pay cc debt with taxes

[notfancy]

---

@Versi wrote:

I would like to pay down some of my credit card debt with my tax refund. I have a secured credit card that has been opened for 3 years for $500 that I will payoff and close.  All the other cards have been open since the summer.  I plan on using about $2000 but don't know how much to pay towards each card.  Should I pay off the smallest cards or put it toward the highest balance.  My credit score is currently 624 on Walmart.  My age of accounts dates back about 12 years but all my other accounts were included in bank. 5 yrs ago.Thanks in advance.

	Balance	Credit Line	Utilization
Capital One	3193	3500	0.912286
Capital One	1295	1500	0.863333
JCP	622	700	0.888571
Paypal	375	400	0.9375
Walmart	575	600	0.958333
Amazon	415	700	0.592857
Kohls	197	300	0.656667
Total	6672	7700	0.866494

---

---

Yup, this one is tough because so many of them are near maxed... so it is hard to pick what would help the most.  I'd pay off as many of the store accounts as you can, since they likely have the highest interest rates. Then work on paying off the Cap 1 accounts and what ever store accounts are left over. Good luck to you, and I hope you get this all sorted out. Also, there is a thread you can join here: The GREAT CC Payoff Challenge!!  I think you'll find the support and encouragement you need there from others trying to do the same thing!

[efranklin23]

---

@newmomnewme wrote:
I would use tax $$ to pay all the store cards in full ASAP, put them away for a few months...then work on steadily paying down your Cap1 accounts. Its a marathon, but you can do it!!!

---

+1. This would be a better than the minimum payments as the store cards tend to carry interest and you will have less cards that are theoritically maxed out. try to limit the amound of maxed out cards you have first as that really drop your CS and then begin to focus on the bigger balances next as you only have 2000 to pay on them. After you pay off the store cards and small cards, start making payments ont he bigger balances (I'll say atleast 2x more than the minimum payment) to be on the safe side.

[efranklin23]

---

@Versi wrote:

I would like to pay down some of my credit card debt with my tax refund. I have a secured credit card that has been opened for 3 years for $500 that I will payoff and close.  All the other cards have been open since the summer.  I plan on using about $2000 but don't know how much to pay towards each card.  Should I pay off the smallest cards or put it toward the highest balance.  My credit score is currently 624 on Walmart.  My age of accounts dates back about 12 years but all my other accounts were included in bank. 5 yrs ago.Thanks in advance.

	Balance	Credit Line	Utilization
Capital One	3193	3500	0.912286
Capital One	1295	1500	0.863333
JCP	622	700	0.888571
Paypal	375	400	0.9375
Walmart	575	600	0.958333
Amazon	415	700	0.592857
Kohls	197	300	0.656667
Total	6672	7700	0.866494

---

I know the total is 2184 but I would pay all of these off first as you'll have just 2 maxed cards (which is alot better than 5 maxed out cards) and can now begin to focus on less payments and less card management. Take the other cards and SD them once you pay them off. Any income you use throughout the year, make sure to cover the other two balances every month until you got the other Cap1 cards to under 50% UTIL. Then after that, if you want to, you can use your next year tax return to pay off those cards.

[Pat94108]

---

@efranklin23 wrote:

---

@Versi wrote:

I would like to pay down some of my credit card debt with my tax refund. I have a secured credit card that has been opened for 3 years for $500 that I will payoff and close.  All the other cards have been open since the summer.  I plan on using about $2000 but don't know how much to pay towards each card.  Should I pay off the smallest cards or put it toward the highest balance.  My credit score is currently 624 on Walmart.  My age of accounts dates back about 12 years but all my other accounts were included in bank. 5 yrs ago.Thanks in advance.

	Balance	Credit Line	Utilization
Capital One	3193	3500	0.912286
Capital One	1295	1500	0.863333
JCP	622	700	0.888571
Paypal	375	400	0.9375
Walmart	575	600	0.958333
Amazon	415	700	0.592857
Kohls	197	300	0.656667
Total	6672	7700	0.866494

---

I know the total is 2184 but I would pay all of these off first as you'll have just 2 maxed cards (which is alot better than 5 maxed out cards) and can now begin to focus on less payments and less card management. Take the other cards and SD them once you pay them off. Any income you use throughout the year, make sure to cover the other two balances every month until you got the other Cap1 cards to under 50% UTIL. Then after that, if you want to, you can use your next year tax return to pay off those cards.

---

+1 I'd do the same. That would be my strategy as well. Then cut up those cards and forget about them. 

[blondy250]

+2  Zero out as many of those cards as previously highlighted. Then I'd attack the large Cap 1 balance, of course this course is only worthwhile if you plan on not maxing those cards out again.

[Versi]

Thanks everyone for the advice.  I'm glad I asked because I was just thinking of paying each card down by twenty five percent.  It looks like from the suggestions I should pay off all the store cards now with my refund.  Then I will take the money from not paying on them every month and put it towards my capital one cards.  Thanks for the help. 

[JKSIMMONS]

---

@Versi wrote:

I would like to pay down some of my credit card debt with my tax refund. I have a secured credit card that has been opened for 3 years for $500 that I will payoff and close.  All the other cards have been open since the summer.  I plan on using about $2000 but don't know how much to pay towards each card.  Should I pay off the smallest cards or put it toward the highest balance.  My credit score is currently 624 on Walmart.  My age of accounts dates back about 12 years but all my other accounts were included in bank. 5 yrs ago.Thanks in advance.

	Balance	Credit Line	Utilization
Capital One	3193	3500	0.912286
Capital One	1295	1500	0.863333
JCP	622	700	0.888571
Paypal	375	400	0.9375
Walmart	575	600	0.958333
Amazon	415	700	0.592857
Kohls	197	300	0.656667
Total	6672	7700	0.866494

---

Man, there are a lot of different opinions in response to this already. In my opinion, the first goal would be to get all the cards to a point that when interest charges hit, they won't take you over the limit. Then, I would pay the highest interest down first. You can disburse it to different accounts and all of that jazz but you will never go wrong paying down the highest interest debt. The best piece of advice I saw on here yet was to park the cards if you haven't already. There is nothing that will make you feel worse than paying debt with a nice windfall and having nothing to show for it. Doesn't matter how you do it as long as you do it. If you pay $2k down and don't accrue any more debt you will be ahead of a vast majority of people that are in the same situation.  Good luck!

[wacdenney]

I intend to use my tax refund along with a consolodation loan from my Credit Union to pay off all my cards and a bank loan.  Once they are paid off I will most likely be closing both my Capital One cards.  They both have AFs and I am NOT going to keep paying those.  I will go the EO route and ask for a PC first, but I'm not holding my breathe for that and assume that I will end up closing them both.