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m_jonis wrote:
I currently have 16 active accounts with balance. 13 are credit cards 1 is a PIF Amex card Of the 12 remaining: 1 is a Visa card I PIF for the places that don't take Amex. My total Util is about 20% (I owe $40,000) Now, of that $40,000 I paid off about $2,000 last month All but 5 are 0% financing (like HD,Lowes, Sears) I have two cards that are close (but under) 90% util Which item will help me the most? I have enough money to pay one card to get it down to under 50% util The remainder I can either: 1) Pay off the other card to get under 50% or 2) Pay off a $400 and a $2,000 card completely So I guess which gets me the best bang for the buck? Getting 2 cards to under 50% util, but then still having 13 revolving accounts with balances? Or 1 card under 50% util and only 11 accounts with balances? Yes, the total util will go down the same amount regardless (probably more since I just got about another 10k in credit line increases that have yet to be reported). Thanks!
@RobertEG wrote:You said nothing about plans to apply for new credit in the next few months. If not, your interim FICO is meaningless. Strictly from a FICO point of view, it makes no difference which interim stragegy you follow if you arrive at the same final point. %util has no historic affect on scoring. So take the stragegy of paying off the higher interest rate cards first.
@m_jonis wrote:
@RobertEG wrote:You said nothing about plans to apply for new credit in the next few months. If not, your interim FICO is meaningless. Strictly from a FICO point of view, it makes no difference which interim stragegy you follow if you arrive at the same final point. %util has no historic affect on scoring. So take the stragegy of paying off the higher interest rate cards first.
To the first part, it's not applying for new credit, it's expanding my current credit (ie, asking for a CLI from an existing card every 6 months with no hard pulls). I'm not so sure I'd agree with the statement about which strategy not having a FICO effect If that was the case, then having two cards 'maxed' out wouldn't hurt your score at all, since the total debt is the same as if you spread out that debt evenly. However, it's been stated many times here, that FICO does "zing" you more if you have a card at over 50%. The total util may be the end result, but apparently the "weighting" in that takes individual card util into account. My main question was whether it was "more weighted" for the number of accounts with balances as opposed to two cards over 50% util.