@RockinRay wrote:WOW - I just found and read this entire thread........
First of all, I tip my hat to you sir for:
1. Putting your dirty laundry out for everyone to see and owing up to the mistakes that have been made.
2. Taking the advise from many of the very smart people here and putting a plan together.
3. Working your plan.
Good job! It is tough and I get that. I've been in your shoes twice in my life (60 years old now) and it is not an easy position to be in. In our case, we just sucked it up, made life changes, worked extra and got it all paid off. Sometimes all we could do was make the minimum payments, but we were NEVER late on any of them. We can still boast a perfect payment record today.
My advice is worthless based on the advice you have here already. I just wanted to give you kudos's and tell you that you WILL get through this.
Just please do all of us a favor! Once this mess is behind you, please do not let it happen again. I plan to follow your progress.
We will all be watching.
Thanks. It's odd but I find the positive posts uplifting. I mean, I know we don't know each other but sometimes when I sit down to pay bills it gets a bit overwhelming. Especially being single with no safety net or anyone to vent to. But, I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I know it will take a long time. What in credit doesn't take a long time? lol. Oh well. I am miles ahead of where I was and I don't plan to go back and that includes this much debt. It is easy to get a card with a $500 limit, max it out and feel helpless. But, its a real eye opener when your CC debt matches your auto loan in amount and you suddenly realize you cannot easily pay off either one. I became a slave to my debt far too easily. That is something I do not plan to ever let happen again. Right now I jsut pray my numbers go down, not up.
I got on my car insurance companies site and made some changes to my policy and shaved $41 a month off my insurance. I went to AT&T's site for my cell phones and no luck there. But, I will keep looking for ways to make a difference. Progress is progress! 
@Anonymous wrote:
@MyLoFICO wrote:Update time. I used a couple of cards to keep them from closing. Kohls, Chevron/Texaco, and my Discount tire card. I paid them off as soon as the charge hit so they are not reflected. I got pants for work from Kohls (found a 30% off coupon and had a $10 coupon too). I got $10 in gas on my Chevron card. I got a flat tire fixed at Discount tire. So, nothing I didn't need but paid it all so it wouldn't accrue interest. I also got half of the $2k I had coming and managed to pay Amazon almost completely off ($1311 to get rid of all the interest bombs I had left). The other $1k remaining will not be coming in. I have gotten rid of all the interest bombs save one, Lowes. It drops next July. My tax refund should solve that if I have not paid it off by then.
As stated in an earlier post, I got some new cards. My overall UTIL is good now and my scores are recovering quickly from the HP's and new accounts. Some of the new cards have a 0% intro for BT's. I am going to take advantage of those to reduce the amount of my payments on some of these higher balance cards in hopes of bringing my individual UTIL on these cards down to normal. My only concern is I can only use about 50% of that available BT amount or I risk a high individual UTIL on the new cards.
So here is my new table. This is a benchmark table going forward. This is current as of today. Some payments were made today but their effect is reflected here already. From here on out I am down to just my bi-weekly paychecks. No large amounts to put down now so my progress will slow greatly until I can line up a second job. To top it off, I am sick now and having to take a few days to recover. If my numbers go up from here going forward, then I will have a problem. All of the cards are locked in the safe and not being used. Time will tell now if I can survive or need to file chapter 7 if I cannot find a second job.
My Citibank DC has a $3k limit of which I will move $1500 from another card listed here to reduce the payments.
My BCP has a $2k limit of which I will use $1k to give a little relief to one of these cards listed here.
My Chase Amazon Prime has a $2500 limit of which I will use $1200 to do the same.
I know the Chase Prime doesn't do BT's. I am going to run the card myself for the $1200 through my business and put that money on the cards after it hits my account. SO, what cards do you think I should BT to my new cards?
Nice work, sir!
Get the QS1 and the spark under 69% ASAP - FICO individual utilization score breaks are every 20% starting at 89%...so BT at least enough of those cards to do that
After that, I'd start killing the highest interest rate cards first, making sure to use no more than 68% of the new cards to avoid killing the individual utilization on those cards
Great job dodging the BK bullet so far!
lol. The BK comment kinda scared me.
Anyway, you helped me realize just what I am going to BT to my measly $500 SL AMEX ED card. The Spark card balance to bring it down to below 69%. I'll move $330 to AMEX and then make a $60 payment on the Amex to keep it at or below %50. 2 birds, one stone. Thanks. I was trying to figure out how that low SL was going to help. Then I can let that carry over for the 5 months AMEX insists upon.
Then I will move $1100 of the QS to my BCP which will bring it to about %55 and QS to %67.
I still have my Citi DC and my Chase Amazon Prime VS card. I might take out a chunk of Wal Mart MC and all of the Chevron/Texaco card since they have the highest APR and then attack Amazon Store Card until its gone. That should reduce my monthly payment to a more manageable state so I can have a bigger chunk to start knocking out cards using the snowball method.
If my scores rally I might be able to get a little love from PenFed in a month or two. Hopefully.
Thanks for keeping us updated! If I may offer some advice from experience, hitting just under 90% util on cards you are using for balance transfers isn't going to make your scores drop 20-30 points (90%+ on several cards might, though). If it's a matter of still struggling not to file Ch7 due to not being able to make payments, wouldn't it make more sense to do what you can to further lower those payments rather than worry about not hitting 60% individual util? Just on the Wal-Mart card, you're paying over $100 a month in interest - that could be $0 by just BTing to one of the new cards. It's not like you're trying to squeeze a few extra points out to get a better mortgage rate. Just my $0.02, don't mean that to sound as harsh as it probably comes across on screen.
@K-in-Boston wrote:Thanks for keeping us updated! If I may offer some advice from experience, hitting just under 90% util on cards you are using for balance transfers isn't going to make your scores drop 20-30 points (90%+ on several cards might, though). If it's a matter of still struggling not to file Ch7 due to not being able to make payments, wouldn't it make more sense to do what you can to further lower those payments rather than worry about not hitting 60% individual util? Just on the Wal-Mart card, you're paying over $100 a month in interest - that could be $0 by just BTing to one of the new cards. It's not like you're trying to squeeze a few extra points out to get a better mortgage rate. Just my $0.02, don't mean that to sound as harsh as it probably comes across on screen.
I was wondering how to figure that out. I have a few that are hitting me for a lot of interest. I also have a few low limit cards that have low interest. Will it make my payments more effective to spread that out off of those high interest cards? I couldn't find a calculator to see what the difference would be. In answer to your question I am more worried about making my payments count that I am with UTIL since UTIL can be completely overcome by paying down the balances.
@MyLoFICO wrote:lol. I hope you are right. Can we change our names? I don't think I ever looked.
Any mod can take care of this... when you're ready, just send me a PM. Easy-peasy. 
@UncleB wrote:
@MyLoFICO wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:Thanks for keeping us updated! If I may offer some advice from experience, hitting just under 90% util on cards you are using for balance transfers isn't going to make your scores drop 20-30 points (90%+ on several cards might, though). If it's a matter of still struggling not to file Ch7 due to not being able to make payments, wouldn't it make more sense to do what you can to further lower those payments rather than worry about not hitting 60% individual util? Just on the Wal-Mart card, you're paying over $100 a month in interest - that could be $0 by just BTing to one of the new cards. It's not like you're trying to squeeze a few extra points out to get a better mortgage rate. Just my $0.02, don't mean that to sound as harsh as it probably comes across on screen.
I was wondering how to figure that out. I have a few that are hitting me for a lot of interest. I also have a few low limit cards that have low interest. Will it make my payments more effective to spread that out off of those high interest cards? I couldn't find a calculator to see what the difference would be. In answer to your question I am more worried about making my payments count that I am with UTIL since UTIL can be completely overcome by paying down the balances.
Just FYI I had to temporarily "max" out my QS Visa last month (roof repair) and when the balance reported my TU dropped 18 points, with EQ and EX dropping 16 points each (with no other changes). My total utilization is still under 15%. I'm not too concerned, though, since it's now back to PIF, and I'm looking forward to getting those points back when Capital One updates with the bureaus on May 3.
Of course this is just one data point, and all profiles are different... it's also possible crossing the 10% threshold made an impact in my case as well. I'm only mentioning it here since before I always suspected that as long as overall utilization was good that individual utilization wasn't a big deal, but I discovered that it can actually be YMMV depending on the profile.
Also note that if it were me, I would be just like the OP (that is, more concerned about saving interest than scores). The scores will bounce back, but once paid the interest is gone forever.
Pretty certain 10% is a breakpoint on all scorecards when talking aggregate utilization: I know it is on both dirty scorecards I appear to have been on, and multiple clean folks have found it too.
On my file at any rate when I maxxed out a card but still minimal utilization overall, I lost 7 points, which wasn't a huge deal... typically aggregate > individual in terms of penalty.
@Revelate wrote:
@UncleB wrote:
@MyLoFICO wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:Thanks for keeping us updated! If I may offer some advice from experience, hitting just under 90% util on cards you are using for balance transfers isn't going to make your scores drop 20-30 points (90%+ on several cards might, though). If it's a matter of still struggling not to file Ch7 due to not being able to make payments, wouldn't it make more sense to do what you can to further lower those payments rather than worry about not hitting 60% individual util? Just on the Wal-Mart card, you're paying over $100 a month in interest - that could be $0 by just BTing to one of the new cards. It's not like you're trying to squeeze a few extra points out to get a better mortgage rate. Just my $0.02, don't mean that to sound as harsh as it probably comes across on screen.
I was wondering how to figure that out. I have a few that are hitting me for a lot of interest. I also have a few low limit cards that have low interest. Will it make my payments more effective to spread that out off of those high interest cards? I couldn't find a calculator to see what the difference would be. In answer to your question I am more worried about making my payments count that I am with UTIL since UTIL can be completely overcome by paying down the balances.
Just FYI I had to temporarily "max" out my QS Visa last month (roof repair) and when the balance reported my TU dropped 18 points, with EQ and EX dropping 16 points each (with no other changes). My total utilization is still under 15%. I'm not too concerned, though, since it's now back to PIF, and I'm looking forward to getting those points back when Capital One updates with the bureaus on May 3.
Of course this is just one data point, and all profiles are different... it's also possible crossing the 10% threshold made an impact in my case as well. I'm only mentioning it here since before I always suspected that as long as overall utilization was good that individual utilization wasn't a big deal, but I discovered that it can actually be YMMV depending on the profile.
Also note that if it were me, I would be just like the OP (that is, more concerned about saving interest than scores). The scores will bounce back, but once paid the interest is gone forever.
Pretty certain 10% is a breakpoint on all scorecards when talking aggregate utilization: I know it is on both dirty scorecards I appear to have been on, and multiple clean folks have found it too.
On my file at any rate when I maxxed out a card but still minimal utilization overall, I lost 7 points, which wasn't a huge deal... typically aggregate > individual in terms of penalty.
This got me to thinking... with the high balance reporting on that one card a few weeks back, just what utilization am I at, precisely? I had assumed I had blown past 10%, but I also got some CLIs back in January that weren't taken into account.
I put everything into a quick spreadsheet, and it turns out with the January CLIs and new accounts (most of which reported in February, and all by March) I'm only at 9% - actually 8-point-something % - so it's up-in-the-air on exactly what combination of factors triggered my own drop. It will be interesting to see if once the new balance reports how it rebounds. (Apologies for my quick less-than-accurate guesstimation before.)
One thing I can say for sure is that if one doesn't have any installment history, there is a definite 'ding' (at least for me there is... I learned long ago to avoid making blanket assumptions). My EQ routinely drags behind the other two anywhere from 15-25 points, and the information is the same other than there's no installment history showing. TU and EX have old PIF installment history that will be aging off later this year, so I'll probably be hitting up Alliant for a share-secure loan before that happens, but not until things settle a bit first (I would like to be able to clearly see the impact of the SSL, which if I do it now would be difficult).
Sorry for the derail; I just wanted to correct/clarify my own data point... I still agree with our OP here that if it were me, I would be primarily concerned with stopping the bleeding and scores would be my second consideration (just as he's doing). 
@UncleB wrote:
@MyLoFICO wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:Thanks for keeping us updated! If I may offer some advice from experience, hitting just under 90% util on cards you are using for balance transfers isn't going to make your scores drop 20-30 points (90%+ on several cards might, though). If it's a matter of still struggling not to file Ch7 due to not being able to make payments, wouldn't it make more sense to do what you can to further lower those payments rather than worry about not hitting 60% individual util? Just on the Wal-Mart card, you're paying over $100 a month in interest - that could be $0 by just BTing to one of the new cards. It's not like you're trying to squeeze a few extra points out to get a better mortgage rate. Just my $0.02, don't mean that to sound as harsh as it probably comes across on screen.
I was wondering how to figure that out. I have a few that are hitting me for a lot of interest. I also have a few low limit cards that have low interest. Will it make my payments more effective to spread that out off of those high interest cards? I couldn't find a calculator to see what the difference would be. In answer to your question I am more worried about making my payments count that I am with UTIL since UTIL can be completely overcome by paying down the balances.
Just FYI I had to temporarily "max" out my QS Visa last month (roof repair) and when the balance reported my TU dropped 18 points, with EQ and EX dropping 16 points each (with no other changes). My total utilization is still under 15%. I'm not too concerned, though, since it's now back to PIF, and I'm looking forward to getting those points back when Capital One updates with the bureaus on May 3.
Of course this is just one data point, and all profiles are different... it's also possible crossing the 10% threshold made an impact in my case as well. I'm only mentioning it here since before I always suspected that as long as overall utilization was good that individual utilization wasn't a big deal, but I discovered that it can actually be YMMV depending on the profile.
Also note that if it were me, I would be just like the OP (that is, more concerned about saving interest than scores). The scores will bounce back, but once paid the interest is gone forever.
Its easy for me to lose sight of the big picture and try to balance adressing the interest while maintaining the best possible score. I see my scores going into the 700's for the first time since...ever and its hard to let that drop even when I know its temporary. I find myself trying to subconsciously keep them going up. I need to stay focused though.
Is there a formula on how to estimate what a credit card minimum will be base on the balance?
@UncleB wrote:
@MyLoFICO wrote:lol. I hope you are right. Can we change our names? I don't think I ever looked.
Any mod can take care of this... when you're ready, just send me a PM. Easy-peasy.
I did not know that. lol. I guess I need to start thinking of a new name. I like my name but I don't ever want to go back to the 500's again.