topic Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt in General Credit Topics

Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

ddemari — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 16:42:33 GMT

Yesterday I received a rather LARGEcommission check from work, I had been banking on this check for a while to pay off CC debt and also throw some more money into my Emergency fund.

Today, man… it felt really good to pay off the following cards;

QS MC- $0 balance – $4,000.00 limit (opened February 2011)
QS MC- $0 balance - $2,500 limit (opened September 2012)
QS Visa Signature - $0 balance - $6,000.00 limit (opened September 2014)

Between those three cards, I paid off $3,200.00 in balances. I really want to combine QS MC 1 and 2 into QS Visa Signature but I am torn because they are my oldest cards.

Barneys NYC- $0 balance – Limit $20,750.00
Macy’s- $0 balance – Limit $2,000.00
American Express Charge Card – $0 balance- paid off $800.00 balance- NPSL

My next biggest accomplishment was moving over to Chase Accounts and paying off all my balances which 80% of them I pay in full each month. I paid Chase off with a combined balance amount of $4,800.00

Freedom - $0 balance - $3,200.00 limit
United Visa Signature - $0 balance - $6,500.00 limit
CSP Visa Signature – $0 balance - $5,000.00 limit
Ritz - $0 balance - $10,000.00 limit
CSP Visa Sig. $0 balance - $5,000.00 limit
Slate - $1,100.00 balance – paid off $600.00 bringing me to $500.00 balance at 0% till January 2016.

My Chase Sapphire non annual fee card and Amazon Visa have $0 balances. Done with carrying a lot of balances with Chase! Very happy about that!

Finally, I paid down all my Barclays cards balances of $1,100.00.

Arrival+ $0 balance - $3,000 limit
Silver Aviator WEMC - $0 balance - $2,500.00 limit
Sallie Mae MasterCard -$0 balance - $3,500.00 limit

I still have balances on 2 5/3 world MasterCard’s but I am aggressively paying them off at 0% apr until January 2016. I paid down about $9,200.00 in balances and have $2,800.00 overall CC debt left.

My next move is this, now that I have about 85% of my cards with 0 balances, I am trying to think of which card I want to use as my everyday card and carry that one and another card back-up with me. I also want to put to the chopping block a few cards but can’t decide on which ones to close.

iComfort- $7,000.00 limit no balance
HSN- $3,000.00 limit no balance

Out of all my cards those are the only two that I know I don’t want lol. Thanks for reading my long post, just thought I’d share my process!

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

Anomalous — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 18:03:41 GMT

Great job!!

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

ddemari — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 18:07:47 GMT

Thank you!!! I have no problem managing patments on 30+ cards but it's really nice to have most of them at $0 (duh!) for me it's much easier to start or keep on trying to reduce the spend spend and actively pay down balances once I can focus on not having to analyze each months payment on revolving balances compared to overall income and student loan payments, rent, utilities, etc.

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 18:48:02 GMT

Why close the cards at all? Do they charge an annual fee? If not, just put them in your safe or a safe place if you do not own a safe and let them stay there. Closing accounts can have a negative effect on you FICO score, in can lower your AAoA as well as raise your UTI. Even if they have an annual fee, it would be worth a call to the CC company to see if they would eliminate the fee before closing the accounts.

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

ddemari — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 19:00:18 GMT

Thanks for your input. For me, i would close certain cards because i have too much available credit.

Im not worries about AAOA, closing the cards will not effect it as they remain on CR but as closed for 7 or 10 years. Im not worried about utilization because its at like3%.

I have way too many store cards and large limits i dont need because it does effect my income to debt to available credit ratio.

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

youdontkillmoney — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 20:23:58 GMT

Very good! You have the discipline to use that money and pay dwn the debt! Well done.

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

ddemari — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 20:27:48 GMT

Thanks! Once the balances are gone you see how nice it was before they were there.

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

Pway — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 20:44:31 GMT

Excellent job. It feels good paying down balances.

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

ddemari — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 20:50:38 GMT

@Pway wrote:
Excellent job. It feels good paying down balances.

This is true!!! I also like the ability to take a look at all my cards and see which one(s) I want to use as everday. My spending does not hit unseen patterns, it is pretty much the same. I spend the most at places like this;

Starbucks

7-11

Walgreens

CVS

Food establishments

Tjmaxx, Marshalls, Ross type stores etc.

That can be a day in the life of my everyday spending. If I go of course, its usually a department store where I have that arena covered with private label cards.

I am thinking for daily spend Chase Amazon Visa actually meets my needs very well and throw in QS Silver Visa.

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 20:51:55 GMT

There's nothing like the joy of accomplishing a hercualean feat like you did. Your hard work in your professional area has paid offin giving you the freedom to wipe out a large chunk of CC debt. Great job. And it's an even great thing that when you got the commission check you were disciplined enough to know that first things remain first things to achieve financial freedom and emancipation from CC debt.

Congrats

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 02:22:36 GMT

It's a great feeling, isn't it? Congratulations!!

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 05:43:23 GMT

dang! that must have been a monster commission! what line of work are you in?

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

takeshi74 — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 16:04:01 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Why close the cards at all? Do they charge an annual fee

Annual fee is not the only consideration. Despite how the proponents of this approach may make it seem, not everyone keeps all no AF cards open. I do not keep card that are of no use to me. Each needs to decide for the individual.

@Anonymous wrote:
Closing accounts can have a negative effect on you FICO score, in can lower your AAoA as well as raise your UTI.

Closing account does not immediately impact AAoA. See the Closing Credit Cards thread linked in the Helpful Threads sticky in the Credit Cards subforum. One should consider all the potential impacts in making such a decision but AAoA is just one factor typically about 15% and it's up to the individual to decide if the person wants to keep every possible account open. I do not and AAoA has never been an issue. YMMV.

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

ddemari — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 16:04:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
dang! that must have been a monster commission! what line of work are you in?

I am in marketing/ business development. I signed a HUGE international client last year and this commission is based on the amount of revenue we made.

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 16:08:27 GMT

Well done!

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 12:50:05 GMT

I'd like to know what your scores were before paying down this last chunk of change. And then come back and update us with your scores once the balances report.

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

Thomas_Thumb — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 13:27:11 GMT

@ddemari wrote:
Yesterday I received a rather LARGEcommission check from work, I had been banking on this check for a while to pay off CC debt and also throw some more money into my Emergency fund.

Today, man… it felt really good to pay off the following cards;

QS MC- $0 balance – $4,000.00 limit (opened February 2011)
QS MC- $0 balance - $2,500 limit (opened September 2012)
QS Visa Signature - $0 balance - $6,000.00 limit (opened September 2014)

Between those three cards, I paid off $3,200.00 in balances. I really want to combine QS MC 1 and 2 into QS Visa Signature but I am torn because they are my oldest cards.

My next move is this, now that I have about 85% of my cards with 0 balances, I am trying to think of which card I want to use as my everyday card and carry that one and another card back-up with me. I also want to put to the chopping block a few cards but can’t decide on which ones to close.

iComfort- $7,000.00 limit no balance
HSN- $3,000.00 limit no balance

Out of all my cards those are the only two that I know I don’t want lol. Thanks for reading my long post, just thought I’d share my process!

You can always choose to just idle excess cards as opposed to canceling them. That way they continue to age which helps with AAoA. Once closed they no longer age but they will be part of your AAoA calculation as long as they are on your credit report. I suspect the cards will be "closed due to inactivity" after 3 years of non use - but that gives you more age time. Idle or close cards with annual fees first

BTW - I thought Chase Sapphire charged an annual fee after the 1st year (unlike the Freedom card which is no fee - period). Just something I saw in card comparison literature - I don't have a Chase card myself. [ If your Sapphire card is really no annual fee for life, consider merging the Freedom card and eliminate the Freedom card. ]

If you want to combine cards, take a look at combining the 2 MC cards into one. Just comfirm they will use "since date" from your oldest card. Probably best to leave the Visa card separate if you don't want to lose age.

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

FinStar — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 20:55:39 GMT

@ddemari wrote:
Thanks! Once the balances are gone you see how nice it was before they were there.

I applaud your discipline and strategy with retiring those balances. You sure got a BIG commision $$$ Plus, this is a great step in the right direction ddemari. You did awesome!

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

Jerry45 — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 14:55:43 GMT

Excellent work!!

Re: Just Paid Down a LARGE amount of my CC debt

lhcole77 — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 14:56:53 GMT

Good work, d!

Love reading stories like this.