BS2 minor deviation

[mek42]

Second credits card is paid off!

This leaves cards 3, 4 and 5 (in order of balance size) as the next lowest balances (and, once all gone, we are all paid off with store credit cards). Their interest rates are similar and their balances are within about 25% of each other, each around $1k. Card 3 is less than half the credit limit, card 4 is very close to the credit limit and card 5 is 2/3 - 3/4 to the limit. Our plan is to snowball them in order 4, 5 then 3. They are all in my wife's name (don't worry, I have plently of BS2 debt later in the plan, not to mention the whopper of a student loan which is, in my opinion, beyond the scope of BS2).

This is because we are planning to move to a different house soon and we want to improve my wife's FICO so that she can qualify for the new mortgage on her own (I'll be unemployed and my student loan debt doesn't do any favors even while I am unemployed - having me is a net plus to the credit equation, but it's on the order of two parents with kids working and the cost of daycare impact on family income). The mortgage officer at our credit union mentioned that balances less than half the limit are helpful for FICO, thus the order we have decided to next snowball.

We considered snowballing to half balance then moving to next, but this seems like a pain, and as much as DR promotes delayed gratification, I don't think he'd have a problem of giving into immediate gratification desires when it comes to paying off store credit cards.

Does this sound like a reasonable plan?

[Greebo]

It wont affect repayment much, but I am doubtful that it will affect your FICO much either, because IIRC they look at TOTAL utilization, so if your total debt is 5k and your total limit is 10k then you're at 50% utilization, even if one of them is 0/2000 and another is 3000/3000 and the third is 2000/5000.

[mek42]

It wont affect repayment much, but I am doubtful that it will affect your FICO much either, because IIRC they look at TOTAL utilization, so if your total debt is 5k and your total limit is 10k then you're at 50% utilization, even if one of them is 0/2000 and another is 3000/3000 and the third is 2000/5000.

That is what I thought was most important. Maybe there is a small impact for individual accounts being under 50% too.

Anyhow, coincidentally, #4 store card is also the most hated one, so we're going forward with dropping the axe on that one next. Perversely, there was an ad for the store in question for #4 in my viewing of this thread while replying.