getting my credit back on track..help.

[Anonymous]

Hello i made a post in the past that may have been confusing. i will redo the numbers here. End goal is to have a used 35k car by spring as one of mine is broken and the other im not sure how much life has left. I know its not a must so please save that. recently enrolled in skyblue's credit repair program so we will see how that works. in the mean time ill list my debts and apr's below. between this week and next i will have 2500 to throw on debt. what should i throw it on to best benifet my score. initial though was the smallest loan (pioneer) but i feel that wont effect my credit the best as say a card. I just got a job making very good montey and have gotten everything up to date. Thanks for the help in advance!

current scores all around a 600

debts:

navy fed credit card 18% APR  $129 per month $6500  of $6500limit 

Navy fed personal loan 18% APR  $195 per month $2267

evo (car) 7.29% APR $271 per month  $8490

checking line 14.90% APR $50 per month  $1400 of $1500

 pioneer personal loan 23.81% APR  $279 per month  $1529

one main personal loan 30% APR $89 twice a month $5500

one main personal loan 30% APR $73 twice a month  $3204

capitol 1 silver (card) 24.74% APR  $59 per month  $414 of $2300

capitol 1 red (card) 24.74%  APR $50 per month $0 of $500

[srloring13]

Right now the high apr loans and high utilization are affecting the amount of cash you are paying and your FICO scores. How much money will have each month to contribute to the reduction of your debt?

What is your primary goal? Do you want to focus on paying off debt or reducing the total interest paid or reducing your required minimum payments?

The two accounts at 100% UT are definitely affecting your scores. I would focus on freeing up cash to start snowballing payments. I would pay off the Pioneer personal loan and the Capital One. The remainder would go towards the NFCU credit card.
Next month apply the 279 and 59 payments from the two loans that were paid off towards the NFCU card and CLOC until your utilization is under 80%. Next start putting those extra payments toward the One Main loans (lowest balance first). Once those are paid work on the NFCU debts.

[Anonymous]

My comments below in blue.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello i made a post in the past that may have been confusing. i will redo the numbers here. End goal is to have a used 35k car by spring....

I am going to make that April 1st or just a bit bit after, so that we have a deadline to work with.

... as one of mine is broken and the other im not sure how much life has left. I know its not a must so please save that. recently enrolled in skyblue's credit repair program so we will see how that works. in the mean time ill list my debts and apr's below. between this week and next i will have 2500 to throw on debt. what should i throw it on to best benifet my score.

As the other commenter mentioned, we also need to know how much money you will have for paying off debt in the months to come.  Let's assume $2500 for Sept.  How much can you throw at the debt in Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, etc?

You seem to be very clear in your last sentence above that you have one goal which is to raise your FICO score.  I am going to go with that.

First you need to make sure that you have a plan that will ensure that you can pay the minimum required for each bill on time -- i.e. to never be late.  Create a budget, use spreadsheets, think of unforeseen expenses, etc.  The most important thing to improve your score is to prevent any late payment from ever happening moving forward.

A very close second is to pay down revolving accounts.  These would include credit cards but also lines of credit like the checking line.  To best improve your FICO score your priority should be to pay only the minimum toward loans, but begin paying down cards (and the LOC).  Your goal should be to get all cards at < 87%, then all cards at < 67%, then all cards at < 47%.   After that you can engage in any debt payoff technique you like.  Some people like paying off the smallest balance cards first.  That's fine if the sense of accomplishment will encourage you each time an account goes to zero.  The extra emotional encouragement is an important part of debt paydown success.

Do not, however, divert any money (beyond the minimum required) toward paying down loans.  That's a fine idea but only after all revolving debt is paid off.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello i made a post in the past that may have been confusing. i will redo the numbers here. End goal is to have a used 35k car by spring as one of mine is broken and the other im not sure how much life has left. I know its not a must so please save that. recently enrolled in skyblue's credit repair program so we will see how that works. in the mean time ill list my debts and apr's below. between this week and next i will have 2500 to throw on debt. what should i throw it on to best benifet my score. initial though was the smallest loan (pioneer) but i feel that wont effect my credit the best as say a card. I just got a job making very good montey and have gotten everything up to date. Thanks for the help in advance!

current scores all around a 600

debts:

navy fed credit card 18% APR  $129 per month $6500  of $6500limit 

Navy fed personal loan 18% APR  $195 per month $2267

evo (car) 7.29% APR $271 per month  $8490

checking line 14.90% APR $50 per month  $1400 of $1500

 pioneer personal loan 23.81% APR  $279 per month  $1529

one main personal loan 30% APR $89 twice a month $5500

one main personal loan 30% APR $73 twice a month  $3204

capitol 1 silver (card) 24.74% APR  $59 per month  $414 of $2300

capitol 1 red (card) 24.74%  APR $50 per month $0 of $500

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I would throw it on the maxed out NFCU card.

[Anonymous]

i do have a budget made. complete excel sheet to keep track of where i was to where i am and future, always tweaking it to make better. In all i should be able to on average put 4k a month on debt. should i just throw all of this on the NFCU card? or pay off the capitol one and rest on NFCU untill it is down to about 30%? i can deal with the loans, i just figured they arent hurting me as badly as the revolving credit.

[Anonymous]

payday hit. i went ahead and completely paid off the capitol one and paid 600 on the NFCU card. next week will be about another 1500 on it 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

should i just throw all of this on the NFCU card? or pay off the capitol one and rest on NFCU untill it is down to about 30%? i can deal with the loans, i just figured they arent hurting me as badly as the revolving credit.

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You may have missed what I said earlier.  Here's what I advised:

Your goal should be to get all cards at < 87%, then all cards at < 67%, then all cards at < 47%.   After that you can engage in any debt payoff technique you like.  Some people like paying off the smallest balance cards first.  That's fine if the sense of accomplishment will encourage you each time an account goes to zero.  The extra emotional encouragement is an important part of debt paydown success.

Do not, however, divert any money (beyond the minimum required) toward paying down loans.  That's a fine idea but only after all revolving debt is paid off.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 goal is to have a used 35k car by spring as one of mine is broken and the other im not sure how much life has left. I know its not a must so please save that.

you can lead a horse to water...

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

 goal is to have a used 35k car by spring as one of mine is broken and the other im not sure how much life has left. I know its not a must so please save that.

you can lead a horse to water...

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Some truth to that, but for reference having 4K per month to pay on debts is a non-trivially high income.  I live cheaply and I was impressed with myself when I could get 3K/month into a brokerage account: I'm almost confident the OP's expense profile is higher but that sort of free cash flow even under the new tax code is a bunch of money coming in.

There's a story here somewhere and I don't know what it is and it doesn't really matter, but ultimately a 35k car wouldn't make a significant difference financially assuming the debts weren't there... so pay off the debts and then go do what makes him happy in this case.

Long term sure some adjustments are in order, but if you have spare cash that isn't earmarked for something else, I've learned might as well spend some of it on improving one's quality of life, however that is defined.

[Anonymous]

No story really. Just got a union job making really good money working 60 hours a week. I've always been a car guy so that deffinatly improves my quality of life. I could have fixed the other one but debt is more important to me at this point in time. How often do the credit card companies report to the bear? Between actual debt and what is reporting there's a 4k difference