Lump sum CC pay off, and then app advice real easy :)

[boober]

I'm gonna try and keep this short and simple. There probably isn't really a wrong answer but I thought I'd ask anyways because I don't wanna screw this up...

Doing a debt shuffle. I want to apply for a couple of cards when the dust settles and balances show 0. I'm gonna apply for a Discover It and a Citi (BT type card). Possibly a 3rd, maybe the Barclays Ring but might not, depends on how those first 2 apps go. My scores will be around 780 with nothing negative besides a couple of 30 day lates on my mortgage about 6 years ago. About 5-9 inq's in the last 2 years.

I have 2 cards that show kinda heavy balances. All my other cards are pretty much zeroed out.

1. Discover More that has $5200/11800 on it.

2. Barclays NFL that has $7800/10000 on it.

I have about $8,000 to pay down those 2 cards as much as possible. I was thinking of throwing $4k at each card. Which would make it $1200/11800 on the Discover, and $3800/10000 on the NFL.

But then I thought maybe I should just pay off the Discover all the way, since I'm applying for an It card. And then throw 3k at the Barclays card..?

Does it really matter which scenario I do? Seems like it might make more sense to pay down the Discover as much as I can since I'm applying for another of their cards. Kinda silly questions but no harm in asking I guess.

[OmarGB9]

Why not just PC your More to an IT? And save yourself an inquiry and a new account ding?

[boober]

Hey Omar.

I'm wanting more BT type cards.

[Anonymous]

You are carrying the larger balance on the card with the lower limit. That 78% util is hurting your score. Depending if you are paying interest or not, you might want to get both cards under 30% util and throw the remainder at the card with the higher interest or least amount of 0% left. You want to get the Discover to about $3200 and the Barclays under $3000 and go from there.

*EDIT* In short, $2500 towards the Discover and $5500 toward the Barclay card should give you a nice boost after statement cuts.

Good Luck!

[boober]

That's a good point Iwalker510, thanks for the info.

So is 30% somewhat of a magic number? i only thought of throwing most of the money at the Discover because I'm applying for one of their cards and thought that might look better when I applied with them.

Would it really not matter in this instance? It'd be better to just have both under 30% period? Both these cards currently are under 0% transfers for the rest of the year or so, so that doesn't really matter.

So with all that in mind, I should primarily focus on bringing both balances down to under 30%? And then since neither one has any intrest accruing presently what then? Do as I had thought earlier and throw more at the Discover?

EDIT : Ok so I just googled 30% UT on CC's, and I see that it is indeed a magic number for CC's. But overall UT is a facotr as well. My overall UT is really good.

So to add some more info, when I pay down these 2 CC's I refrenced earlier, my overall UT for all my cards will be about $8000/75000. So my overall UT will be just slightly above 10%. Sorry I didn't mention that earlier.

So with that in mind, how exactly should I proceed? Worry more about the Discover card since that's whom I'm going to apply with anyways? Or try to get my UT on both cards down to under 30%?

[Anonymous]

You definitely want to get both cards under 30%. I wouldn't advise you sacrifice one factor because you are meeting another, when you have the opportunity to meet both. Do a little research on Discover, I noticed a data point in the Approvals forum where people who carry a balance with them are rewarded with higher CLI's.

Overall, I stick with my original thought of going $2500 towards the Discover and $5500 toward the Barclay card. You are killing multiple birds with one stone. The birds being

1. Individual CC Util
2. Overall Util
3. More manageable balances for each card (ICE)

A few more ideas, once you pay down the cards try hitting the luv button for each of them if you can w/o a HP. Request an off cycle 3 bureau update, that will update your scores and balances in usually 5 business days before you apply.

[boober]

Hello again Iwalker510.

Reading your response and I understand where you're coming from now in regards to getting both cards down to under 30%.

So basically I went ahead and did just that. The Discover was due today so I paid that down quite a bit and then threw the rest at Barclays. Turns out I actually had about $8500 to work with so I made a nice big dent in both cards. I didn't do quite the split you recommended, as I really do want to try and impress Discover when I apply for their It! card. But it was pretty close to what you recommended and now both cards are now under 30%.

I agree with you also on Discover and balances as I've actually seen that happen with my More card. Discover's just been my best CC hands down in terms of CLI's and the constant barrage of BT offers. I'm hoping I can get that It! card and see the same sort of thing happening with that card as well.

And also thanks for the advice on trying for a CLI. I'm definitely gonna call up Barclays for one. I can't do Discover as I had just gotten one a few weeks ago.

Also, what do you mean by requesting an off cycle 3 burea update? Do you mean order a new 3 credit report from my fico?

Thanks again for all the help.

[Anonymous]

Asking for an update helped me out just this week. I made a payment on my Amex EDC and just missed the cut off on their reporting. I called and they tried to offer me a form that showed the balance paid so I had to push a little for the update. I eventually got it and the update reflected on my scores in 2 days. I got an almost instant 10pt bump. The call was well worth it for me seeing as I want to apply for a Chase SP very soon.

[boober]

Ok, that makes sense. I should be ok because both bills on my cards were due in the next 2 days, so I got both payments in before their cut off date.

Thanks again for the help.

[Anonymous]

Congrats Boober, your score should jump quite a bit. Good luck on your goals!

I am also curious about the off cycle 3 pull. I have yet to read this and it sounds very interesting