Don't know what to pay off first for better credit. Please help!

[HeavenOhio]

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@Anonymous wrote:
OPTION 1

VISA - $4369.65 / $5000               Currently sitting at 87%  --> I woul ddo $2,869.65 here which will put you at 30% UTL

VISA - $3954 / $6500                    Currently sitting at 60%  --> I would do $1,954 here which will put you at 30% UTL

AmEX - $26,358.31 / $37898,31   Currently sitting at 69%  --> I would do $4,176.35 here which will put you at 58%

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If you go with Option 1, I'd pay the cards down just a hair more. If there's a threshold to be had, it'd be at 28.9% or lower. That would involve paying $2,924.65 on the first Visa to bring the balance down to $1,445 and $2,076 on the second to bring its balance down to $1,878.

For what it's worth, I'm kind of partial to Option 2, but it really all depends on how the AMEX card fits in scoring-wise.

[Gunnar419]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I just took out a personal (installment) loan and I have $9,000 I can use to pay off my credit debt. At the moment I have three cards I need to pay off, but it seems that AmEX doesn't report to the credit bureau? The three I have to pay off are: AmEX - 26,358.31 / 37898,31 --- VISA - 4369.65 / 5000 --- and another VISA - 3954 / 6500 ... Since it seems AmEX doesn't get calculated into the credit utilization, is it better I pay off the latter two ? I have the AmEX gold card and I pay a minimum on it every month since I use the 'pay over time' feature. It seems I would be able to get my utilization to 0% if I just pay off the two that actually gets factored in... Am I wrong with my calculations? Please help!!

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OPTION 1

VISA - $4369.65 / $5000               Currently sitting at 87%  --> I woul ddo $2,869.65 here which will put you at 30% UTL

VISA - $3954 / $6500                    Currently sitting at 60%  --> I would do $1,954 here which will put you at 30% UTL

AmEX - $26,358.31 / $37898,31   Currently sitting at 69%  --> I would do $4,176.35 here which will put you at 58%

You said you're paying $500-$1000 extra per month? You should be able to bring the balance down much more with this big payment.

OPTION 2

VISA - $4369.65 / $5000               Currently sitting at 87%  --> Pay it off to $0

VISA - $3954 / $6500                    Currently sitting at 60%  --> Pay it off to $0

AmEX - $26,358.31 / $37898,31   Currently sitting at 69%  --> Put the rest of the $676.35 here

You could pay more on the Visas, maybe to 20% UTL and the rest on the AMEX.  Since you're on the payments option with AMEX, you need to find out if it's reporting a balance or not.  If is not and won't, then you can concentrate on the Visas first.

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Option #2 definitely. As medicgrrl said earlier.

Compltely eliminates two payments, frees up more money to make monthly payments toward the Amex, and gives more sense of progress, which helps inspire you to keep going on the payoff.

Also be careful not to run that debt back up! That often happens when people take out loans to eliminate debt. They just end up running up more debt. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I'm not an expert in credit by any means, but I would personally pay off the VISAs first. Like others have said, that gets two payments completely out of the way. Option 2 would be my choice.

[Anonymous]

Agreed on paying off the 2 cards that you can immediately, then throw everything at the final card going forward.

[Caleb87]

I would put it on the smallest balance then put remainder on next biggest then the biggest