Advice please for a noob to repair credit

[Anonymous]

Hi Ive been trying to repair my credit for the past year and ive moved up from below 500 to 683 Fico. I have about 5,000 to pay off a portion of some of my cards but after researching im still not sure exactly what to do. Do I pay off the highest APR or the lowest balance to around 30%? Should i ask for an increase?

I read that this is the best place for advice so if anyone could help that would be really appreciate. I want to buy a car in the next few months and i wanted to hopefully try to get past 700.  Any advice appreciated.

Here is my info. Also i have one 30 day late payment on the BOA from about 5 years ago and a closed account for a car about 6 years ago paid in full.

thanks again

Card Name        Balance        Limit
American Express    $350.00     $500.00
Bank of America    $3,801.00    $6,300.00
Capital one            $1,050.00     $1,750.00
Capital One              $819.79     $1,200.00
Chase Freedom        $150.00     $500.00
Chase Slate              $204.00     $500.00
Citbank                      $678.49     $1,000.00
Discover                  $1,955.00     $2,000.00
Home Depot               $205.01     $500.00
Macys                            $0.00       $500.00
Walmart Credit Card    $1,402.00   $4,000.00         
Total                            $10,615.29   $18,750.00
Percent Used        56.61%    

[tntexans72]

Quickest way to boost your score is to pay down your 56% util. Ideally you want to bring it below 20%. The lower the better. 

[Anonymous]

I'm still new to rebuilding myself but I would at least pay the Discover down a good bit if not off. That by itself will help the utilization since it's so high considering the limit

[RobertEG]

You can repay from either a financial or a credit score perspective.

You save $ by paying the higher APR debt, but improve score by reducing the highest % util card.

Differing strategies dependent upon your individual goals/needs.

Getting CLIs would likely be tough, and I would generally discourage that as means to increase your denom, and thus decrease your % util.

It is human nature, as demonstrated by your own multiple account histories, to perceive a larger spending  cushion once a CLI is obtained, and thus there is a tendency to increase the account balance as long as you remain at or near your prior % util.   That tendency is whey creditors offer CLIs.

That could result in a tendency to increase your current debt, when you actually need jsut the opposite.

[Anonymous]

If I were u I'll pay of the Bank of America and Capitol one. After its paid off see if h can get a new card from Capitol one with 0% and transfer all ur card balances to that one card

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone thanks for the advice. I think im going to pay down everything till each is at  40% and then slowly aim for 20% until i pay off most and leave a balance on a few. My Discover just randomly raised my limit by $500 and my BOA gave me an extra $2,000 limit a few days ago for updating my yearly income.

Just Fyi I havent used any of my credit cards in the past year. I havent even activated the new ones they sent. I pay about 2x if not more than my minimum and have gone from 95% usage to thr 56%.

Thanks again and i will update if my score changes.