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Best order to pay down CC's?

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RW771
Frequent Contributor

Best order to pay down CC's?

Good morning!

 

I posted this in the CC forum as well, but thought I'd also post this here and see what input you guys might have. 

 

I recently made some large payments on my CC's and am trying to figure out what would be the fastest and best order to pay them off. Here is what I have as of right now:

 

CU Visa card: $5,863/6K @ 8.99%

Chase Freedom: $1,715/3K @ 22.99

Chase Southwest: $3,644/5.5K @ 15.24%

Cabela's Visa: $1,771/3K @ 20.99 %

Home Depot: $1,256/4.5K @ 26.99%

Lowe's: $1,840/6K @ 24.99%

Kohls: $978/2K @ 21.90%

 

Total: $17,067/$30K (56.88% overall util)

 

Would it be better to start with the lowest balances first and pay them off that way, or pay off the cards with the highest interest rates first? I'm not planning on using my cards and haven't used them in months since starting to pay them down, so no advice about not using them is needed Smiley Happy Should I start by at least paying some down on the CU card since it's maxxed out? I've held off paying on this one since the int. rate is so much lower...maybe pay it down some, and then continue paying on the rest? Thanks for any input! 

05/31/2013 672 EQ (Fico), 03/08/2012 697 TU (Fico)

Closed on my first home 12/07/11! Officially a homeowner, thanks to this forum!!!

Message 1 of 3
2 REPLIES 2
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best order to pay down CC's?

Well you could use the Snowball method -

You pay the min on each card and send extra to the lowest balance card - when that is paid off - you send the equivalent of that payment to the next lowest card - slowly building up (paying the same amount out each month - just slowly moving up the line.)

 

If you are worried about some of your high balance cards - you could 'split' the extra payment between the one closest to maxing out - and the lowest payment - that way you are slowly knocking them off the bottom and that high balance low interst card is getting the balance down some as well.

 

Message 2 of 3
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best order to pay down CC's?


@RW771 wrote:

Good morning!

 

I posted this in the CC forum as well, but thought I'd also post this here and see what input you guys might have. 

 

I recently made some large payments on my CC's and am trying to figure out what would be the fastest and best order to pay them off. Here is what I have as of right now:

 

@Anonymous Visa card: $5,863/6K @ 8.99%

@Anonymous Freedom: $1,715/3K @ 22.99

@Anonymous Southwest: $3,644/5.5K @ 15.24%

@Cabela's Visa: $1,771/3K @ 20.99 %

@Anonymous Depot: $1,256/4.5K @ 26.99%

@Anonymous's: $1,840/6K @ 24.99%

@Kohls: $978/2K @ 21.90%

 

Total: $17,067/$30K (56.88% overall util)

 

Would it be better to start with the lowest balances first and pay them off that way, or pay off the cards with the highest interest rates first? I'm not planning on using my cards and haven't used them in months since starting to pay them down, so no advice about not using them is needed Smiley Happy Should I start by at least paying some down on the CU card since it's maxxed out? I've held off paying on this one since the int. rate is so much lower...maybe pay it down some, and then continue paying on the rest? Thanks for any input! 


OK, from a scoring standpoint - it does not really matter HOW you get there, as long as you get to the target of one card only showing a small balance. Your score will be the same at that point, no matter what the balances were in the interim. SO.... the best path IMO, is going to be the one that saves you the most dollars. Put EVERYTHING you possibly can towards the Home Depot card first, then Lowes, then Chase, then Kohls, then Cabela's, and lastly the CU Visa. 

Message 3 of 3
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