topic Re: HELP HELP HELP in General Credit Topics

HELP HELP HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:28:01 GMT

I have a question that I hope you all can help me with. I have a total of 5 revolving lines:

1. Dell 150/3000

2. Target 200/500

3. Cap One 200/500

4. Amex 4000/7000

5. Ikea 1200/1500

My credit is pretty good now and know that it would be better with lower balances. I am trying to pay down my balances and would like to know where I should begin. Do I pay off one first or smaller payments between all of the cards? Please advise. Thanks.

Re: HELP HELP HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:30:35 GMT

Usually the ones with the highest interest rates.....

Re: HELP HELP HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:37:31 GMT

I the interest rates are not an issue for me. I just want to know, strategically, which ones I should pay off first. Again, one at a time or smaller payments over all of the cards? This is for FICO scoring purposes.

Re: HELP HELP HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:38:58 GMT

Easiest way:

Pay minimum balances on all but one card(either highest interest rate or lowest balance), make large payments on that one until it's paid off/down. Then you would apply that amount to the next card in addition to its' minimum payment. Example:

You pay $25/month on all cards except one you pay $75.

Once that one is paid off, you apply the $75 to the next one in line. Then you're paying $100 until it's done.

Then you take that $100/month and apply it to the next one paying $125/month on it.

Keep going until they're all paid down/off.

Edit: FICO doesn't care which ones you're paying off as long as the over all balance to limit ratio is lowered.

Message Edited by Shnapple on 04-25-2008 07:38 AM

Re: HELP HELP HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:39:12 GMT

There isn't really a strategy...paying off any one will decrease your UTL...it's counted as a whole...not by every individual card....but most people say to pay down under10% UTL...for the biggest impact to your scores...

Re: HELP HELP HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:43:33 GMT

Since you're interested solely in a FICO score increase, my advice would be to first pay off the 3 low balances (Dell, Target, & Cap1). This will result in less than half your CLs reporting a balance, which FICO likes. Then focus on getting Amex and IKEA down to under 49% util each. You don't have that far to go with Amex - a little over $500 will do it. Once they're both under 49%, I'd pay a roughly equal amount on both to keep the overall util and individual util going down.

Re: HELP HELP HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:49:49 GMT

So there was my confustio them. I thought I read on here that FICO considers overall utilization as well as individual utilization. So just to be sure it is the overall utilization???? Right now I am at overall 42%

Message Edited by loloswims on 04-25-2008 07:49 AM

Re: HELP HELP HELP

athensguy — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:49:45 GMT

FICO apparently counts both overall uti and individual card uti, so you want overall to be 10% and each card to have less than 10%. Also, you'd want less than half of your cards to report a balance, and half or fewer of all of your accounts (including installment, other, and revolving, etc) to report a balance, so if you have a mortgage and a car loan, and you want to have 3 cards able to report a balance, you'd need 5+ $0 cards to balance them out.

Re: HELP HELP HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:00:41 GMT

so what is the correct answer? Overall or individual util in regards to FICO scoring? Some of you have said only overall counts while others have said both count?

Re: HELP HELP HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:07:05 GMT

Nobody knows for sure - and FICO ain't tellin.

But from what I've read on these boards, anecdotal evidence (from user experience) seems to point to both individual and overall util counting.

Re: HELP HELP HELP

fused — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:19:12 GMT

loloswims:

In FICO scoring there are two types of revolving calculations: one looks at the utilization on each of your revolving accounts (sometimes referred as indiv util), and the other looks at your total utilization on all of your cards (sometimes referred as overall or cumulative util). Does one carry more weight than the other...who knows, but FICO will not reveal this. I have always suspected overall util carries a bit more weight but I cannot prove it.

Before I can give you a specific plan which will help maximize your scores, I need to know how much cash you have on hand.

Re: HELP HELP HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:23:59 GMT

fused wrote:
loloswims:

In FICO scoring there are two types of revolving calculations: one looks at the utilization on each of your revolving accounts (sometimes referred as indiv util), and the other looks at your total utilization on all of your cards (sometimes referred as overall or cumulative util). Does one carry more weight than the other...who knows, but FICO will not reveal this. I have always suspected overall util carries a bit more weight but I cannot prove it.

Before I can give you a specific plan which will help maximize your scores, I need to know how much cash you have on hand.

...and I'll need your address!

Re: HELP HELP HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:10:18 GMT

erchambers and fused are correct!

Individual utilization does count, not just overall utilization.

Re: HELP HELP HELP

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Jun 2013 16:02:42 GMT