topic Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT in Credit Cards

39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

beelee — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 02:41:36 GMT

The past 5 years of poor choices (amidst lame circumstances) have ballooned my CC debt. I'm an idiot. The good news is I did well at year end and have 13k to apply to the mess and get it under control. I've also gotten myself to a position where I will have a minimum of 2k a month (after all debt payments and expenses) to throw at the rest. I've never been late on anything. I am planning to have all this paid off by mid-2021. I've read up on a bunch of threads and I think I have some of the general advice down. Don't use cards anymore (I've already clipped them up), get utilization of each card below 90%, balance transfer to 0% with low/no fee if possible, don't close accounts, etc. So I am trying to figure out how to best use this 13k I have. My inclination is to snowball the low balances, leaving the big balances which mostly have my 'lowest' rates. But I want to get this right. I saw a very similar thread from 5 years back where NRB525 had some suggestions about paying down a Citi card, awaiting a low balance transfer offer, then moving debt over from a Discover to the Citi. Rinse, repeat. I like this approach because it will keep me excited about getting the debt knocked out. So I guess I am looking for advice based on the cards I already have in terms of which may open decent balance transfer offers if I zero out their balances. All advice on that or otherwise is much appreciated.

Card	Balance	Credit Line	APR	Min Payment	Utilization
Discover It	7737	7900	20.49	160	98%
Chase Southwest	4857	5000	17.49	119	97%
Chase Sapphire Preferred	4938	5000	17.49	121	99%
Paypal Credit	3427	3900	19.99	89	88%
American Express Blue Cash	5190	5500	18.49	135	94%
First Bankcard Platinum	1797	1950	19.99	48	92%
Citi Double Cash	2011	2250	21.24	40	89%
Citi Diamond Preferred	2265	2400	22.24	44	94%
Chase Amazon	1717	1800	20.49	46	95%
Bank of America Visa Platinum	1923	2000	25.24	58	96%
Citi Best Buy	0	750	26.70	0	0%
US Bank Platinum Visa	0	800	24.99	0	0%
US Bank Cash Rewards	0	1000	25.49	0	0%
Amazon Store Card	3730	3900	27.99	133	96%
Big O Tires	0	1200		0	0%
Google Store	0	1200		0	0%
Newegg	0	1200		0	0%

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

atst2000 — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 03:18:42 GMT

Don’t beat yourself up about it. It happens a lot, but the good news is that your in a good position to clean it up. You took a good step moving to cash only and using the snowball effect to manage the debt and conquer the high interest first.

Just keep being diligent on paying it and in no time you’ll be at a good spot.

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

SlideOrInsert — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 03:42:58 GMT

I would pay off Discover It, Amazon Store Card, Chase Amazon totaling $13184. at that point, your balance of $26408, blended ~19.4% apr, would take about 15 months to pay at $2k per month.

I would start using the $2k per month to pay off the balance with highest monthly interest payment first and make the minimums on the lowest.

card	limit	balance	apr	min	ipmt
American Express Blue Cash	5500	5190	18.49	135	80
Chase Sapphire Preferred	5000	4938	17.49	121	72
Chase Southwest	5000	4857	17.49	119	71
Paypal Credit	3900	3427	19.99	89	57
Citi Diamond Preferred	2400	2265	22.24	44	42
Bank of America Visa Platinum	2000	1923	25.24	58	40
Citi Double Cash	2250	2011	21.24	40	36
First Bankcard Platinum	1950	1797	19.99	48	30

you could play with a couple balance transfers to discover and it might save a little in interest, with the 3% fee it might not be worth it.

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

Citylights18 — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 07:51:50 GMT

Out of that portfolio Discover is going to be your best BT option I believe.

What I would do then is take that 2k to clear off Discover while at the same time pushing for a credit limit increase on that card. Then when a BT offer hits you'll have room to BT the high balance cards. Maybe you can get Discover up to 12k or 15k.

The impact of just making the minimums on cards is understated. Each issuer has in the statement that title block explaining how many eons it will take you to pay off the card so it sounds like a futile exercise.

There is a few benefits to letting the cards ride the minimum.

1) The card balances do whittle down. 5% in 6 months might not seem like a big decrease but that's across the board in all accounts. Coupled with focusing on paying down a strategic card utlization creeps up.

2) A 2% minimum payment is standard. Not only will your balances whittle down but so will your payments so you'll have more cash flow to redirect toward your focus card.

Knocking out Discover with the idea of BT the CSP might be your best move so you could use it paid in full. Grow the balances of both to reduce overall utilization. Request limit increases frequently to help.

Going after the highest interest rates on store cards is good in the short term but your bigger cards offer more potential to bail you out. You might add a good BT card from a credit union to get the ball rolling. Lowers your utilization too.

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 12:39:48 GMT

I would be wary about paying off IT then count on its BT offer. If DFS decides to balance chase you, it will go all out of window. Perhaps others can chime in.

Putting myself in your shoes, here is what I would do:

						Pay	end UTI %
Discover It	7737	7900	20.49	160	98%	3800	49.8
Chase Southwest	4857	5000	17.49	119	97%	400	89.1
Chase Sapphire Preferred	4938	5000	17.49	121	99%	2450	49.8
Paypal Credit	3427	3900	19.99	89	88%	200	82.7
American Express Blue Cash	5190	5500	18.49	135	94%	1000	76.2
First Bankcard Platinum	1797	1950	19.99	48	92%	100	87.0
Citi Double Cash	2011	2250	21.24	40	89%	900	49.4
Citi Diamond Preferred	2265	2400	22.24	44	94%	500	73.5
Chase Amazon	1717	1800	20.49	46	95%	200	84.3
Bank of America Visa Platinum	1923	2000	25.24	58	96%	500	71.2
Amazon Store Card	3730	3900	27.99	133	96%	400	85.4
						10450

From there, see if DFS balance chase you, and see if they have a decent offer for you. If they don't take AA and have an offer, throw another 2500 to it, then balance transfer 5k-ish (not sure its wise to transfer large balance to it right after paying off).

Another thing is trying calling DFS see if any offer is available. But do wait for more comment, bringing attention to yourself is always a double edge sword.

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

CreditInspired — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 13:05:03 GMT

@beelee wrote:
The past 5 years of poor choices (amidst lame circumstances) have ballooned my CC debt. I'm an idiot. The good news is I did well at year end and have 13k to apply to the mess and get it under control. I've also gotten myself to a position where I will have a minimum of 2k a month (after all debt payments and expenses) to throw at the rest. I've never been late on anything. I am planning to have all this paid off by mid-2021. I've read up on a bunch of threads and I think I have some of the general advice down. Don't use cards anymore (I've already clipped them up), get utilization of each card below 90%, balance transfer to 0% with low/no fee if possible, don't close accounts, etc. So I am trying to figure out how to best use this 13k I have. My inclination is to snowball the low balances, leaving the big balances which mostly have my 'lowest' rates. But I want to get this right. I saw a very similar thread from 5 years back where NRB525 had some suggestions about paying down a Citi card, awaiting a low balance transfer offer, then moving debt over from a Discover to the Citi. Rinse, repeat. I like this approach because it will keep me excited about getting the debt knocked out. So I guess I am looking for advice based on the cards I already have in terms of which may open decent balance transfer offers if I zero out their balances. All advice on that or otherwise is much appreciated.

Card Balance Credit Line APR Min Payment Utilization
Discover It 7737 7900 20.49 160 98%
Chase Southwest 4857 5000 17.49 119 97%
Chase Sapphire Preferred 4938 5000 17.49 121 99%
Paypal Credit 3427 3900 19.99 89 88%
American Express Blue Cash 5190 5500 18.49 135 94%
First Bankcard Platinum 1797 1950 19.99 48 92%
Citi Double Cash 2011 2250 21.24 40 89%
Citi Diamond Preferred 2265 2400 22.24 44 94%
Chase Amazon 1717 1800 20.49 46 95%
Bank of America Visa Platinum 1923 2000 25.24 58 96%
Citi Best Buy 0 750 26.70 0 0%
US Bank Platinum Visa 0 800 24.99 0 0%
US Bank Cash Rewards 0 1000 25.49 0 0%
Amazon Store Card 3730 3900 27.99 133 96%
Big O Tires 0 1200 0 0%
Google Store 0 1200 0 0%
Newegg 0 1200 0 0%

Hi and welcome to myFICO

First, I want to second @atst2000 post because it is on point. You're in a great position to handle this and kudos to you for starting the new year off by wanting to get out of debt.

Second, since you mentioned you were impressed by @NRB525 post, I'm calling on him/her to help out.

You're on the right path. High-five to you!

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

K-in-Boston — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 13:45:49 GMT

First off, congratulations on starting your journey to pay all of this off. It's not easy, but can be done! NRB525 was my role model when I first discovered these forums a little over 4 years ago. I started with an obscene amount and it's been slowly but surely coming down. Kudos on being able to stay current on all of the payments; that's a huge plus, and since utilization has no memory when it comes to scoring you are going to be in great shape when you do pay these down.

My first suggestion is to definitely identify which cards have balance transfer offers. Even if we look at making a $1500 transfer with a 3% fee, that's $45 vs around $300 in interest at 20% for a year, and when we start multiplying that by the balances that adds up quick! Assuming they have balance transfer offers, I would pay off Discover, Citi Diamond Preferred, and Bank of America Visa Platinum, which leaves you with about $1000 to spread around to knock some unders under 90%.

Next up, the balance transfers. If you have not done so very recently, after paying them to $0, ask for credit line increases on Discover, Diamond Preferred and BOA Platinum. They are all SPs, so no harm either way, and the worst they can do is say no. Adapt this as needed if you get any CLIs. Do a direct-to-checking balance transfer on Discover for 0% APR and 3% balance transfer fee; I would go with $6000. It's a lot of utilization again, but you want to save as much money as possible while also balancing keeping your scores from tanking. Balance chasing may happen, but you can and will recover from it if it happens. Take that $6000 to pay off Amazon store card and Citi Double Cash (which should also have a BT offer), and spread around a little more elsewhere.

Now, on Diamond Preferred, also do a BT straight to checking for about 75% of the CL, $1800. Use that to pay off your Chase Amazon card and sprinkle the rest elsewhere. Then use BOA's straight to checking BT offer and transfer 75% of the CL, about $1500. Now use your Double Cash, do something like $1500 BT to checking and pay off First Bankcard. At this point, it should look somewhere around this:

Card	Balance	Credit Line	APR	Utilization
Discover It	6180	7900	0	78.23%
Chase Southwest	3900	5000	17.49	78.00%
Chase Sapphire Preferred	3900	5000	17.49	78.00%
Paypal Credit	3000	3900	19.99	76.92%
American Express Blue Cash	4300	5500	18.49	78.18%
First Bankcard Platinum	0	1950	19.99	0.00%
Citi Double Cash	1545	2250	0	68.67%
Citi Diamond Preferred	1854	2400	0	77.25%
Chase Amazon	0	1800	20.49	0.00%
Bank of America Visa Platinum	1545	2000	0	77.25%
Citi Best Buy	0	750	26.7	0.00%
US Bank Platinum Visa	0	800	24.99	0.00%
US Bank Cash Rewards	0	1000	25.49	0.00%
Amazon Store Card	0	3900	27.99	0.00%
Big O Tires	0	1200		0.00%
Google Store	0	1200		0.00%
Newegg	0	1200		0.00%
	26224	47750		54.92%

Now you have a lot of that no longer collecting interest. Check US Bank for balance transfer offers on either or both cards and use them if available! Take the bulk of your money each month after making a bit more than minimums on the 0% balances and apply that to one of the Chase cards, PayPal, or Amex, until the balance gets to $0. That frees up a little more payment each month to then apply to the next one of those cards. When you get a month or so out from those 12 month 0% offers expiring, you will have marked improvement in scores. Keep asking for those SP CLIs along the way, and then start investigating credit unions known for larger starting limits that have balance transfer offers. Then hopefully whatever is left at the end of the year, you can transfer to that and then be out of it before they expire.

You can do this!

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

tpdtopcop — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 16:05:49 GMT

I agree discover

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

SFLSpotter9210 — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 20:02:13 GMT

Listen to Dave Ramsey either on radio or YouTube. He’s very good with helping put plans together to get people out of debt. Good luck with your journey.

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

K-in-Boston — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 20:22:18 GMT

@SFLSpotter9210 wrote:
Dave Ramsey

His advice on making a budget is fine, but his advice on eliminating credit from your life entirely is disastrous unless you have significant financial resources, such as those of someone making fortunes from selling self-help.

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

CreditInspired — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 22:09:51 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
@SFLSpotter9210 wrote:
Dave Ramsey
His advice on making a budget is fine, but his advice on eliminating credit from your life entirely is disastrous unless you have significant financial resources, such as those of someone making fortunes from selling self-help.

+100

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

beelee — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 00:51:13 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
First off, congratulations on starting your journey to pay all of this off. It's not easy, but can be done! NRB525 was my role model when I first discovered these forums a little over 4 years ago. I started with an obscene amount and it's been slowly but surely coming down. Kudos on being able to stay current on all of the payments; that's a huge plus, and since utilization has no memory when it comes to scoring you are going to be in great shape when you do pay these down.

My first suggestion is to definitely identify which cards have balance transfer offers. Even if we look at making a $1500 transfer with a 3% fee, that's $45 vs around $300 in interest at 20% for a year, and when we start multiplying that by the balances that adds up quick! Assuming they have balance transfer offers, I would pay off Discover, Citi Diamond Preferred, and Bank of America Visa Platinum, which leaves you with about $1000 to spread around to knock some unders under 90%.

Next up, the balance transfers. If you have not done so very recently, after paying them to $0, ask for credit line increases on Discover, Diamond Preferred and BOA Platinum. They are all SPs, so no harm either way, and the worst they can do is say no. Adapt this as needed if you get any CLIs. Do a direct-to-checking balance transfer on Discover for 0% APR and 3% balance transfer fee; I would go with $6000. It's a lot of utilization again, but you want to save as much money as possible while also balancing keeping your scores from tanking. Balance chasing may happen, but you can and will recover from it if it happens. Take that $6000 to pay off Amazon store card and Citi Double Cash (which should also have a BT offer), and spread around a little more elsewhere.

Now, on Diamond Preferred, also do a BT straight to checking for about 75% of the CL, $1800. Use that to pay off your Chase Amazon card and sprinkle the rest elsewhere. Then use BOA's straight to checking BT offer and transfer 75% of the CL, about $1500. Now use your Double Cash, do something like $1500 BT to checking and pay off First Bankcard. At this point, it should look somewhere around this:

Card Balance Credit Line APR Utilization
Discover It 6180 7900 0 78.23%
Chase Southwest 3900 5000 17.49 78.00%
Chase Sapphire Preferred 3900 5000 17.49 78.00%
Paypal Credit 3000 3900 19.99 76.92%
American Express Blue Cash 4300 5500 18.49 78.18%
First Bankcard Platinum 0 1950 19.99 0.00%
Citi Double Cash 1545 2250 0 68.67%
Citi Diamond Preferred 1854 2400 0 77.25%
Chase Amazon 0 1800 20.49 0.00%
Bank of America Visa Platinum 1545 2000 0 77.25%
Citi Best Buy 0 750 26.7 0.00%
US Bank Platinum Visa 0 800 24.99 0.00%
US Bank Cash Rewards 0 1000 25.49 0.00%
Amazon Store Card 0 3900 27.99 0.00%
Big O Tires 0 1200 0.00%
Google Store 0 1200 0.00%
Newegg 0 1200 0.00%
26224 47750 54.92%

Now you have a lot of that no longer collecting interest. Check US Bank for balance transfer offers on either or both cards and use them if available! Take the bulk of your money each month after making a bit more than minimums on the 0% balances and apply that to one of the Chase cards, PayPal, or Amex, until the balance gets to $0. That frees up a little more payment each month to then apply to the next one of those cards. When you get a month or so out from those 12 month 0% offers expiring, you will have marked improvement in scores. Keep asking for those SP CLIs along the way, and then start investigating credit unions known for larger starting limits that have balance transfer offers. Then hopefully whatever is left at the end of the year, you can transfer to that and then be out of it before they expire.

You can do this!

This is pretty much exactly was I was looking for. Thank you!

I have a question about direct-to-checking BT. I understand this is typically using one of the checks they send you with the offer, writing it to yourself, depositing to my bank, then paying off balances as I like. That sounds good...why would the creditor do this though? It seems like they are handing out 0% cash advances. What is the advantage to this rather than just doing multiple BT direct to the other lender? Thanks again.

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

K-in-Boston — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 01:38:40 GMT

You are very welcome, and also welcome to the forums! I skipped that part.

You can use the checks (convenience checks they're called) or some lenders, like Bank of America, Citi, and Discover, just give you the option online to do a direct deposit to your checking account. I was suggesting using the direct deposit to your checking to get you the funds ASAP (Bank of America and Discover for me are always in my checking account the next business day or 2 business days later) so that you can then schedule payments immediately from your other lenders just like normal instead of waiting for the bank you are BTing to to initiate the transfer and for the receiving bank to credit you. It also eliminates the chance of mistyping a card number or having an issue with some non-bankcard accounts like Amazon Store Card, and then there is always the inevitable combination that results in a check being mailed to pay off the balance.

It is one of those things that seems too good to be true sometimes and the difference between a cash advance can be a bit grey. With these types of offers there is almost always a term limit of 12-21 months for them, unlike a cash advance that you could just pay a little on for years or decades.

The incentive for them is that they get to charge you a fee right up front, assume that most borrowers will not pay the transfer off by the end of the promo period and will then start paying them 20% or whatever the APR is instead of another lender, and that you'll continue to use the card for new purchases as after one statement period without paying the card in full has passed you lose your grace period and new charges begin to accrue interest immediately.

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

beelee — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 01:35:09 GMT

Awesome. That clears it up. And thank you for the explanation about the paper vs online transfer.

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

SFLSpotter9210 — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 01:59:40 GMT

Yes I agree with you to a degree. But if you listen to him on how easy it is to put a purchase on a cc as opposed to purchasing with cash. I tend to agree it’s a lot easier to put on cc. I went on a cruise may 2019 and withdrew 2k cash for the trip. We were gone for 2 weeks. I spent about 800 and put rest in the safe. Still have that same amount left. Still have the same 2 100 dollar bills with 1 50 still in my pocket lol.

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

Aim_High — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 03:58:27 GMT

@beelee wrote:
The past 5 years of poor choices (amidst lame circumstances) have ballooned my CC debt. I'm an idiot. The good news is I did well at year end and have 13k to apply to the mess and get it under control. I've also gotten myself to a position where I will have a minimum of 2k a month (after all debt payments and expenses) to throw at the rest. ... My inclination is to snowball the low balances, leaving the big balances which mostly have my 'lowest' rates.

Welcome to My Fico forums ... althought I notice you are far from a newcomer (member since 6/20/2013 but with only two posts!)

This is a situation many of us have faced so as it was said already, don't be too hard on yourself. You can get yourself out of this and it sounds like you are definitely on the right track! I rolled some huge five-figure debts around for many years and it was as much as double yours. Mine piled up during a major career disruption while I was moving between states, changing jobs, adjusting to much lower salaries, and trying to support a family of five, so it was not frivolous spending. Either way, many times we find ourselves facing these challenges, however we got there. All that's left to do it find our way out.

I like a lot of what @K-in-Boston suggested above. But I'm going to take a slightly different tactic after studying your debts. I liked it when you said you planned to "snowball" the smaller balances leaving the larger ones with the smaller interest rates. That is *KEY*. Paying down smaller balances is a moral victory but paying down the high APRs is where you start to really get ahead. I found something that will REALLY help you out as I studied your list. I reorganized it by high-to-low APR, high-to-low balance, and high-to-low utililzation. I'm going to focus on my APR chart. Especially the $3,730 balance on that Amazon Store Card at 27.99% is eating your lunch on interest. I calculated that at $87 per month!! Ouch. Finding BT offers is good, but first we need to stop the BLEEDING! Triage medical care kicks in first ...

Cards by APR	Balance	Credit Line	APR

Amazon Store Card	3730	3900	27.99
Bank of America Visa Platinum	1923	2000	25.24
Citi Diamond Preferred	2265	2400	22.24
Citi Double Cash	2011	2250	21.24
Chase Amazon	1717	1800	20.49
Discover It	7737	7900	20.49
Paypal Credit	3427	3900	19.99
First Bankcard Platinum	1797	1950	19.99
American Express Blue Cash	5190	5500	18.49
Chase Southwest	4857	5000	17.49
Chase Sapphire Preferred	4938	5000	17.49

Adding up your top five interest-rate cards, the total balances are $11,646 at rates from 20.49 to 27.99%. (I included the Amazon Store Card, Bank of America Platinum Visa, both CITI cards. I also picked the Chase Amazon Visa card because the balance was low enough for you to pay it off entirely with your $13K but Discover Card at same APR had too high a balance to pay off.) Paying these off gets you almost everything below 20%. Great start. AND ... the best part is, it SAVES you $234.32 you were paying JUST in interest fees EVERY SINGLE MONTH! That money will be huge in helping you pay off the remainder of the debt.

If you have $13K to throw at the top five, that still leaves you $1354 after paying off the $11,646. While some might disagree, I think I'd pay off the First Bankcard Platinum with that. Why? Well, you've already paid off almost half the cards with the highest APRs and that $1354 pays off the majority of that $1797 balance, almost eliminating another monthly payment. (Only $443 balance remains.)

You've also now scored a psychological victory by paying down over 50% of your cards (almost 6/11)! ... although we're about to mix things up again.

So far, I haven't worried about clearing out cards for BT offers. This is where Tactic #2 kicks in. You're lowered your highest APRs immediately with your lump sum cash payment. Now we start to focus on potential BT offers. However, I also note that even though the credit limits on your highest APR cards aren't as high, in my situation I had good luck getting BT offers from Bank of America and Chase, and I've heard CITI is generous with them as well. So paying off the high-APR cards may work for both strategies. If you hit the jackpot and get offers with all four of those banks' cards you just paid off, you've now got a minimum of $8450 available credit for BT offers. Maybe more if you can talk them into a CLI. If you call and talk to a CSR and explain why you need more (for BT), they might be more agreeable.

That $8450 between the four cards is plenty to move ALL of your Discover card balance from ($7737), and Discover is your next highest APR at 20.49%.

Next, Discover was ALSO a lender who was generous with BT offers for me, so this might also give you an option to transfer some of the other remaining debt to Discover, possibly with a CLI to help with limits. If you could pay off Discover, you could then move most of your next two highest APRs (AMEX and PayPal Credit). Those two balances together are $8617 and you already have a $7900 limit on Discover, even without a CLI. Very close to a perfect fit.

Along the way, as you roll balances over to the 0% BT offers, focus any extra money you're saving on interest or payments towards the remaining two CHASE cards with highest APRs. After you pay them down, that will free up more money to pay ahead on the 0% BT offers. They would have done their job to help hold off the wolves for awhile.

Hope this helps and good luck! Keep us posted!

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

beelee — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 15:56:03 GMT

Thanks so much to all who replied. Quick update after a month into my pursuit of getting all this debt paid off. I really liked what @K-in-Boston laid out but also applied some of what @Aim_High posted. I really still wanted to snowball some for the psychological victory. I also wanted to get them all below 90% utilization so I could see progress and potentially get a score bump that might help my chances with BT offers. I acutally wound up with around $14,500 to throw at debt last month. Here is how it looks now (some accounts cycled with interest and I dropped the zero balance store cards from the table):

Card	Balance	Credit Line	APR	Approx. Paid	New Balance	New Utilization
Discover It	7737	7900	20.49	7737	0	0%
Chase Southwest	4857	5000	17.49	500	4416	87%
Chase Sapphire Preferred	4938	5000	17.49	525	4416	88%
Paypal Credit	3427	3900	19.99	100	3327	88%
American Express Blue Cash	5190	5500	18.49	450	4822	88%
First Bankcard Platinum	1797	1950	19.99	175	1695	87%
Citi Double Cash	2011	2250	21.24	2011	0	0%
Citi Diamond Preferred	2265	2400	22.24	2265	0	0%
Chase Amazon	1717	1800	20.49	270	1550	86%
Bank of America Visa Platinum	1923	2000	25.24	220	1740	87%
Citi Best Buy	0	750	26.70	0	0	0%
US Bank Platinum Visa	0	800	24.99	0	0	0%
US Bank Cash Rewards	0	1000	25.49	0	0	0%
Amazon Store Card	3730	3900	27.99	475	3341	86%

So now I am watching for BT offers from Discover and Citi. Citi has already started throwing 10% APR on new purchases at me to which I have defered. I am hoping Discover let's me transfer at 0% and I will move the Amazon store and Paypal over to that. I am going to request CLI at the same time to see if I can't move a bit more while staying below 90%. Not sure how long to wait after paying some of these down before requesting the CLI. Figure I will give it a month or two. Hoping Citi has BT offers soon too so I can move most of the rest to 0%. Also planning to pay off the Bank of America next month with the 2k a month I have to target cards while plugging away at others to get the utilizations further south of 90%. Any further input is welcome. Thanks again.

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

Remedios — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 17:19:24 GMT

Congrats on your progress so far and thank you for the update.
I think it's great to see that it can be done

Congrats again!

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

SouthJamaica — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 17:25:52 GMT

@beelee wrote:
The past 5 years of poor choices (amidst lame circumstances) have ballooned my CC debt. I'm an idiot. The good news is I did well at year end and have 13k to apply to the mess and get it under control. I've also gotten myself to a position where I will have a minimum of 2k a month (after all debt payments and expenses) to throw at the rest. I've never been late on anything. I am planning to have all this paid off by mid-2021. I've read up on a bunch of threads and I think I have some of the general advice down. Don't use cards anymore (I've already clipped them up), get utilization of each card below 90%, balance transfer to 0% with low/no fee if possible, don't close accounts, etc. So I am trying to figure out how to best use this 13k I have. My inclination is to snowball the low balances, leaving the big balances which mostly have my 'lowest' rates. But I want to get this right. I saw a very similar thread from 5 years back where NRB525 had some suggestions about paying down a Citi card, awaiting a low balance transfer offer, then moving debt over from a Discover to the Citi. Rinse, repeat. I like this approach because it will keep me excited about getting the debt knocked out. So I guess I am looking for advice based on the cards I already have in terms of which may open decent balance transfer offers if I zero out their balances. All advice on that or otherwise is much appreciated.

Card Balance Credit Line APR Min Payment Utilization
Discover It 7737 7900 20.49 160 98%
Chase Southwest 4857 5000 17.49 119 97%
Chase Sapphire Preferred 4938 5000 17.49 121 99%
Paypal Credit 3427 3900 19.99 89 88%
American Express Blue Cash 5190 5500 18.49 135 94%
First Bankcard Platinum 1797 1950 19.99 48 92%
Citi Double Cash 2011 2250 21.24 40 89%
Citi Diamond Preferred 2265 2400 22.24 44 94%
Chase Amazon 1717 1800 20.49 46 95%
Bank of America Visa Platinum 1923 2000 25.24 58 96%
Citi Best Buy 0 750 26.70 0 0%
US Bank Platinum Visa 0 800 24.99 0 0%
US Bank Cash Rewards 0 1000 25.49 0 0%
Amazon Store Card 3730 3900 27.99 133 96%
Big O Tires 0 1200 0 0%
Google Store 0 1200 0 0%
Newegg 0 1200 0 0%

I like the idea of snowballing. Get rid of the low balances, then move on up.

Re: 39k in CC debt, 90% overall utilization with high APR, ready to staying paying it down with BT

SouthJamaica — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 17:27:51 GMT

@beelee wrote:
Thanks so much to all who replied. Quick update after a month into my pursuit of getting all this debt paid off. I really liked what @K-in-Boston laid out but also applied some of what @Aim_High posted. I really still wanted to snowball some for the psychological victory. I also wanted to get them all below 90% utilization so I could see progress and potentially get a score bump that might help my chances with BT offers. I acutally wound up with around $14,500 to throw at debt last month. Here is how it looks now (some accounts cycled with interest and I dropped the zero balance store cards from the table):
Card Balance Credit Line APR Approx. Paid New Balance New Utilization
Discover It 7737 7900 20.49 7737 0 0%
Chase Southwest 4857 5000 17.49 500 4416 87%
Chase Sapphire Preferred 4938 5000 17.49 525 4416 88%
Paypal Credit 3427 3900 19.99 100 3327 88%
American Express Blue Cash 5190 5500 18.49 450 4822 88%
First Bankcard Platinum 1797 1950 19.99 175 1695 87%
Citi Double Cash 2011 2250 21.24 2011 0 0%
Citi Diamond Preferred 2265 2400 22.24 2265 0 0%
Chase Amazon 1717 1800 20.49 270 1550 86%
Bank of America Visa Platinum 1923 2000 25.24 220 1740 87%
Citi Best Buy 0 750 26.70 0 0 0%
US Bank Platinum Visa 0 800 24.99 0 0 0%
US Bank Cash Rewards 0 1000 25.49 0 0 0%
Amazon Store Card 3730 3900 27.99 475 3341 86%

So now I am watching for BT offers from Discover and Citi. Citi has already started throwing 10% APR on new purchases at me to which I have defered. I am hoping Discover let's me transfer at 0% and I will move the Amazon store and Paypal over to that. I am going to request CLI at the same time to see if I can't move a bit more while staying below 90%. Not sure how long to wait after paying some of these down before requesting the CLI. Figure I will give it a month or two. Hoping Citi has BT offers soon too so I can move most of the rest to 0%. Also planning to pay off the Bank of America next month with the 2k a month I have to target cards while plugging away at others to get the utilizations further south of 90%. Any further input is welcome. Thanks again.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Citi balance transfer offers. I've been a card holder for 5 years and have never seen one.