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@alexak wrote:
Alrighty, so this month I have some extra cash to throw towards my credit cards. I have a few small balances and one card with a large balance (approx. 90%). The card with the large balance has 0% apr. Should I just make the minimum payments towards the small balances and put most of my money towards the large balance, or split it between all my cards with balances?
Hi there, can you tell us what "a few small balances and one card with a large balance" specifically means, i.e. actual numbers? Also, exactly how much extra cash are you talking about? This will probably help others give you better suggestions/advice.
How much money do you have and what exactly are the balance amounts? It would also help if we knew the APR's and CL's on each of the cards.
I'd pay off Cap1 and Citi and let them report a 0$ balance for a while. And then depending on your credit profile, I'd check out moving my $1900 dollar balance with Chase onto a better BT card and begin paying that down quickly.
Continue doing whatever you're doing with VS. I'm sure the VS APR isn't flattering, but I'm also sure the $1900 balance with Chase doesn't have 6% APR either.
Others may have a different strategy, but personally, I'd much prefer simplifying the dilemma.
for scoring you will see more of a jump by having 2 out of 3 accounts currently reporting balances go to 1 reporting a balance and 2 paid off.
unless you were able to take all 3 of them to less than 9% i always prefer paying more accounts off then splitting all over the place.
plus it usually feels better to see $0 and move on then just see the same number accounts next month with balances, regardless if those balances go down, you have the same feeling of making the same number of payments again.
Pay the cards that saves you the most money! Scores will rebound once you get your cards payed down. Utilization once paid off holds no memory in your credit file.
@alexak wrote:
I have about 600$ to out towards:
1900/2000 chase freedom
450/1000 Citi
150/500 Cap1
Since you have 0% on the Chase account, leave that for now. (but when you can try to get it under 60% UTL since 90% is considered Maxed) Pay off the Citi one and if you can, pay off the VS one. If not pay off the Cap 1 instead. You have 33% UTL on the VS and 30 on Cap 1 and I'm sure neither of them have very good interest terms. Alternately, if your Citi card has better interest rates than the Cap and VS, you can pay the cap and vs off and then put the rest on your Citi card to bring the balance on that one down to $250 which would give you one 0% card at 90%, one card (Citi) to 25%, and two paid off cards.