What should I do with 8 grand.

[youngandcreditwrthy]

Yeah, but if he gets AA.... his score will be lowered further which will correlate to future higher interest payments.

Unfortunately, if the OP doesn't act appropriately, he could get trapped in a vicious cycle of high util, increasing APRs and CLDs.

As someone with EXPERIENCE, I suggest my route of action.

Liquidity is an important part of the financial equation. It's better to spread out payments over a few months than to pay all at once and not be able to pay future payments.

[williamachamberlain]

OP, are you in the military or retired?  I see living beyond your means hits a lot of us at some point, merely living paycheck to paycheck.

I'd suggest calling NFCU and getting 1 consolidated loan to put all your debt into 1 payment.

Other than that, I wouldn't be doing anything, I'm not a fan of necessarily paying the highest APR off first, but hey that's just me.

Pay them all down evenly and be disciplined about using your CC's is all

[Chris679]

If I were in your shoes I would continue to pay the min on each card and apply any extra to the card with the highest rate.  This is the fastest way to pay off debt because you pay less interest.  The "snowball" method has never made one bit of sense to me.  Worry about your credit score in two years when you get out of this debt and any AA that the creditors take probably be fixed by calling them up and explaining your situation.  So what if they do a CLD, you aren't going to need it now anyway and you can get it back later.

Remember the first rule should be that your credit score is supposed to save you money not cost money.  If you pay one penny more in interest to help your score you are missing the whole point.

Also remember you have a house, a wife, a nice car and $8000 so life is pretty good.

[Chris679]

Also, like others said any type of loan you can get to pay these off at a much lower interest rate is a good idea.  One thing to keep in mind though as that these cards are unsecured so think twice about refinancing your house or car to pay them off unless you are 100% sure you can pay that back.

[YHWHUDAH]

Thanks Leadbeary!!!

[YHWHUDAH]

Williamchamberlin, I am retired. I was not living paycheck to paycheck just overindulging.  For example, buying the most expensive things, which was very dumb. I had to get a mercedes, 80 inch plasma,  the best refrigerator and etc... It was just a phase in my life that I am completely over.  In all honesty, I was using my liquid reserves for business investments and using credit in the money place. It was a risk for me, but its starting to pay off; thats why I am ready and in a postion to tackel this debt.

[YHWHUDAH]

Thanks, Chris679 you could'nt have said it any better!

[enharu]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@youngandcreditwrthy wrote:

I would KEEP the 8,000 in a savings account, such as an Amex Personal Savings and pay the $1500 you claim you can monthly. Do not pay only the minimums on all cards. pay way more! Only paying the minimum will get you AA with most lenders except Discover LOL

If you were to pay 8000 all at once, imo, it will set off a red flag to the lenders, and you will get CLDs or balance chased. Get your util around 50% primarily, then maybe try to get a BT card.

I suggest your primary focus to be on getting a good BT card once your total balances are below $20,000. I would also suggest calling Credit Solutions for CLIs on all GECRB cards... maybe ask for 15-20K on each. This will  help util.

I have about 15-18k of cc debt myself, but it is also at 0%.

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I really disagree with this!   Parking the money in an account earning 0.85% while paying out interest above 20% makes very little sense to me.   And the $8K payment can be spread among two or three cards, so I doubt if any red flags go up from that.

And, IMO, caring about UTIL or score in this situation is totally the wrong focus.   Reduce interest payments, then the 1,500 a month can more effectively reduce balances.  Eventually, UTIL and score recover, whereas interest paid is gone forever.

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+1.

I honestly thought he was trolling when I read that post......

[enharu]

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@youngandcreditwrthy wrote:

Yeah, but if he gets AA.... his score will be lowered further which will correlate to future higher interest payments.

Unfortunately, if the OP doesn't act appropriately, he could get trapped in a vicious cycle of high util, increasing APRs and CLDs.

As someone with EXPERIENCE, I suggest my route of action.

Liquidity is an important part of the financial equation. It's better to spread out payments over a few months than to pay all at once and not be able to pay future payments.

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The problem at hand is all the interest fees he's getting charged can be reduced. Lenders are not going to hike your APR just because you have a maxed out card. Worst case scenario they'll balance chase you and your limits will go down, but the APR remains the same.

Pay the debt off, then worry about his limits and FICO. He can easily regain his limits after he resolve his debt problem.

Liquidity is important, but paying off one's debt is even more important. No point getting hammered by all these fees or trying to pull off some monkey tricks here and there just to delay the inevitable. He just have to make the payments to the best of his ability until everything is paid off. No point getting trapped in a vicious cycle of debt either.