Which card(s) should I pay down first to avoid balance chasing?

[pi-r-squared]

I will be receiving about $35K from a car accident settlement that I want to use toward reducing my sky-high credit card balances.  Each card listed below have similar APRs and here they are.  I'm listing balance / CL.

CapOne Venture   $31K / $33K

CapOne QS  $8.5K / $10K

Discover IT   $16K / $17K

Barclay  $3.7K / $3.8K

One option would be for me to eliminate Barclay, Discover, and QS and pay the remaining $6.8K on the Venture.

Another would be eliminate Venture and Barclay.  Or eliminate Venture and pay $4K to QS?  Thing is, I'm wary of balance chasing and I don't want my Venture to go from $33K to a toy limit....  Same with Discover....

Any suggestions?

Since 

[NRB525]

What are the current APR's on these balances?

Do you see current BT offers on your Discover card? I'd be inclined to pay off Discover, and after the dust settles a few days transfer the Barclays into a low APR Discover balance. 

Once you pay off Barclays, however that is done, I'd expect they may balance chase. No specific assurance that will happen, and it may not happen, but we get a lot of stories here about Barclays doing that once a heavy balance starts to come down. 

Paying off the QS also gets you a clear card for daily spend.  Paying down the Venture is a good use of the rest of the funds.   

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

Cap1 doesn't balance chase so I wouldn't be too worried about them. Just get them to manageable levels and hopefully Barclay doesn't get triggered. Nobody really knows what triggers them.

[Shooting-For-800]

I would pay them down evenly over time getting each under the tiers.

all under 69% first, then 49% then 29%.

I would pay like $15k the first month, then $10k the second, then $5k the third, then whatever so I had no cash flow issues.

JMO.

GL!

[disdreamin]

You could test the balance chase potential by paying $1-2k toward each and waiting a month to see what happens. If a bank balance chases, let that card sit and tackle the others, hoping for a 0% offer on those down the road. Then wipe the one(s) that balance chased, you know?

[disdreamin]

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@Shooting-For-800 wrote:

I would pay them down evenly over time getting each under the tiers.

all under 69% first, then 49% then 29%.

I would pay like $15k the first month, then $10k the second, then $5k the third, then whatever so I had no cash flow issues.

JMO.

GL!

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I see what you're going for here, but personally I'd clear out at least one card that I could put monthly spend on and PIF to avoid interest charges entirely on any new purchases. Otherwise you're paying additional interest every single day on purchases when you could be saving that money towards paying down balances.