Ok so I am new to the forum and may not say everything just right but here goes...My husband and I are trying desperately to buy a home in the next 6mos-year. Last year we moved to be closer to our desired locale and pay cheaper rent to save more money...just before the move I opened several preapproved cards thinking we could continue what we had been doing with the 2-3 cards we already had (use a small portion and pay in full each month) on these cards to increase our credit score even more. Unfortunately, his job transfer turned out to be a demotion in pay, plus he injured himself getting off the moving truck and was out of work more than anything. Needless to say we ended up living off the credit cards...it's been a year and all the cc's are $20-$100 away from being maxed. Although we've continued to be on time with minimums (and sometimes able to pay a little more than the minimum) our credit scores took a huge nose dive (100+ points) and I'm told it's due to utilization and possibly number of open accounts in such a short period of time.
Well, on the brighter side, we just came into enough money to pay all the cc's off..and can now work on rebuilding our credit scores...however, we need to get the biggest increase probability down to a science in order to be loan ready in 6 months (leaving 6 months to tackle to home buying process) But the confusion is what's the best strategy. I don't want to rush and pay off everything and end up with a small point increase when if we steady the payoffs we could boost the score so much more (like paying 1 or 2 cards at a time, or pay only 80% of each card and leave the rest to pay over time so we don't have to charge new debt just to keep the accounts actively reporting, etc). Because we're working with limited time, I know this is a very delicate moment and I get the feeling that we need to be strategic to get the best results. We need at least a 100 point increase to be back in the game of getting approved for a home loan let alone with a decent interest rate. I don't know if that's a realistic achievement in 6 months or not but it's what we need (even though it didn't take that long for the score to go down!) But anyway, the outline of my question...
1. What's the best way to go about paying the debt to get the biggest increase in score over next 6 months? One lump sum or over time?
2. If we do pay in one lump...what do we do in the meantime with cc's? Close some? Leave all open and don't use? Leave all open and use for small purchases like we use to before the crisis and pay in full each month?
Helpful info
13 CC's Between Us totaling $14867.34
Newly Opened CC's: 1 year old Older CC's: 3+ years old
My CO $5500 CL - Balance 5399.52 My HD $1300 CL - Balance 1095.52
His CO $500 CL - Balance 478.65 His HD $1900 CL - Balance 1850.29
My BAMX $1000 CL - Balance 990.82 My AMX $500 CL - Balance 494.71
My HHB $300 CL - Balance 287.83 His CHVN $400 CL - Balance 128.00
His HHB $1705 CL - Balance 1695.37 My CC $2000 CL - Balance 318.52
My Ppl $1500 CL - Balance 1462.81
His Ppl $500 CL - Balance 418.85
My LB $200 CL - Balance 189.09
Everything else on credit report is accurate (cleaned credit up years ago) and in good standing...year old car loan all on time payments, 2+ year old student loans all deferred, etc. Any advice would be appreciated and soon as we want to start repayment this month.
