Best way to pay off credit cards and increase credit score

Submitted by herbolaryo on Tue, 06/10/2008 - 02:57

1. Some say that it is will increase FICO score faster if you leave out a balance in your credit card payment :?:
2. Some say that if you pay in full immediately, FICO score won't be affected because you did not show a real history of credit history. :?:
3. Some say that you need to have a balance of 2-3 months before paying in full so that it will affect your credit score. :?:

Which one are true and which one are just myths?
Kindly give links to support the truth regarding credit cards

Your FICO score depends on 5 factors - credit history, amounts owed, length of the credit history, new credit and types of credit used. Of these credit history contributes the most in your FICO score and so you should take steps to build up a good credit history if you wish to improve your credit score. Credit history contributes 35% and the amounts owed contributes 30% in your score and so apart from your credit score, you should also make sure that you do not exhaust more than 30% of your credit limit.

Tue, 02/03/2009 - 10:10 Permalink

it would be best if you pay your balance in full as this will reflect in your credit report,.,remember that your score is dependent in your credit report and whatever is in your credit report will have an effect in your credit rating. if you are able to pay your debt on time it means to say that you are responsible enough in managing your debt. On the other hand, if you are not able to pay them in full, make sure that you keep your balances as low as possible. Remember that your debt to credit ratio is heavily considered in calculating your FICO score. :)

Mon, 02/16/2009 - 01:32 Permalink

I have heard that paying a number of credit cards off in full at once is actually viewed as a negative. As I spend more and more time on cleaning up my credit it seems that anything that strikes you as a "good" thing (i.e. paying off you debt in full) is somehow determined to be a bad thing (i.e. your score goes down). Because of this, and because my initial reaction was to pay it off all at once, I am sure that paying it off over a few months will be the correct answer.

Tue, 02/17/2009 - 20:20 Permalink

Paying off a debt never reduces your credit score. If you pay off your debt, the "amounts owed" factor which contributes about 30% on your score improves and your score increases. Moreover, when you pay off your outstanding debt within the due date, you credit history also improves and so credit score also improves.

Wed, 02/18/2009 - 12:39 Permalink

I don't know but I think you are right. Paying off credit cards increase credit score. If you repay your credit card debts in full, then it will help you to improve your credit score fast.

Sat, 03/07/2009 - 13:59 Permalink

I think that if you pay off the balance in full, you credit score will improve more that if you pay it off in monthly installments. This is because, when you pay it off in full, not only your credit history improves, but also the "amounts owed" factor that contributes 30% in your FICO score improves. But if you pay off the debt in monthly payments, only the credit history improves. So I think that you should pay off the debt in full in order to increase credit score.

Mon, 03/16/2009 - 09:03 Permalink

It is very difficult to tell you by how much your credit score will increase if you start paying off your credit card debts. It's quite true that paying off credit cards increase credit score but it is very difficult to assess the algorithm through which FICO calculates its scores. But if the account is delinquent or has been charged off and you pay off the debt, your credit score will not increase, unless you make the creditor agree to pay for deletion agreement.

Tue, 03/17/2009 - 03:43 Permalink
Paul (not verified)

I have followed my credit since establishing it a few years ago very closely and have read up alot about it as well. This is all my opinion and I feel it is very accurate against what some others have stated here.

1. Your credit card company reports 2 main things each month 1 - the balance on your most recent statement and 2 - if you paid your bill on time. With this in mind I don't believe leaving a balance on will help you anymore than paying it off in full. I have 3 credit cards which I only use for normaly everyday purchases. 1 for gas 1 for tolls and 1 for groceries and entertainment. This ensures I never build up a huge balance I cannot pay back. I then pay them in full once my statement is posted.

2. Since about 30% of your score is based on your credit to debt ratio one way to boost your score in one month for the purpose of maybe you want to apply for a loan and would like a better interest rate is to increase this rate the previous month or two. You can do this 2 ways 1 - make purchases on your card and instead of waiting for your statment if say it comes out on the 20th pay it off in full on the 15-18th this way your credit card company will start report a payment but will also report a zero balance or 2 - call or visit your bank or CC company to increase your credit limit. Both of these options are easy ways to improve your score almost over night for the purpose of applying for a new loan. I have used both options and done everything stated here and verified they work.

I always recommend paying off in full since then you won't have to worry about any APR being applied and you will still build your credit as fast as someone that lets a balance sit. The main thing to remember is you must put purchases on the card each and every month so you have a payment to be maid.

Mon, 03/23/2009 - 11:58 Permalink
Souks (not verified)

Any of those option will raise your score every month, but the question is which one will raise your score the fastest.

To do so, spend up to 30% of your credit limit and divide that number by 3( 3 months payment). Then pay 1/3 of the payment to bring it down to $0 on your limit. Your score will jump 20 to 30 points per month depending on your credit history. If your credit history is less than 3 years total of all cards you have than this method will not work best for you.

(This is how I go my fico score up to 608 to 801 in 6 months.)

If you have a situation that you have 30% or up to 50% credit limit( for over 6 months or more) and still have not paid it in full, I advise you to pay it off in full to increase credit score by 40pts to 80pts depending on your credit history.

Last thing is if you spend 10% and paid off exactly what you spend per month, your points will only boost up 5 to 16 points average. again depending on how long your average credit length(history) of all the cards you have. Let say You have a card that is 6 years old and a 2nd card that is 1 years old then your average is 3 years. Then you have a good credit history. To have an excellent credit history, you need 6 to 12 year average credit history.

(this is assuming you had no late payments or any bankruptcy against you)

Tue, 03/24/2009 - 21:04 Permalink

Very good post as these are question asked by many on a daily basis. Easy ways to increase credit score are pay your bills on time, dont exceed 30% of your entire credit limits, dont be late. Paying in full is great but a big piece of the score is credit history.

Thu, 04/09/2009 - 00:31 Permalink
john (not verified)

hi ,
about if the credit card Apr are higher and trying to work with to lower it ,and they're not willing to lower that what you want . Can you pay this
balance and close it since they're not nice to you ?

Wed, 04/22/2009 - 05:11 Permalink

Hi John
Yes, you can definitely pay off the credit card debt in full, but if you close your card after paying off the debt, the credit history that you have build on the card will be lost and so your credit score will come down. I think that, you should keep the card open after paying off the debt, if you have never been delinquent on the card.

Mon, 04/27/2009 - 10:30 Permalink

If you pay off your debt, the "amounts owed" factor which contributes 30% in your credit score improves and so your credit score rises. However, if you close down the account after paying off the debt, the "credit history" factor that contributes 35% in your credit score goes off from your report and so your score gets lowered. So I think that if you can afford to maintain the credit card, you should keep the card open. However, you can prefer not to use the card due to its high interest charges.

Mon, 04/27/2009 - 10:45 Permalink

hawk it is really an artistic phrase.But still i believe that one should keep paying one's credit card's bill on time for several months in order to increase the credit score.

I still believe their (FICO's system).

:wink: :wink:

Sun, 05/17/2009 - 03:56 Permalink

Hi Guys,

This is James Orr.

as far as i know, if we making credit card bill payment before due date it will be most important thing in our fico score improvement. So do not make late payment it will harm to your fico score as well as you must have to pay late payment Penalties. So avoid late payments.

There is one more option to improve credit score faster, Use secure credit card it will definitely help you to improve your score as well as its very secure to use by his name " Secure Credit Card".You must have to pay few annual fees for secure credit card but it will help you.

Thanks & Regards.
_______________________________________________________
Secure card will help you to improve credit score faster.

Sun, 07/05/2009 - 12:30 Permalink
Kermit (not verified)

Is it better to have a car loan or show that you have paid it off to improve your credit score?

Wed, 07/29/2009 - 00:10 Permalink
JOANNE (not verified)

ACTUALLY, WHAT I DID WAS PAID OFF ALL MY CREDIT CARDS IN FULL.... MY SCORE BUMPED UP TO 91 PTS. IN 2 MONTHS.

Mon, 08/10/2009 - 22:09 Permalink

I think we have to make full payments of our credit at onetime. It will help us to improve credit score because its effects on our credit report.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 10:26 Permalink
mikegw (not verified)

While my credit score is excellent, all three credit reporting agencies mark as a negative that all credit card balances are paid full and on time EVERY month. No balance is ever carried over. Credit cards are used fairly heavily for most routine living expenses. Why is this a negative when logic indicates it should be a positive?

Sat, 09/12/2009 - 16:06 Permalink

I think regular payment of debt will increase credit faster.And also credit card payment in regular interval will help for faster credit improvement.

Sun, 09/13/2009 - 09:57 Permalink

pay in full on most of yoru cards and only pay one card on the due date that can really help, that will show that you are really useing very less of what you have been allocated

Mon, 09/21/2009 - 05:38 Permalink
lea (not verified)

If you pay off your credit card your not supposed to close it
but keep it open to allow your score to rise. It should improve if you pay every month and dont be late as the credit card may not be the only bill that is raised your insurance is affected and possible mortgage payments possibly pay higher amounts.

Mon, 10/19/2009 - 21:06 Permalink

Winnable,

Thank you so much for posting that! Seriously, I am on this forum for a few reasons.

1. Trying to pay off debt and get finances/budget under control.
2. Build bf's credit score from bankruptcy.
3. Build up my credit score again.

Your post is really great in my opinion. I am going to show it to my bf so that we can make some decisions. I think it will really help build up his credit.

As far as the main question was concerned. I was wondering about it too. My research has found that:

1. Paying off debt in full is good, but you dont establish credit history & it can be "negative" because you have "$$ to spend" if something comes up or you just decide to go on a shopping spree or something.
2. Paying off credit card balances over time establishes credit history, but then creditors think you dont have the finances to pay your debts in full.

It's a lose-lose scenario. I suppose its just a personal choice.

Thu, 10/29/2009 - 22:53 Permalink

In order for your score to increase faster, you need to show that you are using your credit wisely, not abusing it. So your have to find a balance, not maxing it out and not using it at all. One of the factors that are used to calculate your score is your available credit to how much your using ratio. If you have $1000 worth of credit, and you are consistantly using $999, then you are not leaving any available. Having a $1000 credit and using $200 and paying on time is much better.

Sat, 11/14/2009 - 02:52 Permalink
RAZOR (not verified)

I apply for a construction loan and and my score 2 points short, I have credit card that I have a 900 dollar limit and it was at 735. I paid it down right away to a 208 dollars to put me under 30% will this raise my score. I do not have any other balances above 30%. ps I have had the card 4 years.

Wed, 11/18/2009 - 15:30 Permalink

I think it's always better to pay over several months, at the same time every month, to establish that you are a good risk. However I was wondering why if you pay a crediter off why is it a bad idea to cancel the card. I thought too much available credit was bad. Especially if your available credit was more than your available income.

Tue, 12/08/2009 - 20:38 Permalink

simpletruth, im wondering that too. i guess its because now you dont have that "available" credit anymore. maybe its considered a "bad risk"? I dont know. I closed one account because they were just a horrible company to hold a card with & it caused a snowball effect with other creditors. They started raising my interest rates, one lowered my credit limit, another closed my account through them.

It's really weird to me. Really confusing. I guess unless we dont work in that industry, we arent going to know.

Thu, 01/14/2010 - 21:07 Permalink
ryan_ (not verified)

I have never left a balance open on a credit card (I always pay in full at the end of the month), and in just over a year my credit score went from non-existent to 714. You do not have to leave a balance on your card to build credit, just don't put more than 40 - 50% of your limit on the card. This will hurt you. And yes, do not close an account either, this will hurt you worse.

Tue, 02/02/2010 - 01:11 Permalink

Hi Tony,

Paying the money over months builds up a long and good credit history. This can subsequently increase your score over time. Making monthly payments has more positive effect on your credit score, than making a single payment. However, if you have high balance on any of your cards, that can negatively affect your score. Thus, its better to bring down the high balance.

Thanks,

Aaron

Sat, 04/24/2010 - 10:20 Permalink
felix (not verified)

i have 3 credit cards with high balances ive had them for ten years or more by paying them down to 20% how much will that bring my score up and i just paid my last vehicle payment will that bring my score up

Wed, 08/17/2011 - 06:16 Permalink
Gene Reza (not verified)

If you pay down your credit card at 10 percent average credit score increase. How much credit score increase would be average for 6 months. The other question how many credit points will you get for a pay for delete.

Tue, 12/13/2011 - 08:43 Permalink
Gene Reza (not verified)

You think if I keep my credit car under 10 percent or zero and do 2 pay for delete I can get about 80 credit score points in six months.

Tue, 12/13/2011 - 08:45 Permalink

From personally looking at my own credit, credit scores do go up a few more points if you pay your cc off each month. I only have a $300.00 limit on my cc (and that was my choice) so, it's not difficult to pay mine off each month. If you can't pay it off each month, I would recommend making a 'regular' monthly payment (whatever that is) and making an additional payment (equal to your monthly payment) just to lower your % each month, on the cc.

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