Should I pay off all credit cards to improve scores or pay down all to below 9%

[Anonymous]

I have a credit card with PNC balance is $4500 credit line is $5000, MFCU CC balance is $4000 credit line is $5000, Captial One card at $ 2200 credit line is $3000, American Express balance is $ 1200 credit line is $2000. I have a Lowes card and a couple other credit cards all have a zero balance. I am considering paying off all of these cards to boost my score and remove the amount of debt showing. I am just not sure if it is better to pay down all cards to less than 30% first to get a boost and then pay down again the following month or if paying all of them off at once would give me the better score. It is hard to tell using the similator. It shows like a 105 boost average on each report if I pay the full balance off. But if I pay down to around 70% it shows with just one card a boost of about 65 points. These would report on different dates because of the due date and statement dates so the pay off of all cards would not report at the same time. For example one reports on the 8th one on the 12th one on the 18th and one on the 25th.

I have a mortgage at $280,000. Auto loans with $11,0000 balance and $4000 balance. I am also considering paying off the $ 4000 car loan. I have $25,000 (not loan funds but my end of year bonus from work) I can use to pay these down. I have no late payments. My score has dropped due to the mortgage being only a little over a  year old and a couple of credit cards are newer which we used for some major medical expenses this year which it shows

My current Experian is 659

My current Transunion is 673

My current Equifax is 657

It shows payment history as exceptional, Amount of debt as fair, length of history fair, and amount of new credit as very good, credit mix very good. Until just a few years ago I paid cash for everything not realizing it did not help me build credit. I have sense learned a lot on this site. But I want advise on the best way to benefit from paying down these cards. I want to get my scores back in the upper 700's and hopefully hit my 800 goal.

Thanks!

[longtimelurker]

Are the balances on 0% APR or are you paying interest?   If you paying interest, pay them all down as quickly as you can (money out > score IMO)   And, in any case, paying them all as low as possible will generate a better score, no need for a two phase approach.  Utilization doesn't have a memory, so you won't gain more by doing it in two steps.   

[Anonymous]

As mentioned above, if you are not on 0% APR, I would pay them all ASAP.

[Anonymous]

I really think what's keeping your scores down is your utilization. Pay down to below 30% will definitely improve your scores.

Your payment history is exceptional just means you pay your bill every month and never late. That right there makes up 35% of your scores.

[AverageJoesCredit]

If i could lower my cards to below 30% or just pay them off id take #2 in a heartbeat. Cc debt free would be more important to me than trying to max my score especially if i already had a house and cars. My opinion of course

[Anonymous]

Some are 0 % and some have just getting ready to hit the interest charges. That is another reason why I wanted to pay the balances off before I start getting charged interest. So I should just pay them all off before the statement post. Should I leave a balance of less than 9 % on one? I think I read that somewhere else in a similar post. I wasn't sure which would be the best approach. I wanted to get the most improvement possible. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

If you have the funds to do so, pay them all off before the statements cut.

[DeeBee78]

For maximim scoring, pay all of them to 0%, and one of them (preferably one of the 0% APR ones) to 1-10% utilization. 

[Themanwhocan]

Its best from a FICO 08 score perspective to let a few dollars report on only one card, then pay that card off after it reports. Some cards will forgive a trivial amount such as a dollar or less, so it is best to leave a few dollars just to make sure.

Now, technically the lower that one cards balance is, the better. But its one of those diminishing returns deals, so basically its important to have that one card below 10%, and yes less is even better, but 5% reporting on one card versis 1% reporting just isn't going to matter all that much. if you have some huge loan you plan to take out, then sure go for as close to absolute best utilization as possible, otherwise I wouldn't sweat over exactly how much reports on that one card.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone! I will pay them all off tonight. I will update when my statement balances post so everyone knows how much they jumped. Hoping the 105 jump the simulator shows is close to correct.

Thanks again!