topic Re: Utilization in Credit Cards

Utilization

Niki9 — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 03:48:38 GMT

I have $6000 to pay on my $12000 of credit card debt.

The question is should I pay on my highest intrest rate (as Suze Orman says)

or should I spread across the cards so that they all are at 50% utilization or better.

I looking for the fastest way to 720 fico.

Thanks

Re: Utilization

fused — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 04:42:55 GMT

Niki9 wrote:

I have $6000 to pay on my $12000 of credit card debt.

The question is should I pay on my highest intrest rate (as Suze Orman says)

or should I spread across the cards so that they all are at 50% utilization or better.

I looking for the fastest way to 720 fico.

Thanks

Can you list each CC's credit limits, current balances and APRs?

Re: Utilization

Niki9 — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 22:59:58 GMT

Wamu $3970 @24% $4000 limit

Orchard $1250 @29% $1350

Wamu $2875 @17% $3000

Cap1 $3400 @17 $3500

Best Buy $690 @0% $1000

I also have a $1000 and a $300 card w/no balance.

As you can tell my utilization is high. I have the opportunity to put $6000 on it but did not know if I should continure to pay the highest first or split the balance.

Just wanted to know if it made a difference either way to my fico.

Re: Utilization

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:06:30 GMT

I would pay off the highest interest one first. As I understand it, the utilization is based on total balances to credit limit, so it doesn't help any if you split the $6K between all cards. You will end up with the same amount of util. So pay the highest interest ones to save on interest.

-dp

Re: Utilization

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:26:41 GMT

as i understand it it goes total utilization, then looks at account utilization (i.e. 30% total utilization, but it's 100% on one account can still cost 100 fico points).

at least that's how fused explained my scenario w/maxing out a line of credit to consolidate cc's into one payment. i ended up getting an installment loan from the cu to nock the loc to about 43% utilization.

onehotcuban wrote:
I would pay off the highest interest one first. As I understand it, the utilization is based on total balances to credit limit, so it doesn't help any if you split the $6K between all cards. You will end up with the same amount of util. So pay the highest interest ones to save on interest.

-dp

Re: Utilization

fused — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:06:04 GMT

Niki9 wrote:

Wamu    $3970 @24%    $4000 limit

Orchard   $1250   @29% $1350

Wamu      $2875   @17% $3000

Cap1       $3400     @17      $3500

Best Buy $690     @0%       $1000

I also have a $1000 and a $300 card w/no balance.

As you can tell my utilization is high. I have the opportunity to put $6000 on it but did not know if I should continure to pay the highest first or split the balance.

Just wanted to know if it made a difference either way to my fico.

You have three maxed-out cards (95% util is considered maxed-out). I would pay down each CC so all of them report <50% util. Do not charge anything on the two CCs with zero balances. The trick here is to have the fewest CCs reporting util above 50%. Once all these new balances report you should see a nice jump in your scores.

Also it's important to remember that FICO has two types of util% calculations: ones that looks at the total utilization% on each CC and the others looks at overall or cumulative utilization% on all of your CCs.

Message Edited by fused on 09-30-2007 02:06 PM

Re: Utilization

Niki9 — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 04:34:05 GMT

OK - so here are my stats:

Wamu $3970 @24% $4000 limit - paying this one off next week

Orchard $0 @29% $1350 Was 1250 - paid this one off last week

Wamu $2875 @17% $3000

Cap1 $3400 @17 $3500

Best Buy $690 @0% $1000

Walmart $55

Re: Utilization

Niki9 — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 04:40:20 GMT

I messed that last post up....

OK - so here are my stats:

Wamu $3970 @24% $4000 limit - paying this one off next week

Orchard $0 @29% $1350 Was 1250 - paid this one off last week

Wamu $2800 @17% $3000

Cap1 $3400 @17 $3500

Best Buy $690 @0% $1000

Walmart $55 @22% $150 PIF

Valero $115 @20% $300 PIF

APPLIED Bank $0 @ god awful% - will never use again ( but they keep calling to let me know that I qualify for CLI - with a nice $100 cash advance fee)

True credit says my scores are

TU 648

EX 632

EQ 668

We will see what they say next month

Re: Utilization

Niki9 — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 03:41:47 GMT

new stats:

Wamu $120 @24% $4000 limit

Orchard $53 @29% $1350

Wamu $147 @17% $3000

Cap1 $110 @17 $3500

Best Buy $676 @0% $1000

Walmart $65 @22% $150 PIF

Valero $140 @20% $300 PIF

SeaMiles $6500 @0% $7500

Hooters $300 @14% $500

Target $250 @29 $300 (put this balance on today - xmas shopping on black friday)

QVC $100 @29 $700

Nordies $0 @unk $1000

APPLIED Bank closed this one ( my oldest line of credit) because they refused to lower the APR more the 2 points and they refused to waive the annual fee .... after all of these years they said they would rather me close the account then to waive the annual fee. (after all of the money they made off of me!!!!)

TRUE CREDIT scores:

TU 687

EX 669

EQ 708 (trying to break into the 700 club)!!!

Anybody have any suggestions for me?? I am trying to pay these cards off and raise the FICO at the same time.

Re: Utilization

Anonymous — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 06:46:01 GMT

Attack the SeaMiles, obviously. You're doing pretty well. Although I wouldn't trust True Credit, I would venture to say you're on the right track!

Re: Utilization

Anonymous — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:45:38 GMT

I would look at rolling the two WAMU accounts together. You should be able to get the lower interest rate for the new CL. Watch the age of the accounts though because you do not want to eliminate the oldest (unless they are real close to the same age). WAMU does have good transfer offers from time to time, but their transaction fee is 5%. It does cap at $150 where a lot of cards are removing caps all together.

You stated that you were interested in paying down debt while increasing FICO at the beginning of the thread. Depending on short or long term time frames would answer the question about what to pay down first.The SeaMiles and Best Buy are at zero now, but they will default back to a higher rate at some point. Depending how far out that is and at what interest rate would assist in making a better decision. I am a proponet of the "game", but I also feel that FICO points can always be regained in the mid or long term where interest expense is NEVER regained. My inclination would be that less than 10% of your debt is in the 20%+ range so I would get rid of that ASAP and stick them in the sock drawer. I see 20% interest rates as blood suckers and need to be removed as soon as possible. Otherwise, I would reduce the SeaMiles as aggresively as I could before the bomb goes off. Shoot for no more than 50% on any one account and then go for 35% as soon as you achieve the first goal.

You will get there! Good Luck!

Re: Utilization

haulingthescoreup — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:09:48 GMT

Grit your teeth, use the HOLIDAY25 25% off discount code, and pull your 3 FICO scores. You deserve it! Let us know what your real scores are. And then keep bashing away at the balances.

I finally managed to get only 4 out of my total 8 active accounts (including mortgage and student loan) showing balances, and only 2 of my total 6 revolving (5 CC's + a HELOC) showing balances, and I got a 14-point jump on TU. (The others went up too, see my sig line.) TU especially has Issues with half or more of revolving accounts reporting.

Your long-time goal should be having only a few CC's reporting a balance each month. At the moment, you have 12 CC's, so the max reporting balances at any given time should be 5. Not 6, TU gives you love when you're UNDER half of cards reporting. If you have to carry balances, it's easiest to pay off the little CL cards and let the larger carry balances under 10%. This will also make your life a bunch simpler!

Re: Utilization

Niki9 — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 17:03:07 GMT

prowen wrote:
I would look at rolling the two WAMU accounts together. You should be able to get the lower interest rate for the new CL. Watch the age of the accounts though because you do not want to eliminate the oldest (unless they are real close to the same age). WAMU does have good transfer offers from time to time, but their transaction fee is 5%. It does cap at $150 where a lot of cards are removing caps all together.

You stated that you were interested in paying down debt while increasing FICO at the beginning of the thread. Depending on short or long term time frames would answer the question about what to pay down first.The SeaMiles and Best Buy are at zero now, but they will default back to a higher rate at some point. Depending how far out that is and at what interest rate would assist in making a better decision. I am a proponet of the "game", but I also feel that FICO points can always be regained in the mid or long term where interest expense is NEVER regained. My inclination would be that less than 10% of your debt is in the 20%+ range so I would get rid of that ASAP and stick them in the sock drawer. I see 20% interest rates as blood suckers and need to be removed as soon as possible. Otherwise, I would reduce the SeaMiles as aggresively as I could before the bomb goes off. Shoot for no more than 50% on any one account and then go for 35% as soon as you achieve the first goal.

You will get there! Good Luck!

The sea miles is a brand new card. I did the BT with them for the 0% but now I can't remember if it was for 1 year or 6 months. Either way when it goes back, it will be 13% (which is the lowest rate that I have right now.)

My WaMu cards are about 1 year apart. They have never given me cli. When I ask they said they don't do that. How do I get them to become 1 card?

Re: Utilization

Niki9 — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 17:09:53 GMT

haulingthescoreup wrote:
Grit your teeth, use the HOLIDAY25 25% off discount code, and pull your 3 FICO scores. You deserve it! Let us know what your real scores are. And then keep bashing away at the balances.

I finally managed to get only 4 out of my total 8 active accounts (including mortgage and student loan) showing balances, and only 2 of my total 6 revolving (5 CC's + a HELOC) showing balances, and I got a 14-point jump on TU. (The others went up too, see my sig line.) TU especially has Issues with half or more of revolving accounts reporting.

Your long-time goal should be having only a few CC's reporting a balance each month. At the moment, you have 12 CC's, so the max reporting balances at any given time should be 5. Not 6, TU gives you love when you're UNDER half of cards reporting. If you have to carry balances, it's easiest to pay off the little CL cards and let the larger carry balances under 10%. This will also make your life a bunch simpler!

Thanks for the info.

here are the scores from MyFico

TU 666 as of 10/28

EX 619 as of 10/28

EQ 684 as of 11/21

I will pull again in DEC or JAN - (unless scorewatch shows a big jump)

not all of the cards are reporting yet.

target, QVC, Nordies, SeaMiles and Hooters are all new.

Re: Utilization

Anonymous — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 17:50:05 GMT

prowen wrote:
I would look at rolling the two WAMU accounts together. You should be able to get the lower interest rate for the new CL. Watch the age of the accounts though because you do not want to eliminate the oldest (unless they are real close to the same age). WAMU does have good transfer offers from time to time, but their transaction fee is 5%. It does cap at $150 where a lot of cards are removing caps all together.

You stated that you were interested in paying down debt while increasing FICO at the beginning of the thread. Depending on short or long term time frames would answer the question about what to pay down first.The SeaMiles and Best Buy are at zero now, but they will default back to a higher rate at some point. Depending how far out that is and at what interest rate would assist in making a better decision. I am a proponet of the "game", but I also feel that FICO points can always be regained in the mid or long term where interest expense is NEVER regained. My inclination would be that less than 10% of your debt is in the 20%+ range so I would get rid of that ASAP and stick them in the sock drawer. I see 20% interest rates as blood suckers and need to be removed as soon as possible. Otherwise, I would reduce the SeaMiles as aggresively as I could before the bomb goes off. Shoot for no more than 50% on any one account and then go for 35% as soon as you achieve the first goal.

You will get there! Good Luck!

My WaMu cards are about 1 year apart. They have never given me cli. When I ask they said they don't do that. How do I get them to become 1 card?

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The CL I was referring to is $7K on one card rather than two. WaMu has done CLI on my card, but they may have been when they felt like it as opposed to my request. I can't honstly remember on that one. I have rolled together Chase and BOA cards with no problem simply by asking their CSR. I did pick up a CLI when I did BOA. With Chase I was combining three cards and I did not ask for a CLI. It is more for flexiblity than anything else. One larger CL is simply easier to work with than two with smaller CLs.

Downside to WaMu is you have to request past statements and they email info. You want to know your current interest rate? Search for APR and they tell you to go look at a physical statement or call CS. Unique from any other card I have seen. The free FAKO is nice though. It has not deviated from my TU FICO more than 2% when I have pulled together. (They pull FAKO right at the first of the month and then publish any where from a week to two weeks later). All in all, a good card for the portfolio. None of them are perfect. In my book it is a really nice Prime card.

SeaMiles is just an excercise in reducuing for util then. Wipe out the little stuff and focus on it.