topic Credit payment and Debt Consolidation inquiries in Rebuilding Your Credit

Credit payment and Debt Consolidation inquiries

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 04:21:37 GMT

Hi,

So I currently have accumulated some cc debt, mostly from emergency housing costs.

Here's my list.

Amex BC: $5200 balance, $5500 Limit
Amex Everyday: $2907 balance, $3000 limit
Capital One: $2505 balance, $2550 limit
Discover: $1251 balance, $1300 Limit
Target: $30 balance, $600 limit
Fingerhut: $700 balance, $2500 limit

The interest on the capital one is like $55 a month and the minimums are $80 a month and the interest on discover is around the same.

Now I recently got approved for a $4500 loan from one main, based on providing proof of income (which would be tough since I'm basically just an amazon seller but I've do everything it before so I think I can do it hopefully lol)

Now If the loan does go through, I plan to pay off my Capital one and and Discover completely and put the rest towards my AMEX Everyday card (since this is the next one that's about to run out of the 12 month interest free thing).

My current credit score is also around 640 (judging from what One Main pulled when I signed up for the loan)

Assuming I pay off both cards and get a credit score boost, I plan to apply for another large limit card (I'm open to suggestions) and balance transfer the rest of my AMEX to it to prevent from paying anymore interest.

What cards do you guys think I should pay off in order to best boost my score before I apply for another card for balance transfer soon?

Re: Credit payment and Debt Consolidation inquiries

tufa4311 — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 04:38:51 GMT

Based on my math these are your new numbers after you pay off the CapOne, Discover and put the remaining $744 on AMEX Everyday:

Amex BC: $5200 balance, $5500 Limit
Target: $30 balance, $600 limit
Fingerhut: $700 balance, $2500 limit

Amex Everyday: $2163 balance, $3000 limit

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Capital One: $0 balance, $2550 limit
Discover: $0 balance, $1300 Limit

In a perfect world you only want one card reporting 1-9% UTIL so try to get a close to that as possible. I would pay the Target off, should be easy enough, that's one less:

Amex BC: $5200 balance, $5500 Limit
Fingerhut: $700 balance, $2500 limit

Amex Everyday: $2163 balance, $3000 limit

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Capital One: $0 balance, $2550 limit
Discover: $0 balance, $1300 Limit

Target: $0 balance, $600 limit

That brings you down to 3 accounts with balances - and very high UTIL on two of those accounts. Next, you just want to get as close as you can to one account with 1-9% UTIL. I don't know how much money you have to play with at this point, if any, so it's difficult to say. If you can, share how much you have to play with after the cap one, discover, and target are paid off.

If indeed it is nothing then it looks like this is the best you can get to before applying fot that balance transfer.

Re: Credit payment and Debt Consolidation inquiries

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 05:43:47 GMT

@tufa4311

Thanks for the response! I make about $2800 a month so I think that I can probably spend around like an extra $100-200 a month on top of the minimums I pay..should the extra income all go directly to a specific card or spread across?

Re: Credit payment and Debt Consolidation inquiries

tufa4311 — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 00:22:36 GMT

I would take care paying off in whole or in part those 3 cards we mentioned then wait one cycle to see what it does to your credit score. Once you see that it'll help determine what to do next - maybe it'll bring it up enough to apply for that next loan.