better to distribute credit card balances or consolidate?

catwoman asked:


I am trying to pay down my credit card debt and I now have about 5 paid off. The ones that I am still paying on have anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of credit utilized. Would it help my credit score to distribute the debt to some of the paid off cards or does the credit score base off of total available credit off all cards.

Eva

Tags: Cards Credit, Credit Card Balances, Credit Card Debt

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2009 at 5:21 pm and is filed under Debt Consolidation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “better to distribute credit card balances or consolidate?”

1. -j. Says:
   July 5th, 2009 at 10:35 am

   Kathryn

   Find the card with the lowest interest rate, and consolidate on that card. Or, if you can, take out a line of credit from your bank, which almost invariably has lower interest rates than credit card companies will offer, and pay off all your cards simultaneously.

2. new_wave_ca Says:
   July 7th, 2009 at 3:48 am

   Matthew

   the previous poster’s idea is the right one. the one thing I would add is to not use a debt consolidating service (unless your desperate). Most mortgage companies wont even look at you if you have. Of course if you dont want to own your own place…..

3. dwk1963 Says:
   July 7th, 2009 at 5:14 am

   Beatrice

   Keep on paying down your debt your credit score is based on total credit available verses amount owed so it does not mater what card the credit is on. just keep on paying it down and it will pay off.
   I had a net worth of -$15,000 3 years ago now i have a net worth of +$44,000. Just keep up the hard work it will be worth it.
   Kudos to you for doing your best.

4. vudini Says:
   July 8th, 2009 at 11:37 am

   Aaron

   The more cards you have, the more chance to miss your payments. Keep a low number of cards (maybe one of each type, MC, Visa, Disc, AE). Pay off the ones with high interest right away. Consolidate by moving debts from high interest to low interest cards.

   I keep only 2: one MC (with unlimited mileage) and AmEx (for Costco).