Dimples' Divine Domain
My journey to financial empowerment.

Finally. CC Debt Zero Day is sooo close I can smell, feel, and taste it!! I'll get straight to the point. I have saved a total of $6734 to date since I started my new job in late July. I plan on using $6K of that to pay off some debt. I sat down today and did some analysis on my current credit card debt situation and looked for the best way to go about paying them off. I looked at each card's balance, limit, APR, minimum monthly payment, and last month's finance charge. I ran different pay off scenarios focusing on different key points. For example, in one scenario I focused on paying off my credit cards by balances starting with the highest balance first while in another I looked at paying off the cards by APR. Here is what my credit card debt situation looks like: CARD BALANCE LIMIT APR MINIMUMS 1 $7165 $8500 19.99% $200 2 $3976 $6500 16.99% $93 3 $865 $1100 9.99% $25 4 $735 $1500 14.99% $20 5 $172 $1200 9.99% $10 6 $95 $1150 24.99% $20 Based on the my an...

I got my semi-annual bonus. It was $3K which makes $7500 this year. After taxes I got $2020. I still have $400 of my Christmas bonus and the $300 that is available since I skipped my loan payment with my bank. That makes a total of $2700 available to do as I please. And after much consideration I decided to go ahead and put ALL towards my credit card debt and not spend it on a trip to Hawaii like I originally planned. JUST KIDDING!!!! I only considered the trip for like a second..........OK maybe like a full minute but ya girl ain't crazy. tee hee . *ahem* Anyways. Here are the cards that will be paid off: CREDIT CARD BALANCE Old Navy $126.70 Avenue $127.19 Providian $173.24 Tire Kingdom $669.90 Capital One $727.23 Target $953.55 I updated my CC Debt Payoff chart with my new balance. Check it o...

I have been doing a lot of research these past few days, trying to find information on the "right" way to close credit cards. And I have concluded that there isn't one right way. It all depends on your situation. My research did uncover certain elements of your credit report that you will need to take into account when deciding how to close your credit card accounts. Credit History : Definition : Measurement of how long you have had credit, starting with your first credit card or installment account (15% of credit score). Dimples' Research Says: Closing one or more credit card does not disturb your credit history. Accounts will stay on your credit card for a 10 years after they are closed and during that time you will still retain that card's credit history. Revolving Utilization (AKA balance to credit limit ratio): Definition : Amount of your revolving credit limit that you are currently using (30% of credit score). Dimples' Research Says : This is ...

Mean Credit Score on 2/2/07 (average of all three credit scores): 595 Mean Credit Score as of 3/21/07 (average of all three credit scores): 644 Yeah man. 49 points in a month and a half! A sista is happy. :-D

Another no-no that I forgot to mention on the last post is about closing you credit cards after you have paid them off. Do not close any of your cards right after you have paid them off. I left all my cards open. Some people close their credit cards as soon as they pay them off. This actually hurts you. One of the five factors that credit reporting agencies take into account when figuring out your credit score is the proportion of balances to credit limits on your revolving/charge accounts. Meaning they evaluate your total balances in relation to your total available credit on revolving/charge accounts, as well as on individual revolving/charge accounts. For a given amount of revolving credit available, a greater amount owed indicates a greater risk, and lowers the score. The five factors that determine your credit score are the following: Payment history – 35% Amounts owed – 30% Length of credit history – 15% New credit – 10% Types of credit used – 10% I have a total of 11 cre...