I am about to start a reverse snow ball

[Winchester2005]

Hi all! I am continuing my credit card paydown journey, and my main focus now is to paydown aggressively on my highest utilization/highest balance card, and then move on from there.

Here's where I'm at right now:

USBank: 10196/11500

BOA: 8271/16000

KeyBank: 9667/14500

Citi Diamond: 2963/4400

Keybank Cash: 0/7500

Citi double cash: 0/9200

Citi custom cash: 0/6200

BOA platinum: 0/3700

Chase Disney: 0/3800

Chase Freedom: 0/2500

Credit Union: 0/15000

PLOC: 0/500

Discover: 0/15000

AMEX: 0/5400

I was putting 849 a month to usbank, 630 to BOA, 118 to citi, and 300 to keybank, but to get my utilization lower I was thinking of paying only the minimums on all the cards and pay the biggest payment toward usbank.

My biggest goal now is just to get my balances lower and my score higher. The usbank and BOA are in a 0% promo until early next year (Mar 2024) so I'm not sure if it'd make more sense to continue to do you up the payments or focus on the highest utilization one, usbank?

[GZG]

I'm all for doing whatever you need to do mindset wise in order to get somebody to a place to payoff their debt, I know I needed to 'dave ramsey' my life mindset to get to that point personally 

but putitng extra money on cards with a 0% apr when you have other cards with 20-30% apr is lighting an absurd amount of money on fire and will cost you much more than you think 

the us bank is already under 88.9% utlization, the keybank is under 68%, so you won't even gain extra credit score points for the gesture 

the math says pick the highest apr, and use all extra money to pay it off until it's gone 

the 'feels good in the brain' says use all of your extra money on citi diamond until it's gone and then work on keybank

[M_Smart007]

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@GZG wrote:

I'm all for doing whatever you need to do mindset wise in order to get somebody to a place to payoff their debt, I know I needed to 'dave ramsey' my life mindset to get to that point personally 

but putitng extra money on cards with a 0% apr when you have other cards with 20-30% apr is lighting an absurd amount of money on fire and will cost you much more than you think 

the us bank is already under 88.9% utlization, the keybank is under 68%, so you won't even gain extra credit score points for the gesture 

the math says pick the highest apr, and use all extra money to pay it off until it's gone 

the 'feels good in the brain' says use all of your extra money on citi diamond until it's gone and then work on keybank

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+1

[Glenn_S]

+2

[805orbust]

+3?

Yes... +3

[Jordan23ww]

So what you're talking about doing is called the Avalanche method, paying the card with the highest interest rate off first in order to save as much money as you can on interest, while reducing the card's balance. This method can and definitely will work for reducing debt. That said I did the opposite method, the Snowball method, which is paying the minimum amount on all of your cards except the one with the lowest balance. For the one with the lowest balance you pay everything extra you can to help reduce the balance quickly to $0. Once you pay it off you take that money and attack the next card with the lowest balance. You keep doing this until all your card's reach a $0 balance/an amount you could pay off at the end of each month.  I loved the snowball method because it allowed me to feel a sense of accomplishment more quickly as each card got paid to $0 and eventually all cards got paid off. Definitely do what you find will work best for you. Just wanted to share my experience in case it helps you with your decision for your journey!

My experience with the Snowball Method: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/My-Wild-and-Crazy-Credit-Rebuild-August-2019...

[Creditwiser]

+4 

[MeredithLepore]

Congrats on your journey! While any effort is commendable, you'll make more progress if you focus on paying off the cards that are accumulating interest, i.e., Keybank and Citi. You'll reduce how much you accrue in interest and you'll continue to lower your credit utilization, which is counted across all of your credit cards, not just one. This is the avalanche method, where you pay off each debt from highest interest rate to lowest. Good luck!

[Kforce]

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@Winchester2005 wrote:

Hi all! I am continuing my credit card paydown journey, and my main focus now is to paydown aggressively on my highest utilization/highest balance card, and then move on from there.

Here's where I'm at right now:

USBank: 10196/11500

BOA: 8271/16000

KeyBank: 9667/14500

Citi Diamond: 2963/4400

Keybank Cash: 0/7500

Citi double cash: 0/9200

Citi custom cash: 0/6200

BOA platinum: 0/3700

Chase Disney: 0/3800

Chase Freedom: 0/2500

Credit Union: 0/15000

PLOC: 0/500

Discover: 0/15000

AMEX: 0/5400

I was putting 849 a month to usbank, 630 to BOA, 118 to citi, and 300 to keybank, but to get my utilization lower I was thinking of paying only the minimums on all the cards and pay the biggest payment toward usbank.

My biggest goal now is just to get my balances lower and my score higher. The usbank and BOA are in a 0% promo until early next year (Mar 2024) so I'm not sure if it'd make more sense to continue to do you up the payments or focus on the highest utilization one, usbank?

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I would NOT do snowball, avalanche or reverse snow ball.

All put undue low payments on some cards.

You have been making good payments on all cards, and a change to minimum +10 might not go over very well.

You are on track with current payments to have this paid in less than 2 years, maybe 1.5.

Looking at your payments you are paying approx 6% and normal minimum #'s are 2.5%.  I would pay as a cross between your payment history, funds available and interest rates.  Lower your USB and BoA payments a little and raise the ones with interest a little, but no large payment swings. 

Something like (USB=700, BoA=500, Key=300 ,Citi=300) or (600, 500, 350, 350)

When one card hits zero, Re-Calc and split money between the 3 remaining.

Keep good payments on each, and the trade off is only small interest loss

You are in excellent shape, don't go for total savings, scores, or simplicity, see if you can keep all issuers happy and just get debt free in a short time with reasonable interest loss. 

In my opinion the best is a good compromise plan.

[mfinsmi1]

@Winchester2005 i think a combination of both the snowball and avalance method are necessary. For example eliminate all your 0% APR cards  from the equation. Then focus on the lowest limits -if you have 2 cards around the sam balance tackle the one with the higher APR first. This method is primarily snowball but it does account for interest rates in certain situations.