topic Re: UTIL in Credit Cards

UTIL

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:39:32 GMT

How do you figure out UTIL? Balance divided by CL??

Thanks

Re: UTIL

fused — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:46:14 GMT

Mshamika wrote:

How do you figure out UTIL? Balance divided by CL??

Thanks

Yes. Just remember there are two types of util% calculations: one that calculates each CC and the other is cumulative, that is the total of all CCs.

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:48:09 GMT

Thanks fused, I just figured them both out, I'm at 53% Total....

Cap 1 Visa

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:51:46 GMT

Screwed the first post up...

53% overall

Cap 1 Visa 88% $1000 CL

Cap 1 MC 52% $500CL

Hooters MC 52% $1000CL

Orchard Bank 91% $300CL

Kay Jewelers 24% $2000CL

Target Card 85% $500CL

Which ones should I work on payind down 1st?

Re: UTIL

fused — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:52:40 GMT

How much cash do you have on hand?

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:54:14 GMT

$1500 to use for credit cards right now....

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:12:27 GMT

Start with the one that has the highest rate. Pay it completely. then the next highest one etc. I would recomend you close any cards that have annual fees. Pick your nicest CC, and your nicest store card, and charge a little each month to each. Pay it in full by the due date. Pay all others in full as soon as you can and put them away.

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:30:33 GMT

Try these numbers out for size, you'll not like me for suggesting that you come up with another $230.00. But this will get you to 20% Util on all of your cards.

Cap 1 Visa $680.00

Cap 1 MC $160.00

Hooters $320.00

Orchard $215.00

Kay $80.00

Target $275.00

The total is $1730.00, and that will get you to 20% Util on all your tradelines individually and 20.94% Util on your total tradelines.

It'll help boost your scores and allow you to next month pay a few of the small ones off and toss a few bucks at the bigger ones.

Just what I'd do FWIW.

Van

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:51:05 GMT

Thanks Vanyel! And yes I do NOT like you telling me to come up with another $230 LOL But I will pay what I can with the $1500, u don't think I should pay Orchard completely off (only cc with an AF)?? I will follow your guidelines as closely as I can...UTI is pretty good with Kay right now, so i'll give them less...

Thanks for your help....

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:51:30 GMT

Only one with an AF is Orchard....

Re: UTIL

smallfry — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:19:28 GMT

Why are you pulling your FICO a week apart?

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:25:50 GMT

Not to sound mean...but why does it matter how often I pull my credit reports? My money, my credit reports....but if you must know....I had an account update on TC as IIB from charge off....I have been disputing this account over and over and finally got it to report accurately....I wanted to see what kind of REAL score impact it had on my Experian report....I am up 62 points with them from that one update....

I am very particular about my scores now and yes I do pull them frequently....especially when I see a change....

Re: UTIL

fused — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:16:53 GMT

For scoring purposes only, it's best to have no CCs reporting util over 50%, < 30% better and < 10% even better.

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:24:07 GMT

I woudln't worry to much about paying Orchard off completely strictly because of the AF, because your gonna pay that AF anyway.

You can certainly tweak those numbers any way that fits the budget, and what you want your end result to be. I just shot for keeping the util down on all the cards as well as your overall util.

Lets try on these numbers for size, maybe they will be more palatable.

Cap 1 Visa $590.00 29%

Cap 1 MC $125.00 27%

Hooters $250.00 27%

Orchard $215.00 20%

Kay $50.00 21.5%

Target $275.00 30%

Total $1505.00 25%

That still keeps you under 35% util on all of them and I spent just $5.00 more of your money than you showed up with. Dig around in the couch and see if there is enough change to cover that.

That way I can come out from hiding for spending that extra $230.00 of your money

Van

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 06:29:32 GMT

Hello,

Here is what i would do.

Current CL Current Utilization Pay New Balance New Utilization

$1000 88% $580 $300 30%

$500 52% $110 $150 30%

$1000 52% $220 $300 30%

$300 91% $183 $90 30%

$2000 24% $0 $480 24%

$500 85% $275 $150 30%

Overall card utilization drops from 65% to 29%.

This only costs $1368 to achieve. You have an extra $132 to apply on your cards still!

Now that you have all of your cards to 30% or less utilization, you need to start paying them all off one at a time. Honestly, with the low balances on your cards, even with a 30% APR, your monthly finance charge isnt going to kill you. I would just start off and pay the lowest balance and completely wipe it out.

If you take out your cards one at a time, you can then apply the min payments of the cards you completely pay off to the overall amount you are using to pay off your next card.

The key to paying off your cards is setting up a budget. I dont want to get into your finances, but you NEED to budget. WIthout a budget there can be no paying off your cards as once you put a payment you could essentially charge it right back on within a week if not for a set budget.

Also, when is the AF due on your Orchard card? I wouldnt close it yet as it helps in your overall utilization but once you get the utilization down on it, i would definetly call them and ask for removal or possible waive of the AF. Also, when you get your cards to 30% call each one up and no matter what your APR are on each card, ask for them to lower it and/or ask for CLI. Make sure you ask if it will be a hard or soft pull though. Depending on what your FICO scores are atm, would depend on if you want to take a hard pull hit. If you have decent scores, a hit on your credit report may be worth it right now for a CLI. You have nothing but time to pay off your debt and improve your scores. Just follow all the rules of the FICO game and you should be good.

Rules:

Dont be late

If you need any more help, please post here and i am sure someone will give you advice.

Have a good one,

Robo

Edited: Changed "Current Balance" to "Current CL" I ommited the current balance column as it wasnt really needed.

Message Edited by Robo on 10-26-2007 09:29 AM

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:11:26 GMT

Robo has a good solution as well, however, DO pay at least the minimum on that Kay account, paying 0 might just net you a nice late fee, and if you don't notice it in time it could turn into a 30 day thing, and we don't want either of those things to happen. And Robo was even kind enough to leave you some change to do that with.

I try to operate on the theory of "If you have ten dollars to pay down a debt with, cinch up a bit somewhere and find one more dollar".

That more than anything allowed me to dig out of an almost 6 year hole and pay every dime I owed along with the nasty interest and fees that accrued.

I am carrying a comfortable amount of debt now, and generally pif everything except high end purchases, and even then I don't make them anymore unless I know exactly where every dollar is comming from to pay for them.

I have also found myself in the grocery store with my list in hand and then thinking...Gee if I buy the store brand of this, this, and this. And If I just skip the scallops this week I can put 20 extra dollars on the CC. Just remember, for the cost of a cup of coffee at Dunkin Donuts you can save a credit card... LOL

Van

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:46:00 GMT

THANKS Everyone for your responses!!! I will follow them and update everyone with the updates.

Yes Robo you are correct, I DO need to budget, my problem is getting space on my CCs' and then charge them right back up. I don't know how everyone keeps their balances so low! I need more self control.

I actaully had to STOP carrying my cards, so that I don't charge them up...

All the accounts are definitely up to date and have all been on time, If I can only afford to pay the min each month that's what I do. These are cards I accumulated post BK. It was discharged January 2007. And I know that my high balances are keeping my scores from being the highest that they can be.

Thanks again everyone for your insight and input. It's greatly appreciated!!

Here we go. Going to start paying online now.....

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 02:04:41 GMT

I am bad w/this....so sorry. Can you show me how to do this? I have a CL of $2500 and balance is $1387.65.

Thanks.

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 02:10:23 GMT

Micaela09 wrote:

I am bad w/this....so sorry. Can you show me how to do this? I have a CL of $2500 and balance is $1387.65.

Thanks.

Divide the 1387.65 by 2500.00 that will give you your uti on the card. 55.5 percent. Almost fogot....don't forget to scoot your decimal two places to the right to convert to percentage.

Message Edited by Brammy on 12-09-2007 09:10 PM

Re: UTIL

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 02:13:32 GMT

Thanks....then you would do the same for overall, right? Add all balances divided by all credit limits?