Need help with my credit

lyro · ‎07-15-2016

Ok, so I am pretty new to building credit and my oldest account will be 2 years this month, which I am told is a good thing. I have 5 total accounts open and my debt ratio is high at 94%. My total debt of all accounts combined is about $3800. I have 1 dell preferred account($2,000), 2 capital one cards ($500 ea.), 1 Surge Card ($500), and 1 card from Credit One Bank ($500). I know I need to get the debt ratio down and have $1,000, I am thinking to pay of 2 of the $500 cards but am unsure which ones, should I do both capital one cards or 1 capital one card and 1 non-capital one card? Does it matter which I pay in full? And then after I pay these I will make payments to bring the other cards up. I have never missed a payment on any of my accounts but opening those last 3 accounts made my score drop and the Credit One Bank card charged a cash advance fee when there was little credit limit available and the balance went negative, so my score dropped drastically from the new accounts and the negative balance, from the mid 600's all the way down to 531. Will paying 2 cards off and my oldest account when it turns 2 years bring me back to the 600's?

tcbofade · ‎07-15-2016

No.

Instead of paying OFF two accounts, pay DOWN all five of them.

Make sure that NO card is at 90% or greater utilization.

When you've done that, and new statements cut and report to the CRA's, you'll be back in the 630's.

Having CC accounts "maxed out" really, REALLY hurts your scores.

Fico 8 11/01/25: EX 795, EQ 796, TU 795.
Fico 9: EX 812 04/15/25, EQ 804 04/08/25, TU 792 02/15/25.

Zero percent financing is where the devil lives...

RonM21 · ‎07-15-2016

@tcbofade wrote:
No.

Instead of paying OFF two accounts, pay DOWN all five of them.

Make sure that NO card is at 90% or greater utilization.

When you've done that, and new statements cut and report to the CRA's, you'll be back in the 630's.

Having CC accounts "maxed out" really, REALLY hurts your scores.

+1

I would dod it this way also, in an effort to get these accounts out of the "maxed out" range first. You want to try to avoid any action being taken by one or more of these lenders due to this issue. Then, after that, work on bringing them down more.

Total CL: $321.7k

UTL: 2%

AAoA: 7.0yrs

Baddies: 0

Other: Lease, Loan, *No Mortgage, All Inq's from Jun '20 Car Shopping

MrsCHX · ‎07-15-2016

I know you said overall utilization is 94% but what is it card by card? Eg what is your current balance and the credit limit on each card??

I agree with getting them down.

When I was near maxed on a bunch of cards I took the amount available ($1000) divided by the total balances ($3800) which is about 26%.

I would then allocate that percentage to each balance.

But your numbers aren't adding up...which is why I asked about each card.

Capital One Savor: $8,000; Nordstrom Visa: $5,400; Mission Lane: $4,500; LOFT MC: $3,000; AAA Daily Advantage: $2,700; PenFed Power Cash Rewards: $2,000; Capital One: $550 (reallocated $2k to Savor)

Store/Other: Care Credit: $7,500; Amazon: $2.500; Kohls: $2,500; Home Depot: $1,500; Target: $1,100

Anonymous · ‎07-15-2016

I agree with the other posters OP.

If you insist on paying off two cards, I would pay off the two with the highest interest rates first; although its best to not have any of the cards maxed out.

You will get the hang of this eventually, continue to hang around here and listen to everyones advice and your score will be in the 700's in the future!

We are cheering for you, and I wish you many successes in the future!

lyro · ‎07-16-2016

Thanks everyone for your support and help! Here are how my cards currently look:

Capital One Platinum MasterCard (Secured) - Credit Limit: $500 | Balance: $484.98 | Available Credit: $15.02

Capital One Platinum MasterCard - Credit Limit: $500 | Balance: $497.92 | Available Credit: $2.08

Surge Card - Credit Limit: $500 | Balance: $460.27 | Available Credit: $4 (not sure why it says that, guess they haven't updated yet?)

Credit One - Credit Limit: $500 | Balance: $507.00 | Available Credit: -$7

Dell Preferred - Credit Limit: $2,000 | Balance: $1,792.24 | Available Credit: 207.76

Anonymous · ‎07-16-2016

I'm usually a lurker but I had to register to post in this thread.

@lyro
Are any of your CC under a special 0% APR promotion?

I would pay off the one with the highest APR first. Then work on lowering the Dell Perferred balance.

Anonymous · ‎07-16-2016

Also why did you maxed out your CC? Didn't it occurred to you it might be a bad idea?

Anonymous · ‎07-16-2016

Good advice here, OP. I agree with those who say pay on all of them then concentrate on paying one off then the next and so forth. You can do it.

Anonymous · ‎07-16-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
Also why did you maxed out your CC? Didn't it occurred to you it might be a bad idea?

We are in the forum to discuss financial matters and to help each other, not to judge.