Goofy utilization question...

[tcbofade]

First, I'm not promising anything...just asking for opinions...

Suppose a person has 29 active credit card accounts...just suppose. 

Suppose five of those accounts are paid off, zero balance.

Assume the other 24 accounts range in utilization from 35% to 91%.

Further assume that this person has approximately $2,000 to reduce debt with.

Should person x reduce his debts evenly, reduce the higher balances first, or pay off three or four of the lesser balance cards completely?

...or perhaps some other idea?

(The goal here is FICO score...)

[Anonymous]

Pay down the maxed out ones first.  You will be dinged on those cards alone.

Then, while still making the minimum payments on the rest, pay off the smallest balance, when paid off, use that money and pay off the next smallest balance and so on.

Don't let them all report 0 balances.

[Ficoaddict2012]

I think that person is me! Lol

[takeshi74]

Depends on what your priorities are and what provides you the best motivation to continue to drop utilization.  Your scores while you're paying down don't really matter.  It's your score once you have your total utilization down that will matter.  If paying off cards keeps you motivated then tackle the small balances first.  If you want to avoid as much interest as possible then tackle the highest interest rates first.  Definitely get the maxxed out cards paid down first though, as suggested above.

[djc1puno]

+1 gl!

[thebanjoman]

All of those options are good for your score. When's the next trigger for your next planned app? Is it a score or a timeframe?

If it's a timeframe, the score for the first half of that time doesn't much matter (as long as you're paying/timely/so on).  The financials of it always matter. I don't mean do something stupid, or undo the de-maximizing you have done to get you this far to chase something shortlived. That  interim timely payment and debt reduction will boost your score, because it continues lowering utilization and building AAoA/timely payments. That score will continue to help via more CLIs (soft or auto). 

If it's a target score, how do you plan to use it most effectively? Will you use it for a consolidation loan, a balance transfer offer, or something else that will notably reduce the interest you pay, or monthly minimums you pay, or both?

Finally, I guess my suggestion from what you've proposed: How many non 0% interest cards could you pay off after reducing the one maxed out card to 89% util? You'd have 0 maxed out cards, and X more not reporting a balance. That might be the best score pull you can do, and helps by letting you throw those minimum payments elsewhere. No option you've proposed will hurt your score in any way, but the wrong option taken vainly may cost you additional interest which may add days, weeks or months to eliminating carried balances on your cards.

[tcbofade]

Hmmm.  Trigger?

I guess my thoughts were that a 700+ credit score might help me get bigger, better, (0 percent BT) cards...otoh, it seems that while my utilization too high it really doesn't matter any... ie, if I can break the 700 barrier, I'd STILL get denied because of my high utilization...that's frustrating.

My overall util is at 48. something, and I could certainly get under 40%, but don't think I'll get anywhere near 30% anytime real soon.

Maybe by the end of the year?  Gotta go crunch some more numbers...thanks for all of the input tho!