topic Help me pay my bills in Credit Cards

Help me pay my bills

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:02:37 GMT

After getting rid of debts to bring our scores up... Only to apply for credit cards & start this viscious cycle all over again. I sure could use some guidance from you good people.

Here's what I have. I've been mindful to keep all cards at less than 9%. This is for both my husband & myself. If I'm learning anything from this site I think it's I need to pay the balances off before the billing cycles close? Yes?

Victoria Secret

Bal 35.35

CL 250.00

CU Mastercard

Bal 33.57

CL - 1000

Bal 50.83

CL – 500

Capital One

Bal 17.31

CL – 300

Fingerhut - myself

Bal 66.75

CL 700

Fingerhut – husband

Bal 34.13

CL - 500

Since Fingerhut doesn't report to all 3 credit bureaus is it suggested that we go ahead and pay them off in full? I don't think we close them ... right?

Help !!

Re: Help me pay my bills

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:07:09 GMT

If you can pay them off in full do. They shouldnt closed them unless you have lates and past dues on them. unfortunately the hardest part is being responsible with them, try not to use them unless they are absolutely necessary, and then try to pay them off ASAP. I only buy things that I need, if there is a want then I try to save up for it, use the card and then pay it off with the money I saved up. Obviously this is something I started doing about a year ago, not always fun, but at least Im not stressed. Good Luck.

Re: Help me pay my bills

kroberts67 — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:07:28 GMT

Awesome people will chime in awesome stuff but from what I've read is to have all cards report at zero except one, report that between 1-9%.

Re: Help me pay my bills

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:00:51 GMT

Does it hurt your score if you report one with a zero balance and the others with a higher than 9% utilization?

I ask because I need DH to see his spending habits. They are seriously out of control he finds it so easy to just swipe his debit card.

I don't want to show him the bank account statement sincce our household needs (food, gas, utilities) are all rolled in there too. It's the trips to the convenience store for a 6 pack, or tobacco, going out to eat at lunch.

or will this just bite me in the buttocks?

Re: Help me pay my bills

tcbofade — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:04:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Does it hurt your score if you report one with a zero balance and the others with a higher than 9% utilization?

I ask because I need DH to see his spending habits. They are seriously out of control he finds it so easy to just swipe his debit card.

I don't want to show him the bank account statement sincce our household needs (food, gas, utilities) are all rolled in there too. It's the trips to the convenience store for a 6 pack, or tobacco, going out to eat at lunch.

or will this just bite me in the buttocks?

First, there is no "correct" answer. The best way for you and DH to solve this problem in your house is something that you both will have to figure out.

In MY house, DW DOES carry a debit card, but never uses it without talking to me first. (I pay the bills) She has a credit card for gasoline, a credit card for "spending" money, a credit card for groceries, etc...etc.. and this method has worked GREAT for us.

If she overspends on one particular card, we can sit and look at the statement together and discuss it WITHOUT the transactions throwing a monkey wrench into our monthly budget.

YMMV, but good luck!

Re: Help me pay my bills

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 20:10:02 GMT

Thank you!

Our roles seem to be reversed as I'm the one that takes care of the bills & "trying" to budget. When I tell my husband where we're sitting at with our bank account - he's in disbelief that "he just got paid" well yeah.. but bills get paid and trips to the corner store add up!!

We've been working on our credit since 2011 so we can apply for a home loan. Since we'll be using the VA I've raised our scores where they need to be.

Well my husbands anyway. My scores were up there however inquiries dropped them and i'm patiently waiting for them to go back up.

Which was my the reason for my post. Since we're so close to applying for a mortgage the last thing I wanted was my scheme for my hubby to use his CC strickly for his purchases to come back and bite me.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

Re: Help me pay my bills

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 20:34:32 GMT

It appears you have identified the problem, he just doesn't realize how it adds up because he is just swiping a card. I think it would be beneficial if he used cash for a while it be more clear to him how much he is spending as every time he looks in his wallet to buy something he can see there is less money.

Re: Help me pay my bills

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:10:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you!

Our roles seem to be reversed as I'm the one that takes care of the bills & "trying" to budget. When I tell my husband where we're sitting at with our bank account - he's in disbelief that "he just got paid" well yeah.. but bills get paid and trips to the corner store add up!!

We've been working on our credit since 2011 so we can apply for a home loan. Since we'll be using the VA I've raised our scores where they need to be.

Well my husbands anyway. My scores were up there however inquiries dropped them and i'm patiently waiting for them to go back up.

Which was my the reason for my post. Since we're so close to applying for a mortgage the last thing I wanted was my scheme for my hubby to use his CC strickly for his purchases to come back and bite me.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

I think its common for women to handle the money these days....

Re: Help me pay my bills

twall06 — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:15:55 GMT

+1 let him use cash for awhile and once its gone its gone . It always makes me think first if I'm pulling out a 20 more so if its a $100 bill I hate changing them.

Re: Help me pay my bills

BungalowMo — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:38:07 GMT

Yeah....your hubby needs a wake up call on what it takes to run the household. I also agree with the cash only idea for a while.

Showing him a list of the bills & the checkbook ledger as things are deducted will make him see what goes where.

As far as the balances on your cards...they all are very low, but the fact that they ALL have some sort of balance isn't good. Are these cards in both of your names? Do they have good histories?

Re: Help me pay my bills

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:45:19 GMT

From looking at those cards, your debt doesn't look that bad. Just see if you could pay them all off at once or get them transfer to one or two cards.

For future references, try to only charge 2-3 cards a month and pay it off before charging more. Charging all the card at once we get messing and you think you have a lot of debts. I'm in college right now and money is tight and I manage just fine, so if I could do it, you definitely can too.

Re: Help me pay my bills

boomhower — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:54:29 GMT

Having all of your cards report a balance certainly hurts your score. Ideally you want only one card reporting with a balance <9% of it's limit. The more that report the more you get dinged.

Re: Help me pay my bills

distantarray — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 01:11:30 GMT

All cards at 0%

and one card @ 2% of total credit limits

Re: Help me pay my bills

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 01:18:35 GMT

@distantarray wrote:

All cards at 0%

@Anonymous one card @ 2% of total credit limits

Not sure what that last bit means. Is that the peak for the various profiles? Because the graph appears to show different utilizations across the x axis.

Re: Help me pay my bills

kroberts67 — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 01:23:15 GMT

Why does it drop so much go to from 2% to zero UT?

Re: Help me pay my bills

distantarray — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 01:23:36 GMT

if you have 5 cards at $2,000 limits = $10,000 total limits

1. charge this one to 2% of total limit $400 on total $10,000 limit.

2. $0

3. $0

4. $0

5. $0

optimal for Fico, been testing this out for a while following that Chart. It works very well.

Re: Help me pay my bills

distantarray — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 01:24:05 GMT

@kroberts67 wrote:
Why does it drop so much go to from 2% to zero UT?

cause it makes you appear as an inactive user.

Re: Help me pay my bills

HiLine — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 01:29:48 GMT

@distantarray wrote:

All cards at 0%

@Anonymous one card @ 2% of total credit limits

This is the most awesome graph I've seen on this board. Thanks for digging it out!

OP: the ratio of cards with balances to total cards is also an important scoring variable. If I were you I would pay them all off if possible, or pay toward the highest interest first if the former is not an option.

Re: Help me pay my bills

distantarray — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 01:31:20 GMT

@HiLine wrote:
@distantarray wrote:

All cards at 0%

@Anonymous one card @ 2% of total credit limits
This is the most awesome graph I've seen on this board. Thanks for digging it out!

OP: the ratio of cards with balances to total cards is also an important scoring variable. If I were you I would pay them all off if possible, or pay toward the highest interest first if the former is not an option.

np only problem for me is I have over 100k credit limits =\ I'm too much of a frugal bastard to want to pay APR on $2,000+ =\

Re: Help me pay my bills

HiLine — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 01:36:38 GMT

@distantarray wrote:
@HiLine wrote:
@distantarray wrote:

All cards at 0%

@Anonymous one card @ 2% of total credit limits
This is the most awesome graph I've seen on this board. Thanks for digging it out!

OP: the ratio of cards with balances to total cards is also an important scoring variable. If I were you I would pay them all off if possible, or pay toward the highest interest first if the former is not an option.

np only problem for me is I have over 100k credit limits =\ I'm too much of a frugal bastard to want to pay APR on $2,000+ =\

My "soft" principle is to never carry a balance except in special circumstances.