topic Re: Carrying A Balance, Which Way Is Better? in Credit Cards

Carrying A Balance, Which Way Is Better?

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:55:07 GMT

Say your carrying a balance of $2000. Is it better to have $400. on 5 cards or $2000. on one card?

Re: Carrying A Balance, Which Way Is Better?

youngandcreditwrthy — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:00:35 GMT

In that situation.. I think it depends on you personally... as several accounts with bals look bad, but a high util on one card looks bad. So determine what your interest rates..

personally, I'd rather have a single account with a low rate and high bal., than a few cards with low balances and high rates.

hope that helps!

Re: Carrying A Balance, Which Way Is Better?

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:16:47 GMT

It really depends on the overall revolving credit and individual limits that a given individual has. Without that information it is hard to say.

For example, if one cards cl is 10k and you're carrying a 2,000 balance it would look alot better than a 2k balance with a 2.5k cl. Conversely, say you have several cards with 2.5 k limits, it would then look better if you had several small balances spread out across them, rather than one maxed out tradeline.

So there is no real concrete answer, as it really depends on a given individuals situation.

Re: Carrying A Balance, Which Way Is Better?

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:37:04 GMT

I was talking to a friend about this last night. I currently carry a balance of about $1k. It gets moved around depending on the amount that I pay per month. I use my cards for monthly expenses so I pay about $800. which knocks the balance down and moves it to another card. With Christmas coming, my balance might go up a little for a few months. It would be $2k. More like $1700. So in my case, I could have it all shift to one Visa with a $2k limit or have $1k on that card, $400. on another card and one with $300. Those 3 cards would have a utilization of about 50% if I do that. So it's have one card with a 85% and everything else shows $0. or 3 cards that have 50% utilization.

Re: Carrying A Balance, Which Way Is Better?

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:43:06 GMT

Do you really mean "carrying a balance"? Are you paying interest every month?

Or do you mean "balance reporting?

Re: Carrying A Balance, Which Way Is Better?

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:26:19 GMT

A paying interest type balance. I'm wondering if I should push it all to one card or distribute the lack of wealth. If I push it all to one card, one with a $2k limit would have a $1700. balance and there would be 5-6 at $0.00. The other two would go back with a reported balance of about $800. but that would be PIF monthly.

Re: Carrying A Balance, Which Way Is Better?

LS2982 — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:29:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Say your carrying a balance of $2000. Is it better to have $400. on 5 cards or $2000. on one card?

It looks bad either way. If you had to do it, i'd go with whatever card has the lowest or 0% APR and put the full charge on it.

Re: Carrying A Balance, Which Way Is Better?

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:33:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
A paying interest type balance. I'm wondering if I should push it all to one card or distribute the lack of wealth. If I push it all to one card, one with a $2k limit would have a $1700. balance and there would be 5-6 at $0.00. The other two would go back with a reported balance of about $800. but that would be PIF monthly.

If you are paying interest, you should worry about getting out of debt, and not worry about your utilization

Move all the balance to lowest interest card and put no new charges on that card. Pay as much as you can on this card, as soon as you can. as every day counts in interest accrual.

Use the PIF cards for all your spending and wait until due date to pay. This helps make more money available for other card.

This is general reduces your interest and gets you out of debt as soon as possible.

Re: Carrying A Balance, Which Way Is Better?

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:43:57 GMT

That's pretty much what I was thinking. That $1700. would give me a utilization of about 19% and if my expenses post, which they will, it's still only 28%. Not the 9% or less that we strive for but also not 85% where it was a few months ago.

Re: Carrying A Balance, Which Way Is Better?

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 22:19:46 GMT

19% is still a very good utillization, and unless you are applying is immaterial. Better to get out of debt with minimum interest charges.