So I got into a bit of trouble this year. High utilization on my cards, took out a personal loan in December, and ended up having my scores drop a bit because of utilization overall. We had some medical things to pay for and I had maternity leave unpaid. After I took out the loan in December I decided that it was costing me too much, took out a $5,000 cash advance on one card and a couple of small ones on the other cards to pay off the loan. I knew that my scores would drop because of utilization, but in the end it would save me so much money. The $5,000 is only at 8.74% through my Local Credit Union. So I've been putting every single dollar that I have toward credit cards now. I had a balance on Barclay on almost all of my Capital One cards, Credit Union card, Amazon, Walmart, almost all of my cards. I paid off the credit union completely, Barclay, 4 out of 6 Capital one cards, Amazon, Walmart. I owe Capital One only. Used the snowball kind of. Paying interest first. 0% Cap1 is what I have left. Feels awesome! I understand why they have you start with the lowest balances because you really get on a roll after the first one. Can't wait to be debt free! Now 13% overall utilization.
