Credit score in yhe pooper..which cc to pay off first

[Anonymous]

Morning All,
My cc and scores have taken a huge hit. I have several 60 later and went from 630 to 495 on my credit score.
I have 10k to pay of cards. Which ones should I pay first. And, how long will it take to gain My scores back?? Thanks in advance for your help.
My cards are as follows (I am not sure about the interest rates)
Barclays. 2,120/2,100
Merrick. 1,388/1,400
Cap1. 296/300
Cap1. 735/750
Wal-Mart. 44/100
Macy's. 1,678/1,600
Kohl. 274/300
Navy cc. 2,614/2,600
Navy cloc. 4,982/5k
Comm cc. 2,200/2,400
Loan. 2,400/3k

[HeavenOhio]

Besides the interest rates, knowing the cards' limits would be helpful too.

But based on the information at hand, I'd snowball the small balances. Many are so low that they're nothing more than nuisances. And I'd pay off Barclays because they're touchy.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply
I have added the credit limits

Do you know how long it may take for my score to rebound??

[Anonymous]

Pay off the smaller ones first, or the highest interest ones. Once you get your utilization down (which is intense right now), your scores will gradually increase. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymouswrote:

Pay off the smaller ones first, or the highest interest ones. Once you get your utilization down (which is intense right now), your scores will gradually increase. 

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(continuing this post...)

But the 60 day lates are going to continue to hold your score down some. As soon as you pay off some of those accounts you will get points back. Make sure you pay off completely at least 50% +1 of your accounts so you have more than half of your accounts reporting a zero balance and that will give you another score boost. Once you have paid off 1 more than half of the accounts, if it were me I would try to get all remaining balances below 79%, and work on snowballing them from there.

[Anonymous]

If you have 10k to pay these down, I'd start by paying each down to 75% of the limit.  According to my calculations, you'll need $4143 to do this.  Then take your pick, either start with the smallest balance and pay it off, then the next smallest, etc., or pay the card with the highest APR first.  Paying the highest APR first will reduce your costs, but paying off the smaller balances first will result in score improvement as multiple cards will then have a $0 balance.  So pick your poison.

Here's the spreadsheet I made to come up with the values.  The "Pay" amounts are the amounts to pay to bring utilization down to 80% for each account.  I sorted by utilization, highest to lowest.

EDIT: Fixed formulas and changed to 75% utilization.  I made the Walmart card a PIF since the balance is low.

Also, is the "loan" an installment loan or a revolving line of credit?  If it's an installment loan, just make your usual payments to that, and concentrate on getting the cards paid off/down first.

	Bal	Limit	Util %	Over	75%	Pay	New Bal	New Util%
Macy's	1678	1600	104.88%	78	1200	478	1200	75%
Barclays	2120	2100	100.95%	20	1575	545	1575	75%
Navy cc	2614	2600	100.54%	14	1950	664	1950	75%
Navy cloc	4982	5000	99.64%	0	3750	1232	3750	75%
Merrick	1388	1400	99.14%	0	1050	338	1050	75%
Cap1	296	300	98.67%	0	225	71	225	75%
Cap1	735	750	98.00%	0	563	172	563	75%
Comm cc	2200	2400	91.67%	0	1800	400	1800	75%
Kohl	274	300	91.33%	0	225	49	225	75%
Loan	2400	3000	80.00%	0	2250	150	2250	75%
Wal-Mart (PIF)	44	100	44.00%	0	75	44	0	0%
Totals	18731	19550	95.81%			4143	14588	75%

[Anonymous]

Awesomeness!!!!

Thanks so much!!!!!
Do you know How long it will take to get back to 640 credit score???
I would like to buy a home in the late summer or fall

[Anonymous]

If you pay everything down to 75% per my spreadsheet above, you'll have enough remaining to pay off Kohl's, both Cap1s, Walmart, Macy's, and Merrick, which will give you 6 accounts with zero balances right off the bat, and you'll still $1486 to pay down another balance.  That should boost your score some.  Whether you'll break 650 I don't know, with 60 day lates it's going to be tough.

[Anonymous]

Also.... Should I pay them down to 80% and then within a few days start paying off the balances, or should I wait 30 days to start paying on the balances?? Thanks

[Anonymous]

No, you can do everything at once, so your score goes up faster, and you save some on interest.

Pay off the 6 accounts I mentioned in my last post, then pay the rest to 75% utilization (my original post said 80%, but I changed it to 75% since you'll get better scores, plus I fixed my spreadsheet so the payment amounts are correct... re-read my original post).

Once you do this, depending on how much you can spare per month you can continue to whittle away at either the lowest balance, or the highest APR balance, depending on your goals and how quickly you want to get things paid off.  Your balances will continue to go up due to interest charges, so keep that in mind as you run the numbers.