Anyone had a significant increase in their FICO Score by just by paying off CC Debt???

[daisyduke]

Hello -

I just did the score stimulator as I have to gain about 100 points by the end of this year. so with that said i did two scenarios:

Pay off CC Balance in onemonth would raise my score 100-140 points, instantly. Is that true ? has anyone on this board actually have raised their score up 100 points just by paying off the balances? wow

Beause my payment history is terribly sporadic, I thought I should take six months to pay off my CC debt, but by doing so, according to the simulator, i would only gain b/t 40-80 points.

You should also know that after I pay off my CC's, I will only have one installment auto loan...and that is it

[Junejer]

One year ago, I brought my util from over 70% to 5% and went from 719 to 790. This is the only change that happened. So, yes, it is quite possible.

[daisyduke]

thanks Byrd Man, I will do this in June and report back in July and see what happens.      

I guess I was initally concerned b/c I have sporadic payment history on my CC's...and when i pay them off, i will only have a little lease left, which the balance is LOW now since I am close to the end of my lease...

[haulingthescoreup]

How does a lease affect CC's? (got confused there)

Many people are understandably confused by the sim's projections of paying off debt over 6 months or 12 months or something, and they think that they should drag it out.

In fact, what it's doing is combining the very low util resulting from paying down/ off debt with 6 or 12 months of responsible credit behavior after that.

If anyone has the money on hand to pay off your cards, do so ASAP for a quick boost, and then stay on top of things subsequently, and you'll see your scores continue to rise.

[Anonymous]

I have increased my FICO score by exactly 100 points by paying off my CC debt. I went from 653 to 753 in 5 months. I didn't have any other baddies on my CR.

[haulingthescoreup]

I should have mentioned above that if you can scrounge up the cash, paying down/ off your CC debt is the fastest way to improve your scores, and the method most controllable by the consumer.

What’s in your FICO® score

FICO Scores are calculated from a lot of different credit data in your credit report. This data can be grouped into five categories as outlined below. The percentages in the chart reflect how important each of the categories is in determining your FICO score.

These percentages are based on the importance of the five categories for the
general population. For particular groups - for example, people who have not
been using credit long - the importance of these categories may be somewhat
different.

What's in Your FICO Score

[Anonymous]

I had like a 35 point DROP when I went from 10% to 35%.

At 50% plus now (on TU) plus 8 or 9 with balances and still have a 709.  Hoping for a 50-70 point jump if I can pay down to 5% or so myself....

[llecs]

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daisyduke wrote:

I guess I was initally concerned b/c I have sporadic payment history on my CC's...and when i pay them off, i will only have a little lease left...

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Also, are these CCs opened or closed?

[Anonymous]

I went from a score of 644 to 701 after paying off 4 of my Credit cards (Amount totalled $5K)

[daisyduke]

HI, Thanks for your response. I only mentioned the lease because that will be all I have left - is one teeny installment loan that will be over Nov 18th (last payment)....so i won't have any other things open, they will be paid off...