Only rapid way to get scores up is pay off the high util cards. Make the deck off limits until debt is in the past. You racked it up and now its time to get it down. No really other way to put it. Least there's no baddies. Main goal is pay down those cards. Never go back to the swipe fever. Once thats done. Then its deck time. Spread out the available $ to get below 89% then 68% and so on. Lock the cards up or give to a family member to hold to so no more use is put on them until its all said and done.
@mbauza2219 wrote: i have to re-do my home deck due to safety issues (and clients can get hurt etc)
That is a liability! You may need to prioritize that 1st!
Have you tried to get Home Equity loan? Try Credit Unions, they are much better than banks!
See if you can get 50K loan to pay for everything! They use your house at collateral! (That was one of the options that CU gave me when I was in your predicament)
Also with your UTI there is no way that you can qualify for a CC that would give you enough credit for BT.
Going to move this to the main CC forum for more input
Where are your scores at? With the available resources that you are able to muster on a monthly basis, it might be that you could do a personal loan through Happy Money or even better a Credit Union, Happy Money is not that bad on interest and if you could do that, you could pay off the cards, then take all of your resources and knock the personal loan out in short order. If you let them pay the cards off, they are generally a little more lenient since they control the elimination of the credit card debt. Anyways, just my two cents, if not this, then I would focus on getting the cards below the thresholds that @FireMedic1 mentioned.
@mbauza2219 wrote:Here is the curve ball, sigh....i have to re-do my home deck due to safety issues (and clients can get hurt etc) and literally falling apart and it's going to cost anywhere from 13k to 15k. I wanted to use the cash I have saved for the deck to pay it in cash, but maybe I should use that to pay the CC and instead finance the deck? However, I cannot do financing in the deck since my credit score is so low right now. Sigh.
The deck seems to be an issue in this thread! Is the deck REALLY a necessity? Or is it, as some people have said, just a luxury that you can close off and not use for the time being? If it's the latter, I absolutely agree that you should tape/rope it off, put 'keep out' signs up all over it, and stop letting anyone use it. Please clarify whether the deck is necessary or could be shut down for a while.
To those of you who think a deck is just an unnecessary luxury--not necessarily! My daughter's 2-story home has a 2-story deck as well. They had it rebuilt last year (and it cost much more than the OP's estimates). It's definitely a necessity if they want to exit the house! There's no other way to get outside (in the back). Let's see what the OP says about their deck.
My vote would be to pay off the CCs (JetBlue and Nordstrom especially... If they close them they close them, but you're paying crazy high interest), get your scores up, and then finance the deck. Some of your interest rates are very high, and you will likely be able to get the deck financed for half that, even with a weak credit score (based on what my friend has been dealing with... copper wiring replacement she got 2.99% financing, HVAC for 8.99% financing, and personal loans (two) for 11.99%.)
I just don't understand the logic behind people who have been "saving up" and yet they are paying crazy interest every month... you're not saving anything. You're losing money monthly while the means to minimize your loss is just sitting there, at best earning you back a fraction of the interest you're shelling out. Do people not do basic math these days? Genuine question, not trying to attack the OP... I've run into this logic from people irl.
Always prioritize paying off high interest cards before low interest cards... why would you pay off 0% interest before 25.9% interest unless it's a "deferred payment" situation. Answer: you shouldn't. If it's deferred payment however in which you will suddenly get hit by the full interest if it's not paid off by that date then yeah, those get paid first... but just barely (do the math so that you're making payments that will pay them off in full just before it all hits.) Otherwise, pay off the highest interest first, or at least pay it down if you can't pay it off all at once. It's what is costing you the most even if emotionally you'd like to minimize the number of cards with high util, from a pure "maximize your payoff" angle pay off highest interest first. Getting your utils in shape will happen as you continue to pay. Right now everything is so high that I just think you should tackle it from the angle of making your payments go as far as they can.
Biz - 
