@Themanwhocan wrote:I would pay everything down ASAP so that all creditors see that you do not have cards near their limits, not their cards and not any competitors cards. If you can call Capital One and convince them not to rate chase you on all 4 cards, that would be good too.
It would seem you could get to 60% usage by paying $7903. That would be my suggestion.
Wow that was very nice of you to do that!!!!
This advice seems good as well. Anything over 90% UTL is considered maxed and getting them all down to 60 would probably help your score a lot (which really shouldn't be a concern at this point) as well as make your creditors less nervous. Once you do this, then you can work on paying them off one by one. Perhaps you can work on them all each month with that $1500 til you get them under 50% then work on paying off the ones with the highest APR first, then "snowball" them down bit by bit til they're all paid. I would probably call Cap One and explain your situation and that you only maxed them this one time to furnish a new home and that you're planning to pay every thing off this year. Maybe they'll reinstate your credit limit on the card they CLD you on.
Did BofA offer you a 0% introductory period? Also, I would call the cards with the higher APRs (even the smaller ones) and see if they'll go down anymore - people have had some luck doing that. Also, I'd probably throw most of the remaining on PENFED because of everything I've read in the past (I don't have them personally), they can get quite nervous. Lots of people like to pay off the smaller balances first (Dave Ramsey way), however, it would be more beneficial to tackle the higher APRs first. That $1500/mo will come in very handy too!
Starting Score: 648
