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What order should I pay down these credit cards?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

What order should I pay down these credit cards?

Citi AA - 4748/7500 (0% till Dec 2019)
Discover - 3031/6200 (0% till July 2019)
Amex ED - 2810/7000 (0% till Oct 2019)

How should I approach this to minimize AA risk? Should I get Citi down till 48.9% utilization and then pay down the Discover ( while making minimums on others etc.)

Or should I focus on paying off Discover first, then Amex and lastly Citi?

All these cards should be paid off before their 0% expires. I just wanted insight on whether paying minimums on a 0% apr is a good idea. paying off another card.
Message 1 of 9
8 REPLIES 8
xaximus
Valued Contributor

Re: What order should I pay down these credit cards?

Utilization per card currently
Citi - 63%
Disco - 49%
Amex - 40%

I would bring down each card down to the next threshold;
Citi @ 63%, bring that down to 48.9%
Disco @ 49%, bring that down to 28.9%
Amex @ 40%, bring that down to 28.9%

As far as which to pay off first, ideally, pay down the lowest and snowball it. If you want to save the interest, pay down the Disco first then Amex, then Citi.

Also - I'd advise not to just pay minimums only, pay more then the minimum, even if it's only a few $. (i.e. $35 minimum payment, pay $50 or $75). Also make sure to have autopay on just in case.


Scores - All bureaus 770 +
TCL - Est. $410K
Message 2 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What order should I pay down these credit cards?

Someone with better knowledge of which breakpoints exist may do this a bit better than I can, but I can give you a reasonable idea:

Citi under 48.9 > Disc under 28.9 > Amex under 28.9 > Citi under 28.9 > Disc under 8.9 > Amex under 8.9 > Citi under 8.9 > Disc to zero > Amex to zero > Citi to zero. (Obviously prioritizing citi if you're rubbing up against the 0% deadline)

NOTE: I ordered these by the smallest balances first so you can hit the breakpoints quickly (obviously, your overall CC debt ratio won't hit any breakpoint listed until you hit it with each of those cards, unless you have additional unused CC credit)

Message 3 of 9
joltdude
Senior Contributor

Re: What order should I pay down these credit cards?

Have a different order after they are paid down on utilization but think this might be useful....

 

I like to do it in 2 (or more) rounds of payments in a month.. 

First round.. Pay just slighty more than minimum, then take whats left to use for payments... and do a second round with emphasis on the one you want to pay down most, but also pay everyone a bit of it.... So net result is all accounts will get 2 payments or more per month... 

 

Message 4 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What order should I pay down these credit cards?

I think you're overthinking it and it doesn't matter.

Message 5 of 9
codimom
Frequent Contributor

Re: What order should I pay down these credit cards?


@Anonymous wrote:
Citi AA - 4748/7500 (0% till Dec 2019)
Discover - 3031/6200 (0% till July 2019)
Amex ED - 2810/7000 (0% till Oct 2019)

How should I approach this to minimize AA risk? Should I get Citi down till 48.9% utilization and then pay down the Discover ( while making minimums on others etc.)

Or should I focus on paying off Discover first, then Amex and lastly Citi?

All these cards should be paid off before their 0% expires. I just wanted insight on whether paying minimums on a 0% apr is a good idea. paying off another card.

My 2cents ... discover first, then amex, then citi .. based only on when the 0% interest kicks in.  in a perfect scenario, you could pay the minimums on all but discover, pay it off, then snowball that payment onto amex etc.  the only caveat is you should not use your cards during this snowball phase... ymmv, but it worked for me

Back in the garden!
App free since 23Oct2012 reset to 27Aug13 and reset again 4nov13
Message 6 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What order should I pay down these credit cards?

If you're paying everything off before 0% expires, it really doesn't matter except for 1 thing, make sure you pay more than the minimum on every card every month to avoid possible AAs, assuming you have no immediate plans to apply for new credit. If you do, then take Citi below 49% first.
Message 7 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What order should I pay down these credit cards?

Get them all to 30% utilization then tackle by date!

Message 8 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What order should I pay down these credit cards?

Thanks for all replies! Since I have no immediate plans for credit in the next year or so I’ll just pay them down according to when 0% expires. So I’ll pay 75 to citi, 50 to Amex while putting the remaining towards Discover until paid off then so on.

 

I believe the minimum for Amex is 35 so I’ll just pay 50 to be on the safe side. Minimum for Citi is 71 so I’ll just do 100 for now.

 

I am also still using Discover and Amex (0% purchases on both cards) but I am paying back all charges before statement cuts. I’m using the Amex to hit the 25k mr SUB then it’ll go straight into the SD. I’m taking advantage of the 5% for restaurants for Discover this quarter then it will be SD as well.

Message 9 of 9
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