Trying to buy a house...Payoff 5k in credit cards to improve credit for a higher loan amount?

[Anonymous]

Hi Currently I am debating what I should do.  I am attempting to purchase my frist home and I have some extra money that I want to pay down my credit cards with.  Should I pay everything off now and be done with it to hopefully improve my debt to income ratio to be approved for a higher loan?  Thank you in advance.

[Anonymous]

Where are you on the home buying process? Have youu been pre-approved? Do you know your front and backvend ratios? Do you bave down payment and closing costs saved?

[Anonymous]

Score is important but more importantly debt to income ratios determine how much you can qualify for. Have you pulled your mortgage credit scores?

[Anonymous]

Other folks on the thread are giving you feedback on the various things you may want to save money for connected with the home purchase.

I will respond to your question as though you have plenty pf money saved for the other stuff and all you want to know is the best paydown strategy for score improvement. 

ANSWER:

Pay all cards except one to zero.  With the remaining card, allow it to report a small positive balance, like $10 say.  It will take a while for all the card balances to report to the credit bureaus.  When the new balances have appeared in the credit bureau databases, you can pull your mortgage scores here and see what they are.