@Jnbmom wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Hi all!
I'm interested in getting ideas on how to go about tackling this debt. I just received a large sign-on bonus with my new employer and will have about $25,000 at my disposal to pay down debt. Between my wife and I, here's a list of our debts in a balance/limit/ format:
Best Buy CC - $4,956/$4650 -$163/month
Barclaycard - $2682/$3000 - $65/month
Care Credit - $2302/2600 - $123/month
Discover - $997/1000 - $84/month
NFCU Platinum - $150/500
NFCU cashRewards - $5492/5500 - $150/month
PayPal Credit - $2456/3000 - $65/month
USAA Signature - $6433/6500 - $147/month
Apple Card - $1000/1000 - $35/month
Upstart Loan - $11,700 - $372/month
Any advice is appreciated! We definitely got ourselves into a bit of a mess after being unemployed for the last 5 months. We'd like to increase our scores as much as possible (currently low 600s) while lowering our monthly obligation.
First question is what are the rates on the above accounts? Any BT rates and if so when do they expire?
1. Don't worry about the loan; just keep paying it like usual.
2. Concentrate on getting all the revolvers down to 28% or less.
3. Then start zeroing out the accounts with the highest interest.
Congratulations on getting a sign-on bonus! No one ever liked me that much 
@Anonymous wrote:Hi all!
I'm interested in getting ideas on how to go about tackling this debt. I just received a large sign-on bonus with my new employer and will have about $25,000 at my disposal to pay down debt. Between my wife and I, here's a list of our debts in a balance/limit/ format:
Best Buy CC - $4,956/$4650 -$163/month
Barclaycard - $2682/$3000 - $65/month
Care Credit - $2302/2600 - $123/month
Discover - $997/1000 - $84/month
NFCU Platinum - $150/500
NFCU cashRewards - $5492/5500 - $150/month
PayPal Credit - $2456/3000 - $65/month
USAA Signature - $6433/6500 - $147/month
Apple Card - $1000/1000 - $35/month
Upstart Loan - $11,700 - $372/month
Any advice is appreciated! We definitely got ourselves into a bit of a mess after being unemployed for the last 5 months. We'd like to increase our scores as much as possible (currently low 600s) while lowering our monthly obligation.
I would pay off everything besides the USAA credit card and Upstart loan. I would make a payment of 3433 on USAA and bring that to 3000. Once all that is paid you will have about 1700 bucks left, I would throw that in a savings and let all these balances update and use the money that you have been paying towards them to get your USAA paid off if you pay 500 a month you could knock it out in 6 months and then I would start on the upstart loan and get that paid off as quickly as possible. Congrats on your new job! Make sure you use this as a learning lesson to not get back in that situation again. This is a once in a lifetime chance use it wisely!
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the insight everyone! I'm glad I asked, I was about to pay off the personal loan and go from there. I guess the CCs all have higher interest rates so that makes sense.
To answer the interest question, my USAA card is 15%, NFCUs both at 18%, Apple Card at 18% and the rest are around 28%. I like the idea of paying everything off and paying down the USAA, though I wonder if paying everything down to below 30% utilization then knocking each out one by one after will increase my score more....
That's actually not the reason I advised tackling the revolvers first. I didn't know what your respective interest rates were. The reason I advised that was that it accomplishes more for your credit scores to get the revolvers down.
@Harvey26 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Hi all!
I'm interested in getting ideas on how to go about tackling this debt. I just received a large sign-on bonus with my new employer and will have about $25,000 at my disposal to pay down debt. Between my wife and I, here's a list of our debts in a balance/limit/ format:
Best Buy CC - $4,956/$4650 -$163/month
Barclaycard - $2682/$3000 - $65/month
Care Credit - $2302/2600 - $123/month
Discover - $997/1000 - $84/month
NFCU Platinum - $150/500
NFCU cashRewards - $5492/5500 - $150/month
PayPal Credit - $2456/3000 - $65/month
USAA Signature - $6433/6500 - $147/month
Apple Card - $1000/1000 - $35/month
Upstart Loan - $11,700 - $372/month
Any advice is appreciated! We definitely got ourselves into a bit of a mess after being unemployed for the last 5 months. We'd like to increase our scores as much as possible (currently low 600s) while lowering our monthly obligation.
I would pay off everything besides the USAA credit card and Upstart loan. I would make a payment of 3433 on USAA and bring that to 3000. Once all that is paid you will have about 1700 bucks left, I would throw that in a savings and let all these balances update and use the money that you have been paying towards them to get your USAA paid off if you pay 500 a month you could knock it out in 6 months and then I would start on the upstart loan and get that paid off as quickly as possible. Congrats on your new job! Make sure you use this as a learning lesson to not get back in that situation again. This is a once in a lifetime chance use it wisely!
Agreed!
Overall, his cmments resoundnates with my opinion. It sounds full of experienced thought & makes a lot of sense!
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the insight everyone! I'm glad I asked, I was about to pay off the personal loan and go from there. I guess the CCs all have higher interest rates so that makes sense.
To answer the interest question, my USAA card is 15%, NFCUs both at 18%, Apple Card at 18% and the rest are around 28%. I like the idea of paying everything off and paying down the USAA, though I wonder if paying everything down to below 30% utilization then knocking each out one by one after will increase my score more....
If you follow my advice you should be at least a 680 or better once all of that debt is paid down. At this point unless you are going to by a home then scores are really not a concern at the moment. Of course by keeping the installment loan and paying that monthly your score will benefit from that.