Understanding FICO® Scoring

[tipofthespork]

Hey everyone. Little advice here if you could.

I'm gonna have a little extra money in a couple weeks and despratley need to reduce my CC uti and gain as many points as possible. Below I will list my CC accounts with Balance and Limits. How would you pay them to gain the most points? I will have about $1500.00 to use. Thanks in advance.

CC #1

Limit-300   Bal-287.52

CC #2

Limit-300   Bal-262.36

CC #3

Limit-500   Bal-477.33

CC #4

Limit-840   Bal-736.48

CC #5

Limit-3150 Bal-2780.72

Ideally I would want them all below 50% i know, I just don't have that much money. my wife was laid off from work a couple months ago (she made 70%) of our income and we lived off our CC's for a little bit till she began getting her unemployment pay. Since then we've been paying the minimums.

[psychoinhell]

I would concentrate on the APRs of the card and pay those off first, but you do have a few options. 

Just to give a what if, I will assume your total min payments are $200 a month.  CC-1 to 4  $25/month and 5 is $100. 

Pay off 1,2,4, put the balance of that check on 3.  Then keep making the min on 5, but pay 100 on 3 till it is paid off.  Then you can pay 200 a month on 5. 

The trick here is to not get anymore debt in the process. 

[CreditResuscitation]

What kind of credit cards are they if you don't mind my asking? I made a suggestion to a member earlier that I think may help you as well. Until you're able to properly maintain your cards, consider them to be more like charge cards than credit cards. In other words, if you can help it, don't spend what you don't have. After you get your limits down, use your cards strictly to pay for things that you already have the cash for, then use that cash to pay your credit card bill. That way, you can begin to take your percentages all the way down. Also, when dealing with utilization percentage, it's critical to know your billing cycle end dates. Just a few things I learned along my road to recovery. 

[tipofthespork]

Thanks for the replays. The cards are 1 cap one, 2 HSBC, 3 cap one, 4 military star card, 5 military take it home today card. Usually we do not have high balances. My wife lost her job and the 7k a month salary, due to budget cuts. She only got 2 weeks notice. To say the least we weren't prepared for that. Once they are back down to zero we will be using them smartly.

[RobertEG]

Personally, based on the situation described, I would put FICO considerations aside, and pay strictly based on financial considerations.

I would first pay the ones costing you the most... the ones with the highest APR.

You can always move over to a FICO-based util analysis if and when you need your score to actually app for credit.,

That does not appear to be the current situation.

[psychoinhell]

I agree with Robert, limit damage, but think more about finances than fico.  As long as you continue to pay the damage to your fico will be limited.

I would also consider dumping any of those cards that have annual fees.  That is money that you can spend and not give away just to have a credit card.  Just wait till the fee is due and call to cancel the card. 

I also agree with the other poster who said to use your cards as charge cards.  Keep working the balances down and your situation will improve in time.

Years down the road you could end up looking at this as a learning experience and be in a much better financial situation