Pay Down or Pay Off Credit Cards

[Anonymous]

Hi.  I'm a newbie here so please forgive me if this topic has been discussed multiple times!  Is it better to (a) pay OFF your balance on ALL your cards, or (b) pay OFF all the balance on SOME cards, or (c) pay DOWN the balance to 30% of the credit line for all cards?  I need to raise my score this year and it will take me a while to pay everything off.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Thx.

[Creditaddict]

pay off if your going to pay interest

[DI]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi.  I'm a newbie here so please forgive me if this topic has been discussed multiple times!  Is it better to (a) pay OFF your balance on ALL your cards, or (b) pay OFF all the balance on SOME cards, or (c) pay DOWN the balance to 30% of the credit line for all cards?  I need to raise my score this year and it will take me a while to pay everything off.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Thx.

---

Welcome to the forums... It's always best to pay off the balances and become a PIF'er(Pay in Full Monthly).  

[haulingthescoreup]

For the combination of best scoring and best personal financial management, pay them all off before their statement dates except one. In this way, your balances will report as $0. Let that one exception report a $10 - $20 balance. Then pay it off before it's due. (It's easy to accidentally pay late if you don't stay on your toes!)

If that's too much of a hassle, pay them all off before their statement dates. But for most people, their scores are higher if one card reports a balance.