best plan of action

[Anonymous]

I've been reading many posts here and hope I can get some advice from all you FICO pros out there. Here's my situation. I just pulled my EQ credit score and i have a 621. I currently have a balance of about $7000 on my revolving accounts. I will have about $5500 next week to pay towards my credit card accounts. So I did the score simulator to see how my credit score would change. When I applied $5000 towards my balance in the next 1 month, my score jumped to a high range of about 680. But when I simulated paying down my balance $1000 for the next 6 months, i got a higher range upward to about 711. So my question is this - since i will have the money available to pay off my bills, should I just go ahead and pay down my balance ASAP, or should I pay about $1000 each month towards my balance (which will in turn cost me more in accrued interest) but will likely boost my credit score? I'd appreciate any advice! Thanks!!!!

Message Edited by fixmycredit on 08-26-2007 11:50 AM

[Zerohot]

The simulation takes the aging of your credit report over 6-months into account. I personally hate CC debt and would pay it off immediately esp. if I am paying double digit interest on it. HOWEVER, if you do not have money tuck away for a rainy day (Emergency Fund), I would not just blow the 5500 because who knows what could happen next month. I would pay as much as I could to get my credit util down to at least 30-50% (it seems less than 10% is the ideal range though); and would save the rest. Then I would pay down as much as I could monthly based on new income. That's just my thought on it.

Message Edited by Zerohot on 08-26-2007 12:58 PM