Hi, Amie, welcome to the forums!
When it comes to paying off your loan, usually it wouldn't hurt, but if it's your only installment loan, you might lose more points for no longer having an open loan in your credit mix. Dumb, but there it is. Do you have an open mortgage, student loan, or any other installment loan? If so, I don't think you'll lose but a few points for paying off the loan, and financial good sense is important, too!
Your best bet will be to do as the others say and pay down your cards to under 10%. And for a maximum boost, pay the two smaller cards off completely, and let only the $2K card report. And Lordy, no, don't close them!
If your payment history is clean on your cards, you might consider asking your CCC's for CL increases once you pay down what you have. A lot of lenders are freaking out these days, so I would definitely have your util down before asking. And you want to be sure that they will do it without a hard inquiry on your reports, ouch.
Do you know about how to pay your cards down or off before they report balances to the credit bureaus? Just paying a couple of weeks early can bump your scores up nicely.
Don't know if you've done this yet, but please read Credit Scoring 101:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?bo
You'll have a much better understanding of how credit works, and why it would be an awful, awful idea to close your existing cards!
When it comes to paying off your loan, usually it wouldn't hurt, but if it's your only installment loan, you might lose more points for no longer having an open loan in your credit mix. Dumb, but there it is. Do you have an open mortgage, student loan, or any other installment loan? If so, I don't think you'll lose but a few points for paying off the loan, and financial good sense is important, too!
Your best bet will be to do as the others say and pay down your cards to under 10%. And for a maximum boost, pay the two smaller cards off completely, and let only the $2K card report. And Lordy, no, don't close them!
If your payment history is clean on your cards, you might consider asking your CCC's for CL increases once you pay down what you have. A lot of lenders are freaking out these days, so I would definitely have your util down before asking. And you want to be sure that they will do it without a hard inquiry on your reports, ouch.
Do you know about how to pay your cards down or off before they report balances to the credit bureaus? Just paying a couple of weeks early can bump your scores up nicely.
Don't know if you've done this yet, but please read Credit Scoring 101:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?bo
You'll have a much better understanding of how credit works, and why it would be an awful, awful idea to close your existing cards!
Timothy wrote:
Yep - Kuddos to HTSU
It helps she types 60-80 words per minute.
Gotagoal wrote:
Dear Hauling it up... you did such a nice job of explaining all of that info. Good job! It's people like you who helped people like me to realize this Fico world and it's not out of reach !!!! Thank you!
Wow, thank you both! Although the words-per-minute is significantly hampered when the 12-pound cat decides to lie on my left arm.
