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What to pay and bal xfer??

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youngandcreditwrthy
Senior Contributor

What to pay and bal xfer??

So, I have about $1500 I want to pay towards my debt. I also just opened a $5,000 Citi Diamond Preferred with 0% for 18 mos.

Most of my cards are at 0 balance or I pif.

However, I owe:
$4600 on Chase Freedom (92% util) 0% til 01/14
$1000 on Paypal MC (5% util) 23.99%
$6400 on Barclay's Trav Amex 3.99% til 09/01/13 (83% util)
$3400 on Amex BCE 0% til 10/13 (30% util)

I've become really great at juggling my debt and keeping it at low rates. I typically keep enough cash in the bank to pif in case any of these banks decide to aa me or increase my rate. Of course I never miss payments, and I never will.

So my question is this:
What should I throw the $1500 at? I know my Paypal MC has a high rate, but Chase Freedom has high util....I know util reduction is very important on individual accts!
I also have considered xferring my Freedom balance to my new Citi Diamond Preferred acct...OR I could xfer Amex to Citi and pay off Paypal MC. I was pif with Amex before I used $2000 on it to buy a car! haha I'll be graduating mid-year. I want to make sure my interest rates are low for the next year or two to make this type of transition for me. Employment isn't a problem; I'm going to be interning at the Fed Reserve more than likely ;-) I will also be seeking a job post-internship in a new city. I have plenty of cash saved for this!

Thoughts ? Ideas?

Thanks everyone :-)



Marriott PR$25k | BCE $24.5K |BankAmericard Visa $25k| BOA Better Bal $17.5k |Wmt Discover $12.5k | BR Visa $17.5k | Amex Delta Gold $10k | Discover IT $10k | Paypal Extras MC $15k | Amazon Store $10k|Smile Gen $7.25k | Dillard's $10k | West Elm $4k| Express $3.05K | Mypoints.com Visa $4.5k | Freedom Visa $1k| Amex Surpass $1k
Message 1 of 18
17 REPLIES 17
ryanbush
Valued Contributor

Re: What to pay and bal xfer??


@youngandcreditwrthy wrote:
So, I have about $1500 I want to pay towards my debt. I also just opened a $5,000 Citi Diamond Preferred with 0% for 18 mos.

Most of my cards are at 0 balance or I pif.

However, I owe:
$4600 on Chase Freedom (92% util) 0% til 01/14
$1000 on Paypal MC (5% util) 23.99%
$6400 on Barclay's Trav Amex 3.99% til 09/01/13 (83% util)
$3400 on Amex BCE 0% til 10/13 (30% util)

I've become really great at juggling my debt and keeping it at low rates. I typically keep enough cash in the bank to pif in case any of these banks decide to aa me or increase my rate. Of course I never miss payments, and I never will.

So my question is this:
What should I throw the $1500 at? I know my Paypal MC has a high rate, but Chase Freedom has high util....I know util reduction is very important on individual accts!
I also have considered xferring my Freedom balance to my new Citi Diamond Preferred acct...OR I could xfer Amex to Citi and pay off Paypal MC. I was pif with Amex before I used $2000 on it to buy a car! haha I'll be graduating mid-year. I want to make sure my interest rates are low for the next year or two to make this type of transition for me. Employment isn't a problem; I'm going to be interning at the Fed Reserve more than likely ;-) I will also be seeking a job post-internship in a new city. I have plenty of cash saved for this!

Thoughts ? Ideas?

Thanks everyone :-)




If it was me I would use 1k for the paypal mc so you're not paying that high interest rate, and then pay the 500 on your Chase...  that's just what I would do in this case.

 

 

Chase Sapphire Perferred | Chase Freedom | AMEX Platinum | AMEX Delta Platinum | AMEX SPG | Capital One Venture | Capital One Quicksliver | Discover IT | ABFCU Visa | Citi AA WEMC
Message 2 of 18
shakalaka
Established Contributor

Re: What to pay and bal xfer??


@youngandcreditwrthy wrote:
So, I have about $1500 I want to pay towards my debt. I also just opened a $5,000 Citi Diamond Preferred with 0% for 18 mos.

Most of my cards are at 0 balance or I pif.

However, I owe:
$4600 on Chase Freedom (92% util) 0% til 01/14
$1000 on Paypal MC (5% util) 23.99%
$6400 on Barclay's Trav Amex 3.99% til 09/01/13 (83% util)
$3400 on Amex BCE 0% til 10/13 (30% util)

I've become really great at juggling my debt and keeping it at low rates. I typically keep enough cash in the bank to pif in case any of these banks decide to aa me or increase my rate. Of course I never miss payments, and I never will.

So my question is this:
What should I throw the $1500 at? I know my Paypal MC has a high rate, but Chase Freedom has high util....I know util reduction is very important on individual accts!
I also have considered xferring my Freedom balance to my new Citi Diamond Preferred acct...OR I could xfer Amex to Citi and pay off Paypal MC. I was pif with Amex before I used $2000 on it to buy a car! haha I'll be graduating mid-year. I want to make sure my interest rates are low for the next year or two to make this type of transition for me. Employment isn't a problem; I'm going to be interning at the Fed Reserve more than likely ;-) I will also be seeking a job post-internship in a new city. I have plenty of cash saved for this!

Thoughts ? Ideas?

Thanks everyone :-)




I guess it depends if you want to increase your score or not. Moneywise I would put it against Paypal due to the interest. Scorewise to Chase and Barclay, because Chase is considered maxed out and Barclay is almost maxed out.



FICO (TU/EX/EQ): 773/766/778 - Total CL 255+K
Message 3 of 18
youngandcreditwrthy
Senior Contributor

Re: What to pay and bal xfer??

Yeah... That's what I'm concerned with... I really don't mind tossing GE a bone with paying a little interest since that's my highest limit at $20,000 lol... Otoh that'd be the easier one to pay. I kind of want to pay Chase down too so I can get those stingy bast**** to give me a cli! $5,000 isn't cutting. I will prob end up xferring Chase. I just realized if I xferred Amex... I would end up with nearly three cards maxxed out... Prob not a good idea FICO wise. I've never even had two cards close to being maxxed except for now! Lol my stupid FICO has gone down to 680-690 on all three due to my recent acct openings, inqs, etc. so I def need to keep my score high and get it higher. Lol I wish Chase/Barclay's had Credit Solutions like GE!

:-) thanks yall!
Marriott PR$25k | BCE $24.5K |BankAmericard Visa $25k| BOA Better Bal $17.5k |Wmt Discover $12.5k | BR Visa $17.5k | Amex Delta Gold $10k | Discover IT $10k | Paypal Extras MC $15k | Amazon Store $10k|Smile Gen $7.25k | Dillard's $10k | West Elm $4k| Express $3.05K | Mypoints.com Visa $4.5k | Freedom Visa $1k| Amex Surpass $1k
Message 4 of 18
ryanbush
Valued Contributor

Re: What to pay and bal xfer??


@youngandcreditwrthy wrote:
Yeah... That's what I'm concerned with... I really don't mind tossing GE a bone with paying a little interest since that's my highest limit at $20,000 lol... Otoh that'd be the easier one to pay. I kind of want to pay Chase down too so I can get those stingy bast**** to give me a cli! $5,000 isn't cutting. I will prob end up xferring Chase. I just realized if I xferred Amex... I would end up with nearly three cards maxxed out... Prob not a good idea FICO wise. I've never even had two cards close to being maxxed except for now! Lol my stupid FICO has gone down to 680-690 on all three due to my recent acct openings, inqs, etc. so I def need to keep my score high and get it higher. Lol I wish Chase/Barclay's had Credit Solutions like GE!

:-) thanks yall!

Yeah no doubt, I really want to get the limit on my CSP and AMEX Delta up... I guess I'll put all my spending through my CSP and take a hard pull at 6 months

Chase Sapphire Perferred | Chase Freedom | AMEX Platinum | AMEX Delta Platinum | AMEX SPG | Capital One Venture | Capital One Quicksliver | Discover IT | ABFCU Visa | Citi AA WEMC
Message 5 of 18
navigatethis12
Valued Contributor

Re: What to pay and bal xfer??

You said you were not going to be applying for anything anytime soon, so the utilisation is not that big of a deal. I would pay off the PayPal and put the rest towards the Travelocity card since it has higher interest than zero. Is there a reason you are carrying a balance on the PayPal card anyway?

 

Is there a reason you would do a balance transfer to Citi with the other balances? Both have quite a while before the no interest period runs out so I would just pay it before then or if you cannot wait until it's almot out and then transfer. You have nothing to gain by paying transferring the balance to another card with the same limit. Unless the transfer has no fees, I see no reason to do it. The Chase balance is not that high and I would just keep paying whatever you feel comfortable paying until the zero interest runs out.

 

I almost max out cards occasionally when there is no interest and am not really concerned about soft inquiries being done and the lender seeing the accounts near their maximum.

 

 

Message 6 of 18
SnackTrader
Valued Contributor

Re: What to pay and bal xfer??

So you owe $14,400 on these cards. And while I understand that many of these are 0% interest, you should probably start asking yourself if your spending is beginning to exceed your ability to repay in a reasonable amount of time. Remember, even one month of interest payments has the ability to knock out any and all rewards you earned on that card. CC debt is a dangerous game, especially while in school. Also, Balance transfers have fees associated with them that also significantly reduce the benefits of rewards categories.

My suggestion is to pay off all cards with interest (PayPal first) and then consider reevaluating your spending patterns. I don't mean to sound as if I am scolding or judging, since I know there is likely a significant amount unknown about your financial situation. But I just want to throw out there that $14,000 is not a small amount of money and getting caught up on that type of debt would take months for many people. I hope you can get all of this paid off ASAP, and congrats on the Citi card!

In My Wallet: Amex BCP (12/12) $50,000, Chase Freedom (12/12) $16,500, Cap1 Quicksilver (6/12) $14,000, Barclaycard Rewards (5/13) $10,500, Citi Prestige (4/16) $30,000

Last App: June 27, 2015
Message 7 of 18
E150GT
Frequent Contributor

Re: What to pay and bal xfer??

Yeah I would focus on paying those down in the cheapest way and quickest way. I wouldnt worry about paying it down in a manner to keep your score higher.


CSP-$8700, Amex BCE-17.2k, Chase Freedom-$5700
Discover It-$6600, USAA MC-$5900 Ink Bold- $12k United Explorer-$5k
Message 8 of 18
shakalaka
Established Contributor

Re: What to pay and bal xfer??


@SnackTrader wrote:
So you owe $14,400 on these cards. And while I understand that many of these are 0% interest, you should probably start asking yourself if your spending is beginning to exceed your ability to repay in a reasonable amount of time. Remember, even one month of interest payments has the ability to knock out any and all rewards you earned on that card. CC debt is a dangerous game, especially while in school. Also, Balance transfers have fees associated with them that also significantly reduce the benefits of rewards categories.

My suggestion is to pay off all cards with interest (PayPal first) and then consider reevaluating your spending patterns. I don't mean to sound as if I am scolding or judging, since I know there is likely a significant amount unknown about your financial situation. But I just want to throw out there that $14,000 is not a small amount of money and getting caught up on that type of debt would take months for many people. I hope you can get all of this paid off ASAP, and congrats on the Citi card!

OP said, that he has enough cash in his bank to pay all in full ... Smiley Very Happy

 

I do the same with my 0% cards. Keep the cash for cash flow and let the money report on the cards with 0% APR ...



FICO (TU/EX/EQ): 773/766/778 - Total CL 255+K
Message 9 of 18
youngandcreditwrthy
Senior Contributor

Re: What to pay and bal xfer??

Thanks navigatethis&snacktrader!
I wanted to take advantage of the 18 mos 0% apr on the CDP for the most part... I know none of those expire soon ,and in the past I've never had a prob paying off before the 0% expires;-) Gotta play the game right!
My financial situation is great! I have a high income and almost enough in investments to pay off most of these balances if I needed to. It is invested, but easily accessed; I'm earning like 10-15% while paying 0-3.99% on my cc debt-except that horrendous Paypal bal which I paid almost $32 of interest last month! Eek

I tend to rack up a little debt and pay it off within a few months. The only reason I have felt comfortable having this amount of debt is bc I know it isn't affecting my overall util, and I feel it is managable, although high. I
had $18000 of cc debt last month LOL! So I've paid a lot already $3000-4000 in the past month. I'll be getting a tax refund too soon thanks to my edu tax credit!!!

It will prob take me until I grad this year to get my balances down to <$5,000.

Idk how everyone else is, but I pay most of my cards in FULL! And revolve balances at LOW rates.
I do spend a lot, but I make a lot- and I'm not married; I have no car payment; I have no rent payment (I don't live at home, I get a free apartment at the property where I work).
And I have been taking steps, such as entering the garden and spending less that $30-40 on dinner when I go out...and limiting that altogether. LOL and spending less on bars/clubs. Haha

And there wasn't a specific reason that I had that high of a bal on my Paypal MC other than I felt powerful with that $20,000 limit haha! I pif the first few months but then got lazy. Lol

So Paypal MC getting pif it is :-) and I'll have four months to decide if I want to bt w Citi!!
Marriott PR$25k | BCE $24.5K |BankAmericard Visa $25k| BOA Better Bal $17.5k |Wmt Discover $12.5k | BR Visa $17.5k | Amex Delta Gold $10k | Discover IT $10k | Paypal Extras MC $15k | Amazon Store $10k|Smile Gen $7.25k | Dillard's $10k | West Elm $4k| Express $3.05K | Mypoints.com Visa $4.5k | Freedom Visa $1k| Amex Surpass $1k
Message 10 of 18
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