Time to Rebuild

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Long time reader and new poster. I have a high utilization rate, never missed any payments, and multiple (10+) card accounts with balances, and a few with a 0 balance. I'm wondering if closing one or two newer lines of credit with low limits would help or hurt my score, as it affects both the utilization and the average age of accounts?

Also, does anyone have any tips on lowering high utilizations? 

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello,

Long time reader and new poster. I have a high utilization rate, never missed any payments, and multiple (10+) card accounts with balances, and a few with a 0 balance. I'm wondering if closing one or two newer lines of credit with low limits would help or hurt my score, as it affects both the utilization and the average age of accounts?

Also, does anyone have any tips on lowering high utilizations? 

Thanks!

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Can you let us know what cards you have with the limits and balance, it will help everyone help you a little better than just telling you what they're methods are
 

[Anonymous]

Closing the accounts won't hurt your AAoA any for now, but it will only make your utilization worse by giving you less available credit with the same high balances. Paying down your debt before it is reported is the only way to reduce your utilization.

As mentioned above, more information from you will get you some better advice

[Anonymous]

Paying down debt usually falls into two categories: snowball lowest to highest balance or pay down based on highest to lowest Apr. Honestly it's probably only a few percentage points either way at the end so just pick the one that works with your brain. For some, It's disheartening paying a 5k loan for maybe years because it's the highest interest rather than knocking out a 200 balance then a 300 balance and so on. However some like the fact that their extra payment is saving the most interest.

[Anonymous]

Sure, I have a 76% util rate ($40k or so in cc debt) with an AAoA of 4.5 yrs. I have a few cards with 0 balances (mostly store cards), and some with high utils of above 90%. I had a family issue a few years back and it's been hard to recover. My score isn't that bad - 650ish. But I'd like to improve it.

A few tricks I learned while going through this process are the following:

A) - Call up card companies and ask if they can help you out by waiving one months interest. I had multiple cards do this, and thanks to Barclays for giving me the idea.

B) - Discover Card - has a debt reduction program that will lower your rate temporarily for a year if you don't use the card. I paid above the minimum and it helped reduce my balance a lot

I'd like more options on reducing debt, creative transfers to lower rates, etc...

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Another option for improving your utilization is to try for CLIs. With your util so high it may be difficult but you won't be penalized for asking so it's worth a try. Run through all your cards and see if you can get some help that way.