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What would be my best plan of action get the biggest score boost.
I have 1400 to spend and these are just some of the possible senerios I came up with.
I am not worried about saving on interest. My only concern is the best way to get a score boost.
Current:
CC1 - 900/1800 50%
CC2 - 600/2000 30%
CC3 - 465/500 93%
CC4 - 785/900 87%
Senerio 1: Split the 1400 equally and pay 350 to each.
CC1 - 550/1800 30%
CC2 - 250/2000 12%
CC3 - 115/500 23%
CC4 - 435/900 48% BT to CC5 435/2000 21%
Senerio 2: Pay off CC1 and pay 150 each to the others
CC1 - 0/1800 0%
CC2 - 450/2000 22%
CC3 - 315/500 63%
CC4 - 635/900 70%
Senerio 3: Pay CC4 off and pay 200 to others
CC1 - 700/1800 38%
CC2 - 400/2000 20%
CC3 - 265/500 53%
CC4 - 0/900 0%
Senerio 4: Pay CC3 off and pay 300 to others
CC1 - 600/1800 33%
CC2 - 300/2000 15%
CC3 - 0/500 0%
CC4 - 485/900 53%
Senerio 5: Pay CC3 and CC4 off and pay 150 to CC1
CC1 - 750/1800 41%
CC2 - 600/2000 30%
CC3 - 0/500 0%
CC4 - 0/900 0%
Senerio 6: Pay off CC2 and CC3 and pay 335 to CC4
CC1 - 900/1800 50%
CC2 - 0/2000 0%
CC3 - 0/500 0%
CC4 - 450/900 50% BT to CC5 450/2000 22%
I beleive the one that leaves you with the most
Scenario 5
0%
and the lower utlizations overrall
and then I would pick the CC with the highst Interest to pay down first.
There's a lot of conflicting information floating around about this, so take my response in the context of being an industry outsider speaking from memory and a little bit of gut feel... Also, my suggestion regardless of which path you choose, would be to focus less on scores and more on the way creditors view your report (i.e. minimize the number of "dings" they would put on a typical denial letter).
That said, I like scenario five because it eliminates as many balances as possible while leaving less than 50% utilization on the remaining cards. While I see the appeal of low utilization across the board, I do believe that as long as your balances are under a certain level per-card (say, 50%), then you may do more harm than good by having lower utilization on a larger absolute number of cards (4) than by having higher (but not too high) utilization on a smaller number of cards (2). Referring back to my point above, this would avoid a "too many accounts with balances" ding from a creditor, even if it has no material effect on your score.
@flattspott wrote:What would be my best plan of action get the biggest score boost.
I have 1400 to spend and these are just some of the possible senerios I came up with.
I am not worried about saving on interest. My only concern is the best way to get a score boost.
Current:
CC1 - 900/1800 50%
CC2 - 600/2000 30%
CC3 - 465/500 93%
CC4 - 785/900 87%
Senerio 1: Split the 1400 equally and pay 350 to each.
CC1 - 550/1800 30%
CC2 - 250/2000 12%
CC3 - 115/500 23%
CC4 - 435/900 48% BT to CC5 435/2000 21%
Senerio 2: Pay off CC1 and pay 150 each to the others
CC1 - 0/1800 0%
CC2 - 450/2000 22%
CC3 - 315/500 63%
CC4 - 635/900 70%
Senerio 3: Pay CC4 off and pay 200 to others
CC1 - 700/1800 38%
CC2 - 400/2000 20%
CC3 - 265/500 53%
CC4 - 0/900 0%
Senerio 4: Pay CC3 off and pay 300 to others
CC1 - 600/1800 33%
CC2 - 300/2000 15%
CC3 - 0/500 0%
CC4 - 485/900 53%
Senerio 5: Pay CC3 and CC4 off and pay 150 to CC1
CC1 - 750/1800 41%
CC2 - 600/2000 30%
CC3 - 0/500 0%
CC4 - 0/900 0%
Senerio 6: Pay off CC2 and CC3 and pay 335 to CC4
CC1 - 900/1800 50%
CC2 - 0/2000 0%
CC3 - 0/500 0%
CC4 - 450/900 50% BT to CC5 450/2000 22%
Pay off credit card 3 and 4 to zero and put the remainder towards credit card 1 That is what I would do.
@flattspott wrote:What would be my best plan of action get the biggest score boost.
I have 1400 to spend and these are just some of the possible senerios I came up with.
I am not worried about saving on interest. My only concern is the best way to get a score boost.
Current:
CC1 - 900/1800 50%
CC2 - 600/2000 30%
CC3 - 465/500 93%
CC4 - 785/900 87%
Senerio 1: Split the 1400 equally and pay 350 to each.
CC1 - 550/1800 30%
CC2 - 250/2000 12%
CC3 - 115/500 23%
CC4 - 435/900 48% BT to CC5 435/2000 21%
Senerio 2: Pay off CC1 and pay 150 each to the others
CC1 - 0/1800 0%
CC2 - 450/2000 22%
CC3 - 315/500 63%
CC4 - 635/900 70%
Senerio 3: Pay CC4 off and pay 200 to others
CC1 - 700/1800 38%
CC2 - 400/2000 20%
CC3 - 265/500 53%
CC4 - 0/900 0%
Senerio 4: Pay CC3 off and pay 300 to others
CC1 - 600/1800 33%
CC2 - 300/2000 15%
CC3 - 0/500 0%
CC4 - 485/900 53%
Senerio 5: Pay CC3 and CC4 off and pay 150 to CC1
CC1 - 750/1800 41%
CC2 - 600/2000 30%
CC3 - 0/500 0%
CC4 - 0/900 0%
Senerio 6: Pay off CC2 and CC3 and pay 335 to CC4
CC1 - 900/1800 50%
CC2 - 0/2000 0%
CC3 - 0/500 0%
CC4 - 450/900 50% BT to CC5 450/2000 22%
I totally agree with everyone else; Scenerio 5 seems like the best option!
For score impact, consider these rules in order:
1. no card above 80% util - these are considered "maxed out"
2. "more than half" of cards at zero balance
3. Total util below 10%
So I would say your scenario 5 is best. Then work to reduce one of the two remaiuning to zero, then work on the last one.
ditto on the 5 all cards reporting 0% and having 1 carry a small balance (2% ideally) has been proven to have the best impact on your scores from my experience as well as others on creditboards
@flattspott wrote:What would be my best plan of action get the biggest score boost.
I have 1400 to spend and these are just some of the possible senerios I came up with.
I am not worried about saving on interest. My only concern is the best way to get a score boost.
Current:
CC1 - 900/1800 50%
CC2 - 600/2000 30%
CC3 - 465/500 93%
CC4 - 785/900 87%
Senerio 1: Split the 1400 equally and pay 350 to each.
CC1 - 550/1800 30%
CC2 - 250/2000 12%
CC3 - 115/500 23%
CC4 - 435/900 48% BT to CC5 435/2000 21%
Senerio 2: Pay off CC1 and pay 150 each to the others
CC1 - 0/1800 0%
CC2 - 450/2000 22%
CC3 - 315/500 63%
CC4 - 635/900 70%
Senerio 3: Pay CC4 off and pay 200 to others
CC1 - 700/1800 38%
CC2 - 400/2000 20%
CC3 - 265/500 53%
CC4 - 0/900 0%
Senerio 4: Pay CC3 off and pay 300 to others
CC1 - 600/1800 33%
CC2 - 300/2000 15%
CC3 - 0/500 0%
CC4 - 485/900 53%
Senerio 5: Pay CC3 and CC4 off and pay 150 to CC1
CC1 - 750/1800 41%
CC2 - 600/2000 30%
CC3 - 0/500 0%
CC4 - 0/900 0%
Senerio 6: Pay off CC2 and CC3 and pay 335 to CC4
CC1 - 900/1800 50%
CC2 - 0/2000 0%
CC3 - 0/500 0%
CC4 - 450/900 50% BT to CC5 450/2000 22%
Apply $50 to CC1 to reduce to ballow 50%, Then pay off cc3 and cc4
Option 5 for the win.