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New...need advice for rebuilding

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Anonymous
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New...need advice for rebuilding

Hi all.
Credit score was in low 700s a couple years ago but both husband and I lost significant income last year (his job was eliminated and my salary decreased). Forced to use credit cards to maintain and now I'm at over 90% on all cards. I now have a new job making significantly more but he's still looking for employment since we moved to a new state for my job. I'm teaching a couple online courses as extra income to pay down credit cards as quickly as possible. His credit cards are very, very low and his score is pretty decent.
My two smallest cards have a $600 balance out of $650 credit line (Credit One) and $1,444/$1,450 on Capital One. I have $1,300 to pay down these cards. Do I pay off Credit One and put the rest on Capital One? Score is very low right now - 539. 😢
Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: New...need advice for rebuilding

To give you better advise you might want to list all your cards and their balances and limits. Otherwise pay four hundred on Credit One and and nine hundred on Capital One.
Message 2 of 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: New...need advice for rebuilding

Thanks tel12
AMEX 4,820/4,920
Citi 2,900/3000
Chase 4,966/5,000
Bank of America $3,668/3,500 (will be brought under the limit this Friday.
So embarrassing but you can't fix what you don't face right!?
Message 3 of 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: New...need advice for rebuilding

Well you are being dinged twice on your utilization once for having high overall utilization and for having more than fifty percent of your cards reporting a balance. I would pay off the Credit One card and then work on getting all cards under seventy percent utilization with putting as much of your resources onto the card with the lowest balance until it is paid off then move to the next. Search the community for a post by NormanFH he gives a method of using your cards and still paying down balances it may help. Don't feel bad you have identified your problem and are working to eliminate it that is the best thing you can do right now.
Message 4 of 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: New...need advice for rebuilding

Thanks Tel. The lump sum payment I'm making is disposable income from a second job I did (teaching) so it's not even factoring in the regular monthly payments I would make. Obviously, I will put the extra I would've spent on Credit One onto Capital One and knock that off by August. Then put both payments from Credit One and Capital One on one of the other cards. Those babies are gonna take some time so I'm hoping I can teach a couple other online courses and pay those down. I'll search for NormanFH
Message 5 of 7
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: New...need advice for rebuilding

A primary concern might be the chances of a credit limit decrease.

Seeing you at or near maxed on their card, and after then doing an account review by a soft inquiry, they will see that you are also at or near maxed on other cards.

That may trip a reduction in your credit limit as you pay down your balance, which will essentially keep your % util very high, even though you are reducing your balance.

 

I would attempt first to get all accounts under 50% as a hedge against credit limit decreases......

Message 6 of 7
RonM21
Valued Contributor

Re: New...need advice for rebuilding

I like Robert's idea here. Initially I was thinking go ahead and do what you could with those lowest two, but you do want to protect from a cli decrease or what you usually hear labeled as balance chasing. Thst would negate your efforts.

So, to his point, right now you want to try to limit all of your cards from being maxed out asap, to prevent this from possibly happening. Even if you only can get each one down to like 80 or 70% at first.


Total CL: $321.7kUTL: 2%AAoA: 7.0yrsBaddies: 0Other: Lease, Loan, *No Mortgage, All Inq's from Jun '20 Car Shopping

BoA-55k | NFCU-45k | AMEX-42k | DISC-40.6k | PENFED-38.4k | LOWES-35k | ALLIANT-25k | CITI-15.7k | BARCLAYS-15k | CHASE-10k

Message 7 of 7
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