Which of these pay off methods will increase my credit score the most?

[Desmoire]

Over the holidays I brought my total UTL to 34% across 5 of my cards. I am getting paid a very large check tomorrow, which of these would increase my score the most? Pay off all my cards but one, leaving the one at a balance of $800 (8% total UTL, 42% card UTL) or spread out the balances across all 5 cards, still being 8% total UTL, but less than 8% UTL for each individual card?

[gdale6]

This is the best way: Pay off all my cards but one, leaving the one at a balance of $800 (8% total UTL, 42% card UTL)

[Desmoire]

So are you saying my credit score won't get dinged much if one card is at 46%? But my credit score gets dinged more for multiple cards having low balances?

[user5387]

There are two scenarios here, both of which hurt utilization: (1) one card reporting a relatively high utilization (42%), (2) more than one card reporting a balance.

I'd probably go with (1), for simplicity.

Maybe you can get a CLI after you pay down the balances.

[gdale6]

Yes, FICO also scores on the number of cards that have balances, the ding for the higher util on 1 card will be less than the ding for number of cards with balances. The good thing about util is is has no memory.