pay off fastest.
@Chris679 wrote:
This is a math problem and there is only one correct answer and that's to pay off highest APR first.
100% Correct if your goal is to save money. If you're willing to spend extra money on interest just to massage your credit score temporarily, then that's up to you.
Starting Score: 573 (Exp 10/12)