Understanding FICO® Scoring

[mrsbatch]

Greetings

I am trying to figure out how CC companies report to FICO, and/or what is best way to make CC payments

to increase my score...  example/question:   if I owe   1000 in total to four CC companies

and some I owe more than others,  it is best to pay some to all,  or pay the most to the card I owe the most to???

Thank You for your valuable advice

[pizzadude]

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mrsbatch wrote:

Greetings

I am trying to figure out how CC companies report to FICO, and/or what is best way to make CC payments

to increase my score...  example/question:   if I owe   1000 in total to four CC companies

and some I owe more than others,  it is best to pay some to all,  or pay the most to the card I owe the most to???

Thank You for your valuable advice

---

Assuming that you can pay most of this debt, the best way to end up would be to have only one card reporting a balance, less than 9% utilization, and the other cards reporting 0 balances.

If you can't pay a lot now, you'll need to list the cards/balances/CLs/Interest rates so that we can make a better decision.

[mrsbatch]

thanks so much

right now they are as follows

1. 1400

1. 1200

1. 300

1.  250

all of them right now i have made min payments,  i  have $700  right now to send them, just not sure how to split it up

thanks again!!!

[pizzadude]

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mrsbatch wrote:

thanks so much

right now they are as follows

1. 1400

1. 1200

1. 300

1.  250

all of them right now i have made min payments,  i  have $700  right now to send them, just not sure how to split it up

thanks again!!!

---

Are these the credit limits ?   Please also list the balances for each card and the approximate interest rates.

[mrsbatch]

No, none of the cards are maxed out...all have credit available

they all are around 25%

[pizzadude]

Without knowing the balances it's hard to know ~ FICO scores both overall and individual revolving card utilization.

So I would just advise that you pay off the smallest two cards, that way half of your cards will be showing zero balances.

[mrsbatch]

i did send the balances?

[mrsbatch]

right now they are as follows

1. 1400

1. 1200

1. 300

1.  250

all of them right now i have made min payments,  i  have $700  right now to send them, just not sure how to split it up

[mrsbatch]

Thanks so much  I will pay off the smallest ones like you said

have a good day

[kjm79]

Pizzadude was asking to see what the balances and limits were for each card.  FICO looks at overall util (total of all balances/total of all credit limits) and individual card util (balance/limit).  For the best advice to be given it helps to know the balance AND limit. 

For example, the advice might be different if the 1400 you listed is the balance on a 1500 limit card, and the 250 balance was on a 1000 limit card, it would be better to pay the 250 off and throw 450 at the 1400 card.  Or maybe throw the whole 700 at the card that's close to being maxed out.  Take that kind of info into consideration when determing what balances to pay.