Have money to pay CC's but need help determining which ones

[Barneygirl]

Hi All, I need some help

I currently have very high utilization on many of my credit cards. My father passed away a year ago and I needed this to support his end-of-life treatments and final expenses.

Now I have $19,000 to pay down these balances and am wondering what is the best way to split the $$.

1- $4800 limit / $4717 balance
2- $4000 limit / $3818 balance
3 - $10,000 limit / $9200 balance
4 - $1400 limit / $1231 balance
5 - $2000 limit / $1826 balance
6 - $3000 limit / $2700 balance
7 - $900 limit / $880 balance
8 - $5000 limit / $4300 balance
9 - $5000 limit / $1000 balance

I know it won't cover all for now, but I'm hoping to get the biggest return for the money I pay down! My credit scores are tanked right now so hoping to get the most points back!!

Any suggestions? They're all credit cards.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

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@Barneygirl wrote:
Hi All, I need some help

I currently have very high utilization on many of my credit cards. My father passed away a year ago and I needed this to support his end-of-life treatments and final expenses.

Now I have $19,000 to pay down these balances and am wondering what is the best way to split the $$.

1- $4800 limit / $4717 balance pay 3277
2- $4000 limit / $3818 balance pay 2618
3 - $10,000 limit / $9200 balance pay 5591
4 - $1400 limit / $1231 balance pay 811
5 - $2000 limit / $1826 balance pay 1226
6 - $3000 limit / $2700 balance pay 1800
7 - $900 limit / $880 balance pay 880
8 - $5000 limit / $4300 balance pay 2800
9 - $5000 limit / $1000 balance leave for the moment

I know it won't cover all for now, but I'm hoping to get the biggest return for the money I pay down! My credit scores are tanked right now so hoping to get the most points back!!

Any suggestions? They're all credit cards.

Thanks!

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I'm so sorry about your Dad.  I have highlighted what I would do if wanting to get the biggest score bump and lower monthly payments...this should take you to 30ish% of CL.and give a nice bump on your scores

I took this same approach a couple of months ago and once I got all under 29-30% I started tackling the debt in a snowball method and paid off the smallest then applied to the next

Best Wishes for you!

[SouthJamaica]

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@Barneygirl wrote:
Hi All, I need some help

I currently have very high utilization on many of my credit cards. My father passed away a year ago and I needed this to support his end-of-life treatments and final expenses.

Now I have $19,000 to pay down these balances and am wondering what is the best way to split the $$.

1- $4800 limit / $4717 balance Pay $3325
2- $4000 limit / $3818 balance Pay $2658
3 - $10,000 limit / $9200 balance Pay $2530
4 - $1400 limit / $1231 balance Pay this one off completely
5 - $2000 limit / $1826 balance Pay this one off completely
6 - $3000 limit / $2700 balance Pay this one off completely
7 - $900 limit / $880 balance Pay this one off completely
8 - $5000 limit / $4300 balance Pay $2850
9 - $5000 limit / $1000 balance Pay this one off completely

Your scores will go swoosh after all balances report.

And then you just need to concentrate on paying down the 10k account which will be at 6670 after the above payments are made.

I know it won't cover all for now, but I'm hoping to get the biggest return for the money I pay down! My credit scores are tanked right now so hoping to get the most points back!!

Any suggestions? They're all credit cards.

Thanks!

---

[Barneygirl]

Thank you both...

When I pull new credit reports (which I do, way too much ) every time I get the "what's hurting your score" the top two are:

1.  Too many credit cards carrying a balance

2.  Too many credit cards carrying a high balance

So I do like the idea of paying down to $0 as many cards as I can.  I have another $10,000 coming in mid-August which will hopefully help me cover most of the remaining.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

you have to follow what works best for you...either method gets you points and with that additional 10k you will be down to the optimal 9% before you know it (1 showing..all others 0%)  I haddn't realized (for years) that my UTI was killing my scores and it didn't matter how well I did on the other parts.  So my son (15) and I started our "Operation Paydown Plan" and when I paid the across the board to 30% or less my scores took a big leap (Vantage 3.0 598 to 701,  only had FICO on AMEX & Discover on my bills and they started at 638 and now show 715) and I increased all my payments to 3x min, but that is what worked for me it by no way means that is what you have to do...only you can look at your finances and go with what works for you...

Good Luck and great job for taking care of business

[Barneygirl]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Barneygirl wrote:
Hi All, I need some help

I currently have very high utilization on many of my credit cards. My father passed away a year ago and I needed this to support his end-of-life treatments and final expenses.

Now I have $19,000 to pay down these balances and am wondering what is the best way to split the $$.

1- $4800 limit / $4717 balance Pay $3325
2- $4000 limit / $3818 balance Pay $2658
3 - $10,000 limit / $9200 balance Pay $2530
4 - $1400 limit / $1231 balance Pay this one off completely
5 - $2000 limit / $1826 balance Pay this one off completely
6 - $3000 limit / $2700 balance Pay this one off completely
7 - $900 limit / $880 balance Pay this one off completely
8 - $5000 limit / $4300 balance Pay $2850
9 - $5000 limit / $1000 balance Pay this one off completely

Your scores will go swoosh after all balances report.

And then you just need to concentrate on paying down the 10k account which will be at 6670 after the above payments are made.

I know it won't cover all for now, but I'm hoping to get the biggest return for the money I pay down! My credit scores are tanked right now so hoping to get the most points back!!

Any suggestions? They're all credit cards.

Thanks!

---

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Thanks for the input everyone!  I've been playing with the numbers and this is what I'm currently looking at:

	Credit Limit	Amount Owed	Amount to Pay	Amount Remaining	Current Utilization	Future Utilization
	1300	1231	1231	0	94.69%	0.00%
	2000	1827	1827	0	91.35%	0.00%
	4800	4716	3350	1366	98.25%	28.46%
	4000	3817	2700	1117	95.43%	27.93%
	900	880	880	0	97.78%	0.00%
	5000	4505	3100	1405	90.10%	28.10%
	5000	1000	1000	0	20.00%	0.00%
	150	100	100	0	66.67%	0.00%
	300	100	100	0	33.33%	0.00%
	3000	835	835	0	27.83%	0.00%
	2000	1700	1700	0	85.00%	0.00%
	10000	9400	2725	6675	94.00%	66.75%
	1000	0	0	0	0.00%	0.00%
	800	0	0	0	0.00%	0.00%
	400	0	0	0	0.00%	0.00%
Totals	40650	30111	19548	10563	74.07%	25.99%

This gets me to only 4 out of 15 cards holding any balance.  Three will be carryin under 30%, and the one big one will be down to about 67%.  Wish I had more $$ now to pay that one down, but that'll come in August.  Regardless, I'll be lowering my overall utilization from 74% to 26%!!  I think that should be worth a decent point increase (fingers crossed!!)

I start paying down accounts on Monday, so will let you all know how it turns out!

Thanks

[Anonymous]

outstanding !!!

[RobertEG]

I would recommend first taking the recommendation of nevertoolateto learn, which basically pays all accounts down to a reasonable % util rather than paying off some in full.

The reasoning....

Keeping high % util over any extended period can trigger future credit limit decreases as you pay down the debt, thus hindering any recovery of scoring in % util.

I would first get all accounts down below 40-50% util to hopefully prevent CL decreases, then move on to paying off some accounts in order to further tweak % util scoring.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Barneygirl wrote:

Thank you both...

When I pull new credit reports (which I do, way too much ) every time I get the "what's hurting your score" the top two are:

1.  Too many credit cards carrying a balance

2.  Too many credit cards carrying a high balance

So I do like the idea of paying down to $0 as many cards as I can.  I have another $10,000 coming in mid-August which will hopefully help me cover most of the remaining.

Thanks!

---

One of the important overlooked factors is number of cards carrying a balance. It is good practice to have less than half of your cards reporting a balance.

[Barneygirl]

South.Jamaica....

So which option would be best in this situation:

1. 15 cards, 3 at $0, 12 at 30% or less

Or

2. 15 cards, 11 at $0, 3 under 30%, and one at 67%