Long story short, the back-half of 2021 was disappointing financially and I also had some significant obligations which I already agreed to be present for (brother's and best friend's post-COVID fucking destination weddings).
My credit cards got rang up high, and I ended up getting a personal loan yesterday to try and settle all of 2021 into one easy payment moving forward, lol.
I have 3 cards, one for 7 years with a modest credit amount, one through Amazon I've had for 5 years with a modest amount, and 1 high limit card I've only had for about a year.

Because of credit card balances creeping up, my credit score has gone down for sure. But it's only due to credit utilization ratio, I've never missed a payment.
Trying to find concrete information regarding what to expect here in terms of the changes being reflected in my credit score is near impossible.
But in roughly 6 months I was planning to get a new(er) car.

Not really sure what to expect asking this on JSP, but if anyone knows something , please reach out.


My quick set of questions I have, and relevant stories are more than welcome.

1) How long should I wait before applying for any new credit (Car loan, etc.)
2) Since I've never missed a payment should I expect changes to my credit score to be fast?
3) Since I just applied for a new loan, should I expect the changes to happen after a certain period?
4) Would you consider it more prudent to payoff one and bring the remaining cards to 15% and 30%, or completely payoff two and leave the high limit card with 35-40% balance and make increased payments until it's finished?
I can't find much on whether it's best to bring total utilization to under 30% or each individual card to under 30%.

Thanks for reading and whatever insight you might have

Few years ago I did that with a personal loan , completely paid off the cards with it in exchange for 1 payment lower interest rate.
And 1-2 months later my credit score went up 100 points

that’s my experience lol. Better than making minimum payments for sure, but now you should stop using credit cards unless you can pay it off each month

Take the consolidation loan and instead of paying off cards yolo it all on dog coins.. financial situation solved

This

lol

Just don't pay your bills lol

Okay, good to know. That's what I'm expecting but I don't want to get too hopeful.

The reason I'm not paying the entirety of it off with the loan is

1) I've got one more round of stupid obligatory (arguably recreational) expenses, which I'd rather just pay for outright using a mix of the loan money + cash in the bank
If I didn't do it that way I'd inevitably be trying to put the expenses right back on card

2) I've got a balloon payment coming in from a contract any day now... That payment will take care of rent + another hefty chunk of my credit remaining in the above two scenarios.

From that point forward I should be able to manage my monthly expenses/spending I do on credit.

Added:
Unfortunately I'm not really able to live my life without ANY credit card usage. My job/business require frequent rentals of vehicles, plane tickets, etc.
All of which I'd rather put on my high limit card, which offers great travel/rental protections and benefits.
So it's just about getting rid of the balance which I've not been able to pay off the past year due to random bullshit.

This post was edited by Keasbey_Nights on Jan 23 2022 12:48pm

Ppl tend to say a personal loan is bad but thats only because they assume people will just max out their credit cards again.

With the loan You should see a bump in credit score due to less credit card utilization and your monthly payments will be less if the interest is even slightly lower. I remember saving a couple 100$ a month because of 6% less interest. Plus you’ll pay off the balance in 1-5 years rather than making minimum payments which can take 20+ years to payoff.
Another option is open a free balance transfer card that gives you 0% interest for 1-2 years. (Chase Slate card is one)

Credit cards are great for the rewards and protection etc so once you can get to the point of paying them off, continue to use them and for emergencies, just try and set up autopay to completely pay it off each month:) since the high interest can make you lose thousands of $ per year

what is saying is 100% legit. if you actually plan on settling your debts with a personal loan it's an excellent mechanism. you must commit to it though no fooling around. cook cheap but healthy foods, don't go out much save it for a fun time not just 'oh its friday'. limit your drinking/smoking/whatever (i have no issue with this we all need our stress relief), definitely stay single during this time (if you're not in a relationship now) and just hunker down for 8-16 months. this is a time to work on yourself. learn or improve a skillset for free online, something you're really passionate about and it can fill the boring voids. it can be done but it is a period of your life that you will be grinding for sure.

This post was edited by excellence on Jan 23 2022 11:54pm

I plan to pay off the balance of the loan and remaining cards relatively fast. Now that my opportunities and obligations for excess spending are limited ( COVID restrictions, plus finally at the end of the post-quarantine weddings) , I should have plenty of extra to throw on top of the loan payments.
Glad to see that I should see a bump in credit score. It's not like I fell into a BAD score, but I went from high 700's to mid 600's , and that definitely is a large enough swing to impact things.
Again - all due to over-utilization and not from delinquent payments.



Have been developing a side-hustle over the past couple months, as money got tight. The thing is I'm self-employed and pretty well established at it. But the past couple months have been incredibly trying and prevented me from making headway where I needed it to.
Business has since cleared up and I've got a good income stream re-established now.


Appreciate the responses. Sorry for the delay, been working my ass off lately lmao.