Which accounts to pay off first? PLEASE HELP!

[Anonymous]

I have some debts that I'm ready to pay off but need some guidance as to which ones I should prioritize.  Here is a breakdown of my current debts:

Personal Loan: $6474 7.25% apr

Chase Freedom: $4388 0% until Jan 2016 15.9 after ($8k CL)

Chase Slate $3400 0% until Feb 2016 22% after ($5k CL)

Chase Sapphire $900 15% apr ($10k CL)

Macys Card $557 17% apr ($2000 CL)

Amazon Card $2000 20% apr ($2700 CL)

I have roughly $13k available to pay towards these.  I'm looking to do what's best to improve my credit score for a upcoming mortgage application.  Currently sitting at fico 710.  My questions are:

Is it better to have no credit card debt when applying or should i pay off the loan first since it is my highest balance?  

Do i need to pay of all to 0 or should i do something where I pay off most down to low balances (example pay off loan, pay off saphhire, pay slate and and freedome down to 1500 each)?

I appreciate any help!

[Anonymous]

First thing to consider is how the personal loan is impacting your debt to income ratio. This is a factor in mortgage applications. If the payment is small, and your income is high, keep it and pay off all your credit cards leaving a small balance on one. If the payment on the loan puts your DTI at a level that it will interfere with your ability to qualify for a mortgage, pay it off then pay off the cards currently charging an APR. With the balance of the funds pay down as much as possible on the other cards.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your input.  Payment on the loan is about $200, combine that with a car payment of just under $700.  If i paid off my credit cards that would be all that's left debt wise.

[Revelate]

Score pay off the credit cards, it's not even in question honestly .

DTI though counts, if your backend between payment / insurance / taxes + your debts is under the DTI cap then you're fine, if not, then as Captool suggests you have some decisions to make but your current revolving utilization is aboslutely depressing your scores.

Income / mortgage size are going to be key on that.

[Anonymous]

If I was you I would be paying off the cards with the highest APR/amounts on them.

So, I would focus on paying the Amazon Card off completely first.

Then maybe try lowering the amounts on the Freedom/Slate so when Jan/Feb rolls around you have less to pay off.

But if you said you had $13k to put towards these, technically you could just pay them all off and then try to get in the habit of PIF

[takeshi74]

13K's more than enough to pay off all cards which would help given that you have cards at 55%, 68% and 74%.  Keep in mind that the general recommendation is do not exceed 30% though lower revolving utilization is generally better.

You never need to carry a balance for scoring purposes.  The recommendations with revolving utilization and balances refer to having a balance or balances report.  There is an important distinction between report and carry.  You can pay all your cards in full and still have one or more balances report.  It's all a matter of whether or not you pay off the balance before or after the report date.

Fewer reporting balances are generally better.  General recommendation to eke out every possible point when apping is to have only one balance report at 10% or less ($2 according to CB).