which cc to pay off first to boost fico?

[pkenn]

i have $6k on a few cards, and im wondering which do i pay off first to give my fico a boost?  do i pay off the ones with the highest utilization, or the smaller ones down to $0...

what percent utilization is good?  thanks in advance!!

[gdale6]

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@pkenn wrote:

i have $6k on a few cards, and im wondering which do i pay off first to give my fico a boost?  do i pay off the ones with the highest utilization, or the smaller ones down to $0...

what percent utilization is good?  thanks in advance!!

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You ultimately want 1 card reporting 1-9% of its CL and the rest 0. If you are paying interest on them the rule of thumb is pay off higher interest rate cards first.

[myjourney]

It would be better if we knew:

A) Limits

B) Balances

C) APR

D) Amount you can pay each month

E) Are any cards currently @ $0% and if so for how long

F) Do any of the cards have BT no fee options 

There's just to many unknown variables to guess at which you should do first...

Also see this thread for support and help

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/The-GREAT-CC-Payoff-Challenge/m-p/2689987#M768555

[pkenn]

thanks for the replies!   i can pay $4k of it now, im just wondering if i pay off one that has $2k on it with a $5k limit or $4k on one that has a $5k limit?  or does it not matter? i thought paying down the utililazation on the more maxed out one might help more but im not sure.... i  just want to make the payments count

[myjourney]

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@pkenn wrote:

thanks for the replies!   i can pay $4k of it now, im just wondering if i pay off one that has $2k on it with a $5k limit or $4k on one that has a $5k limit?  or does it not matter? i thought paying down the utililazation on the more maxed out one might help more but im not sure.... i  just want to make the payments count

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In Fico eyes the card with the 4k balance and a 5k limit is causing the most harm to scores

Anything over 70% IIRC Fico dings twice 

Once for high UTL and then again for showing as maxed out

If it were me I would pay

1k of the 2k balance and 3k on the 4k balance 

Hope this helps 

[pkenn]

great, thank you!!!!   one other question though off topic,but id love to hear your advice...... i have $72k of revolving limits and im an AU on my wifes ATT universal card ($20k) which she has had for 7 years. she just put a huge purchase on it ($16k)  and its going to hurt my utilization. my question is, how fo you think it will effect my score if i drop it? my AAoA is 14 years.   my credit limits will be $52k if i lose the AU of which 15% of that will be used .  and on the flip side if she puts me back on at a later date will it show up on my report from the day she opened the account?   thanks agsin

[myjourney]

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@pkenn wrote:

great, thank you!!!!   one other question though off topic,but id love to hear your advice...... i have $72k of revolving limits and im an AU on my wifes ATT universal card ($20k) which she has had for 7 years. she just put a huge purchase on it ($16k)  and its going to hurt my utilization. my question is, how fo you think it will effect my score if i drop it? my AAoA is 14 years.   my credit limits will be $52k if i lose the AU of which 15% of that will be used .  and on the flip side if she puts me back on at a later date will it show up on my report from the day she opened the account?   thanks agsin

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Depends on when it will be paid off or if you plan to app for anything any time soon before its paid off......

With 72K in available credit and if it will be paid off pretty soon your total UTL could go as high as 30% and not do real damage to scores ($21,600)

The pulling of AU's and then adding again later not a good idea IMHO 

This may cause a FR,AA if the lender wonders why AU's are added then removed then added again but in theory if you did do this yes you would get the history again