Which card should I pay off first?

[hollabackgurl]

I stupidly ran up my credit cards during my last semester in college because there was rent, car loan, food, and tuiton to pay.

Now I am starting to pay it all back before my student loans become due.

In which order should I start more aggressively paying the cards?

Discover More Card: $3375 of $3700 at 22.99%

Chase Freedom: $4815 of $5000 at 22.99%

Chase Southwest: $2900 of $3000 at 15.24%

Capital One Platinum: $1443 of $1500 at 16.9%

Barclay US Airways: $1412 of $1500 at 24.99%

I also have American Express charge cards but I am paying them off monthly in full:

Amex Platinum: $605 balance currently

Amex Gold: $373 balance currently

Amex Zync: $40 balance currently.

I have a $336 per month car loan as well. 

After everything is said and done, I have around $600 left over per month to start paying off the debt. Which card should I target first?

[09Lexie]

Welcome to the forum. It's usually best to start with the cc that's costing you the most in APR. Id, alternate the $600 down
1. Barclays
2. Chase Freedom
3. Discover
4. Cap 1
5. SW

Then I start all over again. I'm sure you've SD'd them now and they shouldn't come out until the Spring.

[enharu]

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@09Lexie wrote:
Welcome to the forum. It's usually best to start with the cc that's costing you the most in APR. Id, alternate the $600 down
1. Barclays
2. Chase Freedom
3. Discover
4. Cap 1
5. SW

Then I start all over again. I'm sure you've SD'd them now and they shouldn't come out until the Spring.

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+1

Pay down the highest APR and then go down in that order.

[DrJim]

Paying down the highest APR is the smart "money" answer.

When I did this I went from smallest balance to largest - seeing the immediate progress gave me the motivation to stay with the program.  Where I had two similar balances I paid off the higher APR first.

Either way works - it is a matter of personal preference.  In any case you are paying off debt and that is good!

[CashOnDelivery]

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@DrJim wrote:

Paying down the highest APR is the smart "money" answer.

When I did this I went from smallest balance to largest - seeing the immediate progress gave me the motivation to stay with the program.  Where I had two similar balances I paid off the higher APR first.

Either way works - it is a matter of personal preference.  In any case you are paying off debt and that is good!

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Good assesment Doc!

[bfranklin825]

I've just done this recently. My opinion is this order:

Barclay (obvious, wouldn't take long to pay off completly and has highest interest)

CapOne (not as high as some others as far as interest, but you can pay it off sooner, thus adding that min payment to your payoff funds for other cards)

Discover

Chase Freedom

Chase SW

What I did when I set out to pay the cards off was I cleared a few cards first - the ones that I had that offered 0% balance transfers - and then moved a lot of balances around and ended up with 70% of my debt at 0%. I worked on the remaining interst charging accounts first and now I'm down to one 0% interest card - almost there!

Your debt is going to take you 24 months to pay off (not counting the interest you'll be charged in that time)... so gettiing any of your debt to transfer somewhere at 0% would sure help with that interest.

You really only need one card cleared to do the balance tranfer game...

Card 2 > Card 1 (no bal)

Card 3 > Card 2

Card 4 > Card 3

And so on...

A lot of companies have fees involved... but if you figure in the time it will take to pay off and the interest you'll save, it usually turns out to be worth it.

[parakleet]

+1 to everyone's suggestions. I'd also add in that it wouldn't hurt to call your CCC and ask for a reduction in the APR. They won't do it unless you ask! Good luck.

[NewtoCredit80]

I would suggest paying down each card to 75% so that no card looks maxed out. Then pay the card with highest APR first and minimum on others.

Once couple of cards are payed off and overall util is below 30% then you can apply for a new card with 0% BT offer. This will save you a tom of interest.

[HiLine]

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@parakleet wrote:

+1 to everyone's suggestions. I'd also add in that it wouldn't hurt to call your CCC and ask for a reduction in the APR. They won't do it unless you ask! Good luck.

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+1

Do this first!

[ilovelisa]

I do have to ask,

If you have these high balances on all of these cards, and cannot pay them off at one time, how are you able to pay $600 in AFs for your Amex charge cards?