Please help!

[Joe_Francis]

Hi I'm not quite sure how to use this site too well so excuse me if I am asking this question in the wrong place. I have seen so much useful information on here you are all brilliant on this site! My question is about paying my balances. I have 3 credit cards curently. One of them Capital One, one Chase Freedom and one Discover IT. My Capital One balance is $1372.65 with a limit of $1500. My Freedom card has a balance of $1459.75 with a limit of $1500 and the Discover IT $663.59 with a limit of $800. I know that I am not supposed to go over 30% of the limit but I had no choice as I had medical bills that needed to be paid. Here is my question. I have $1600 to use to pay these three bills as of today. I am wondering what my best course of action would be. The way I see it I have two options really. Pay down the three in equal amounts with the money that I have, or pay one of the higher two off completely. If anyone can please give their imput I would greatly appreciate it!

Thank you so much.

[Anonymous]

It looks like you have enough to get all three at, or just under, 50% utilization.  That's the route I'd take, personally.

Definitely get all of them under 85% though.

[Berk]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It looks like you have enough to get all three at, or just under, 50% utilization.  That's the route I'd take, personally.

Definitely get all of them under 85% though.

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Yes, what CreditFitnessToo said!!!

[takeshi74]

You really just need to calculate utilization for each card.  You have a couple over 90% that need to come down immediately but the one at 83% needs to come down as well.  From a utilization perspective I agree with CreditFitnessToo.  Work on getting them all down as low as possible.  You can do the math to determine how to allocate the finds that you have.  A spreadsheet would make this very easy to figure out.

[RobertEG]

What is the APR on each card?

[CreditDunce]

How long have you had the high balances?  If you have had the cards maxed out for a long time, the CCC's may balance chase you as you pay off the balances.

IMO, I wouldn't worry about your credit score right now.  I would pay 2x the minimum on each card.  Then I would pay the cards with the highest APR until the money runs out.

Once you have paid off the debts, I recommend you build up an emergency fund.  If something else happens with everything maxed out, things could get ugly.

[ricopanorama]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It looks like you have enough to get all three at, or just under, 50% utilization.  That's the route I'd take, personally.

Definitely get all of them under 85% though.

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Why under 85% as opposed to under 90%. I understand lower is better but I thought anything over 90% was looked at as maxed out. Is it 85%?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

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@ricopanorama wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

It looks like you have enough to get all three at, or just under, 50% utilization.  That's the route I'd take, personally.

Definitely get all of them under 85% though.

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Why under 85% as opposed to under 90%. I understand lower is better but I thought anything over 90% was looked at as maxed out. Is it 85%?

Thanks

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For the purposes of applying for anything, over 60% on all your cards practically screams red alert.

For FICO, I believe over 80% is considered maxed out.

[Anonymous]

If one has significantly higher APR, pay it off first. If one has significantly lower APR, pay it off last. If the APRs are similar and you don't need new credit anytime soon, pay off the highest APR cards first. If the APRs are similar, but you might need new credit (loan/etc) soon, pay them all below 60% and then pay off the highest APR card. If the APRs are identical, pay them all below 60%, then get them all below 40%, then gradually pay them all down (or pay down one at a time if credit score is not an issue as this might give you a feeling of accomplishment as each card gets paid down.