Where a few hundred dollars should go this month

Name the number before the list

Most advice starts with a perfect file and works backward. That is useless in the week the car payment, the phone, and the groceries are already spoken for. Start with what is left after the bills that keep the lights on, and after the car payment itself.

If that number is about $300, the plan is small on purpose. If it is $800 or $1,500, you can do more. You cannot do the $1,500 plan on $300 without creating a new late payment.

The order does not change

The car payment is already the first job. It is the account that was supposed to help, and a thirty-day late turns it into the account that hurts.

Extra money goes to the credit card closest to its limit, not the one with the story you like least. Per-card utilization is scored. Under 30 percent of each limit is the usual target. Under that is better. Leave old cards open after you pay them down.

Three sizes of month

Around $300 left: protect the hottest card. A collection waits.

Around $800: a real payment on that card, and one collection only if a settlement in writing fits what remains.

Around $1,500: the same order, with room for a second card. Still not a fantasy list of every item on the report.

What this is not

It is not a promise that the score moves by a certain number of points this statement. Utilization can move in a cycle or two, once the issuer reports. Payment history moves slowly, and only if nothing new goes late.

If you want the short version for your own number, the Ask page will put the same order against a question. It still will not see your private file until you are enrolled.