topic Re: Credit Card vs. SoFi payoff in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Credit Card vs. SoFi payoff

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 14:23:41 GMT

I have about 7500.00 in debt on both my credit cards and a SoFi loan each. I have a total of 15,000.00 in debt. The SoFi loan is at 8.99% and the Credit Cards range from 9.99%-21.00%. Which one should I pay off in order to help my credit the best? My credit is 730 and I want to pay the one off that will gve me the biggest bump to my score. TIA

Re: Credit Card vs. SoFi payoff

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 14:32:49 GMT

First question: where did you get your credit score from? Website?

The order of operations to pay off debt strictly for FICO purposes (ignoring interest) is as follows:

Pay down any/all credit cards that are over 100% utilization individually
Pay down any/all credit cards that are over 89% utilization individually
Pay down any/all credit cards that are over 69% utilization individually
Pay down credit cards so that aggregate utilization is under 49%
Pay down any/all credit cards that are over 49% utilization individually
Pay down credit cards so that aggregate utilization is under 29%
Pay down any/all credit cards that are over 29% utilization individually
Pay down any/all installment loans that have more than 29% of the original balance left to pay
Pay down credit cards so that aggregate utilization is under 9%
Pay down any/all credit cards that are over 9% utilization individually
Do not pay down ALL credit cards to $0 (leave a small balance reporting on one)
Pay down any/all installment loans that have more than 9% of the original balance left to pay
Do not pay down ALL installment loans to $0 (leave a small balance reporting on one/or do the Alliant SSL)

Post your credit limits on each card and your current balances on each. Post your installment loan balances and the original loan amounts on each and I can calculate it for you.

Re: Credit Card vs. SoFi payoff

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 14:48:34 GMT

Experian 730

Barclay Card-4500.00 bal. 8,000 Limit

Lowes Cars-2000.0 bal. 7000 Limit

Discover-1000 bal. 2100 Limit

Sofi 7400 bal. Orginal Loan 15000 48 month Pays off April 2019

I'm looking for the biggest bang to my score. TIA

Re: Credit Card vs. SoFi payoff

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 16:20:11 GMT

Based on the path process I posted above, you want to pay these down in this order:

Pay down Barclay Card to $3900 (including any new interest that may post) (total payoff of $600 plus any interest)
Pay down Barclay to $2300, Discover to $600 (including any new interest that may post) (total payoff of $2600 plus any interest)
Pay down credit cards above plus SoFi to $4300 (total payoff of $5700 plus any interest)
Ignoring loan, pay down Barclay to $700, Lowes to $600, Discover to $180 (including any new interest that may post) (total payoff of $6080 plus any interest)
Pay down credit cards above plus SoFi to $1300 (total payoff $12180 plus any interest)

You'll gain some FICO points for each one you do, more FICO towards the bottom payoffs.

The credit card utilization is hurting you much more than the installment loan. Doing #4 and just paying your usual loan payment will have the biggest effect on FICO scoring.