topic Re: Credit card debt in Rebuilding Your Credit

Credit card debt

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 16:25:12 GMT

Hi! Question.. what are your thoughts about taking a personal loan VS finding a 0% interest offer for balance transfers to pay off credit card debt? Likely I’ll be able to pay off within the year or so but currently my credit cards are high interest... I was also considering HELOC because I was going to take one anyway but I may likely need all funds for a down payment for home. I have approximately 15K in credit card debt. Also? Should I pay in full or just down to 30%?? I have a good amount of credit cards, store cards. Should I close any and keep it to a few cards minimum? I just don’t want my score to decrease. Any advice is appreciated!!! Thanks in advance

Re: Credit card debt

silver_idle — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 18:31:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi! Question.. what are your thoughts about taking a personal loan VS finding a 0% interest offer for balance transfers to pay off credit card debt? Likely I’ll be able to pay off within the year or so but currently my credit cards are high interest... I was also considering HELOC because I was going to take one anyway but I may likely need all funds for a down payment for home. I have approximately 15K in credit card debt. Also? Should I pay in full or just down to 30%?? I have a good amount of credit cards, store cards. Should I close any and keep it to a few cards minimum? I just don’t want my score to decrease. Any advice is appreciated!!! Thanks in advance

You could check with your bank or CU to see if you qualify for a personal loan. Assuming you dont have any recent derogs and the high utilization is the only thing impacting your score, you should be able to get a personal loan with a low interest rate. Considering that you want to get a loan for your debt, you would want to get one to cover it all and not just up to a portion. Now if youre talking about paying on the card directly, you would want to get it below 30% but below 10% would be better (or in some cases below 8%). You shouldnt need to close your cards unless they have an annual fee and its a card you dont use. Closing any predatory cards like credit one, FP, etc., would be best too. Could you list all your cards, limits and balances? You might be able to tackle it without a loan.

Re: Credit card debt

Girlzilla88 — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 18:42:22 GMT

Unless you have a super long history with your CU/Bank I wouldn't shoot for bank first, try with LendingClub as you can do a prequalify and if you have no lates or no collections things of that nature you should be able to get a higher Loan depending on your Income and such with only one hit to your CB's and that way you won't have to touch your HE. You can also opt for a 0% CC to do a Balance Transfer but unless you know for sure your CL would be enough to cover what you need depending on who you opt for they may hit sever CB's and they may deny you do to high UTL which would result in a wasted pull as well. If you want to do the CC route be sure to check with cards that offer prequalification so you know before you finalize a hard pull or pulls. Side note if you can pay it all off why not and just add a small back afterwards so you have some but not much utilization on your card/cards.

Re: Credit card debt

Jnbmom — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 18:48:55 GMT

If you could list your accounts and balances and what your actual FICO scores are we may be able to advise.

It’s really hard to give insight if we don’t know your profile .

Re: Credit card debt

FireMedic1 — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 00:25:21 GMT

@silver_idle wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hi! Question.. what are your thoughts about taking a personal loan VS finding a 0% interest offer for balance transfers to pay off credit card debt? Likely I’ll be able to pay off within the year or so but currently my credit cards are high interest... I was also considering HELOC because I was going to take one anyway but I may likely need all funds for a down payment for home. I have approximately 15K in credit card debt. Also? Should I pay in full or just down to 30%?? I have a good amount of credit cards, store cards. Should I close any and keep it to a few cards minimum? I just don’t want my score to decrease. Any advice is appreciated!!! Thanks in advance
You could check with your bank or CU to see if you qualify for a personal loan. Assuming you dont have any recent derogs and the high utilization is the only thing impacting your score, you should be able to get a personal loan with a low interest rate. Considering that you want to get a loan for your debt, you would want to get one to cover it all and not just up to a portion. Now if youre talking about paying on the card directly, you would want to get it below 30% but below 10% would be better (or in some cases below 8%). You shouldnt need to close your cards unless they have an annual fee and its a card you dont use. Closing any predatory cards like credit one, FP, etc., would be best too. Could you list all your cards, limits and balances? You might be able to tackle it without a loan.

Thresholds are 28.9% and 8.9%

Re: Credit card debt

FireMedic1 — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 00:25:44 GMT

@Jnbmom wrote:
If you could list your accounts and balances and what your actual FICO scores are we may be able to advise.

It’s really hard to give insight if we don’t know your profile .

^^^^^^^^^this.

Re: Credit card debt

FireMedic1 — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 00:28:07 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi! Question.. what are your thoughts about taking a personal loan VS finding a 0% interest offer for balance transfers to pay off credit card debt? Likely I’ll be able to pay off within the year or so but currently my credit cards are high interest... I was also considering HELOC because I was going to take one anyway but I may likely need all funds for a down payment for home. I have approximately 15K in credit card debt. Also? Should I pay in full or just down to 30%?? I have a good amount of credit cards, store cards. Should I close any and keep it to a few cards minimum? I just don’t want my score to decrease. Any advice is appreciated!!! Thanks in advance

Dont close any cards. That doesnt help scores. Like @Jnbmom dsaid. List accounts with Name/Credit Line/ Balance/APR %.

Then the gang can help ya out. Welcome to the forums!!!!!!!!!