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@TCarson wrote:Thanks for the idea.
I did just that and it exactly matches my utilization percentage when I do not include the two closed accounts.
That being said, I'm still unclear on how to proceed.
Should I be working on the two closed account open balances now, or continue my path of working on the best Available Credit Utilization?
No where have I seen any information on Closed Account-Open Balances vs Open Account-Open Balances.
I well understand that no one can give me a definitive answer.
It's all a "Best Guess", so I'm just looking for opinions at this point.
Since the closed accounts don't apperar to be affecting your utilization I would work on the other accounts. If you don't mind would you list both the credit limits and the balances on those cards. That will give us a sense of overall and individual account utilization that you presently have.
Also how much will you have available each month to put towards debt reduction before August?
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".
@Anonymous-own-fico wrote:
My ignorance is hopeless in this area, but while the util could be helpful, doesn't such an account constitute delinquency?
I'm not sure what you're asking. The OP indicated that there have never been any lates and even if the account is closed as long as payments are made on time there won't be any delinquencies.
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".
MarineVietVet wrote"even if the account is closed as long as payments are made on time there won't be any delinquencies.
I see. I had no idea you could make payments on time after an account has been closed. ![]()
@Anonymous-own-fico wrote:
I see. I had no idea you could make payments on time after an account has been closed.
How would a closed account keep someone from making timely payments? The money is still owed. You pay it each month just like you did when it was active.
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".
@MarineVietVet wrote:How would a closed account keep someone from making timely payments? The money is still owed. You pay it each month just like you did when it was active.
This is what I had read earlier today: "You can close an account to additional purchases, but you can't truly close a credit card account until you pay off the balance." I take it you use the former definition of closed, whereas I thought you would have used the latter.
my-own-fico wrote:
This is what I had read earlier today: "You can close an account to additional purchases, but you can't truly close a credit card account until you pay off the balance." I take it you use the former definition of closed, whereas I thought you would have used the latter.
That's like discussing what the definition of "is" is. It doesn't matter what someone thinks the definition of "closed" is. The premise remains the same from your original question doesn't such an account constitute delinquency?
There is no delinquency involved whether the account is "closed" or "really closed" or "perhaps could be looked at as not fully closed".
Anyway we are jacking the thread from the OP and to TCarson I apologize. I will comment no more about whether accounts are really, truly "closed" or not. Time to get back to the original topic.
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".
It doesn't look like your scores need a whole lot of help.
Are you still accruing interest on the closed accounts?
If not, and since they don't seem to be factored into your utilization, pay off the open one first. If they are, do what makes most financial sense and figure out how much iinterest you're accruing on each tradeline, and pay off the highest (that will wind up being the fastest route to pay down all balances eventually if you recalculate that each month or thereabouts).
At a 740+ credit score you're going to be in tier 1 to tier 1.5 (usually same rate) for almost any loan secured against a vehicle anyway.

My CR says I have 66.85% of my Revolving Credit available for use.
Name--------Balance--Limit-----Interest
CitiBank----0--------15,000----22.99 **
Amex--------0---------2,000----16.99
USBank------2,747-----7,500-----9.99
Juniper-----4,592-----5,000-----3.99 (Balance Transfer)
Chase1------4,098-----5,000----21.99
Chase2------4,449----25,000----23.99 (Closed)
Chase3------5,081----11,000----22.99 (Closed)
Total------11,437----34,500 (Without Chase #2 & 3)
66.85% Available
33.15% Used
Total------20,967----70,500 (With Chase #2 & 3)
70.26% Available
29.74% Used
**I contacted CitiBank and asked that they lower my interest from 29.99%.
They lowered it to 22.99%
@MarineVietVet wrote:Since the closed accounts don't apperar to be affecting your utilization I would work on the other accounts. If you don't mind would you list both the credit limits and the balances on those cards. That will give us a sense of overall and individual account utilization that you presently have.
Also how much will you have available each month to put towards debt reduction before August?
I posted part of the answer above.
Sorry, I missed the part about how much I can put towards paying these off.
As of this month, I have about $1,700 extra per month to use.
In July I will pay off my car and have another $800.00.
I plan on taking one month off the repayment plan to go on vacation this May, so I will be done with this by December.
I'm using a now defunct computer program called RDRv3.2 to help me with this.
@TCarson wrote:Name--------Balance--Limit-----Interest
CitiBank----0--------15,000----22.99 **
Amex--------0---------2,000----16.99
USBank------2,747-----7,500-----9.99
Juniper-----4,592-----5,000-----3.99 (Balance Transfer)
Chase1------4,098-----5,000----21.99
Chase2------4,449----25,000----23.99 (Closed)
Chase3------5,081----11,000----22.99 (Closed)
As of this month, I have about $1,700 extra per month to use.
In July I will pay off my car and have another $800.00.
I plan on taking one month off the repayment plan to go on vacation this May, so I will be done with this by December.
Well this is what I would do. But remember that it's just one man's opinion and I'm certainly no scoring guru.
I would make minimum payments on US Bank, Chase #2 and Chase #3. I would then divide that $1,700 up into 2 parts- $1,500 a month to Chase #1 and $200 a month to Juniper. I know some will advise paying more on Chase #2 and #3 because of the high interest and that is a valid approach but since FICO scores both overall and individual account utilization IMO it's more important to lower the utilization of the other accounts first since their individual utilization is higher.
If you can use that $1,700 in this way for 3 months (March, April, and June, skipping May for vacation) the Chase #1 will be paid off or close to it sometime in June. Juniper will be around $4,000 after this time. Then beginning in July I would use that $1,700 plus the extra $800 and divide it once again into 2 parts- $2,000 to Juniper and $500 to US Bank. This would mean a payoff of Juniper by about August with the balance of US Bank about $1,700-$1,800. These are just guesses.
By that same August date if everything goes as planned you will have completely paid off Chase #1 and Juniper and reduced US Bank from $2,800 to around $1,800. That means a reduction in total debt of approximately $9,600. This is not counting the reduction of the other account balances by minimum payments. And if those figures are fairly accurate your overall utilization will go from slightly over 31% to about 17% or so. That's a pretty good drop in such a short amount of time.
After August you have 3 months until you say you are done in December. I would use that $1,800 for 3 months ($5,400 total) to pay down the balances on those high interest Chase #2 and #3 cards. And any extra dollars you can find during this entire time need to go to debt reduction. You must be disciplined or it won't work as fast or successfully.
Whew!! I think I did the numbers correctly but I offer no warranty on my work. ![]()
I'm sure you'll get other opinions and suggestions and I would not be surprised if some or all of them are better than mine. Take all of it in and then decide what you think will work best for you.