How will paying down my credit cards affect my credit score?

[bnewton]

So here are my credit score ....... Experian 708 | Equifax 648 | TransUnion 639 I have just paid off about $5000 of $15,000 of credit cards debt. The $5000 I just paid off covered 4 credit cards and the remainder that I owe is on a single card, so I only have single card with a balance (10,900). So how will paying off these 4 credit cards affect my credit score? About how long will it take for this cards to be reported as paid. I have been looking into buying a new car and I would like to be able to do better than 7.5% on the APR. Does anyone have any experience with Equifax Rate Finder and how accurate it is with it's loan rates. Any ideas or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Message Edited by bnewton on 04-13-2007 08:01 PM

Message Edited by bnewton on 04-13-2007 08:02 PM

[antredd67]

    When I paid down $8000 of my credit card debt in Feb of this year, my scores shot up 30-50 points after those accounts updated.  If you paid down all or off all of your balances on 3 out of 4 of  your credit cards, you should see a bump in your score.  But if that $10,400 balance on your other card is above 50% of your credit limit, your score will continue to be dragged down.  The rule of thumb is to pay down cards that have the highest balances, so that you can have a better UTI.  In other words if you have a $10,000 credit limit, and the balance is at $8,000 you are at 80% uti.  Getting that card down to $5000 is better, $3000 is even way better since your uti would only be at 30%.  The lower the balances on high credit limit cards, the better it is for you and the higher your score will be.

Message Edited by antredd67 on 04-14-2007 06:08 AM