Credit UTILIZATION Help??

[Anonymous]

Hi all!

So my DW has two credit cards -- one with a $1500 limit and one with a $800 limit. Right now the balances are:

$1275/1500 85% UTIL
$540/800 68% UTIL

DW has the funds to pay only one down -- what would be a better play for UTIL scoring ? Paying the $800 limit down to a $0 balance and paying the $1275 down to say $1000/1500 or paying down the $1275 farther down and leaving the other card higher at 68% or so?

What would present the greatest FICO Benefit or rather the least FICO hit ??

[StartingOver10]

How much $ are you working with for the paydown?  The 85% is really hurting right now. Can she get that to under 50% and then put the rest on the small one? 

[Anonymous]

About $700 max. So it would be tough I think but possibly doable ?? Is that your suggestion

[StartingOver10]

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@Anonymous wrote:
About $700 max. So it would be tough I think but possibly doable ?? Is that your suggestion

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In your DW's circumstance it would be best to pay $575 toward the larger balance and the rest toward the small one IMO. She should see a jump in her score.

Naturally it would be better if she could pay off the small one entirely and pay down the large one to less than 9% of its credit limit to optimize her score. But when you are working on credit it may take a while to get your balances where they need to be for optimum utilization.