Paying Off Credit Card Debt

[Anonymous]

I have paid off my credit card debt yet my score has not gone up.  Please explain why.  I assumed it would.  Thank you.

[Thomas_Thumb]

It is all about aggregate utilization % and number of credit cards reporting a non zero balance on monthly statements.

If you were carrying a low aggregate utilization % (Total posted statement balance all cards/ total crtedit line all cards) of under 9%, then you were already in prime territory from a scoring perspective. If you allow 30% to report one one card but all other cards report 0% and your aggregate UT% remains under 9%, no worries - key is aggregate UT%.

Note: Paying every CC in full each month should be a standard practice from a financial perspective. However... the Fico models (unfortunately) only look at $$$ that get posted on your statements relative to CL - they are unable to distinguish between posted amounts that are then PIF or carried over with an interest penalty month to month.

[Anonymous]

What TT just said.

But you can help us a little bit more if you tell us what your total credit limit was (all the CLs from all your cards added together) vs. your total amount owed -- before you paid it all off.  Then you mention that you paid it all off -- I am guessing that means you paid all your cards down to zero.  Did you start using one or more of the cards after that?  Finally when was it that you paid it all off?