Util %

[GoodCredBen]

SO - we went a little overboard at christmas and used the CC rather then the bank card (since it seems to somehow keep getting stolen lol) and i was wonderiring....

We are sitting at about a balance of 850/1550 balances..... should we pay this down over the next three months, or one lump sum? we certainly have the means to pay this... was just wondering what the best action would be to pay this. 

[pizzadude]

Just pay it off now. There is no benefit to carrying this CC balance that I can see. Obviously if you let it ride for several months you will pay interest charges.

[GoodCredBen]

Right but the score simulator thinger from my fico says that i would get an average of 20 points more if i pay it DOWN over the next 3 months rather then just PIF.... 

[llecs]

I'm not a big fan of the FICO simulator. Assuming it is correct, that gain would likely include 3 months worth of aging on all of your other accounts. Maybe there's an acct that hits a birthday or maybe the new account damage is wearing off somewhere. Who knows. But ditto, utilization alone is a snapshot in time. It doesn't matter if you PIF tomorrow or 10 years from now, the impact is equal because the end result is the same (0% util or whatever your goal may be).

[Anonymous]

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@pizzadude wrote:
Just pay it off now. There is no benefit to carrying this CC balance that I can see. Obviously if you let it ride for several months you will pay interest charges.

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+1

You have nothing to gain by paying over time, you do however have something to lose.........money.

[MarineVietVet]

Always pay off any debt as fast as you can as long as you don't use up any savings. Being debt free supercedes score considerations in my humble opinion.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[LS2982]

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@BadCredBen wrote:

SO - we went a little overboard at christmas and used the CC rather then the bank card (since it seems to somehow keep getting stolen lol) and i was wonderiring....

We are sitting at about a balance of 850/1550 balances..... should we pay this down over the next three months, or one lump sum? we certainly have the means to pay this... was just wondering what the best action would be to pay this. 

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How many card do you have?? ANd how many are reporting balances? If this is your only card I would pay it off but leave 1-9% of balance to report .

[RobertEG]

I dont believe that the FICO simulator is ever going to provide a score change that pegs one immediate action to one immediate resulting score.  It believe that it always takes into account assumptions across the board on all items, and usually over a period of months, if for no other reason than to prevent reverse engineering of how one item is scored.

I would not put faith in any number from the simulator that is intended to show immediate impact of one item. 

If you dont need to actually use your FICO score in the next three months, it is kinda academic, as the same point is reached either way.