Tax Refund

[betterdayscomin]

Just filed taxes today.  We are getting a refund of about 1600.  When we realized our financial situation a year ago, we adjusted so that we would break even at tax time, why let the Government hang on to our money when we need it!!  At any rate, we are sitting on about 80% util right now per recent scores from myFICO.   Scenario 1) Pay down one account to 0, or Scenario 2) Pay 2 or 3 accounts to below 10%.   It won't make too much a dent in the overall CC debt, but looking for some insight.   We have about 9 various CC, not all are maxed, but due to a loss in the housing market when we sold, pretty darn close!

Any suggestions would be most welcome!

[RobertEG]

From a purely FICO perspective, I would concentrate on the highest % utils, as their scoring under indiv card utils is hurting more than paying a lower % util card would help.

An additional consideration is the chance of a CL decrease by the creditor on cards that have been maintaining a high % utill.  They may flag one in a regular account review, and decrease your CL, which would have long-lasting impacts.

[llecs]

My vote is to pay the lowest balances first. FICO likes to see $0 balances (vs. all balances). Paying the lowest first will also free up minimum payments by which to accelerate your debt paydown (snowball). While lenders don't like high balances on their cards as mentioned, $0 balances will help in account reviews when they monitor your credit reports each month or so. And psychologically, having $0 balances feels better than not having $0 balances.

[betterdayscomin]

That makes sense.  We started off by paying off a vehicle and student loan in Dec, this would be the icing on the cake for a decent snowball!  Not to mention the instant gratification!