I have 11 credit cards with 5 of them having utilization over 50%. When strategizing my payoff for maximum score gain, would it be better to work on them one at a time to zero balance and then move to the next card, or work on them to get below 50% one at a time, then 30%, then finally paid off? Thanks!
Starting Score: EQ667/TU681/EX654
@ozzman469 wrote:I have 11 credit cards with 5 of them having utilization over 50%. When strategizing my payoff for maximum score gain, would it be better to work on them one at a time to zero balance and then move to the next card, or work on them to get below 50% one at a time, then 30%, then finally paid off? Thanks!
1. First get each of the over 50% cards down to 48%.
2. Then get each down to 28%.
3. When all your cards are at 28% or less, start zeroing them out.
What @SouthJamaica said is probably the best way to increase your score quickly while paying off. But you don't mention if you have a small balance on the other 6 cards? Are they all at a zero balance? Because one other score factor is the number of cards which report a balance. It's best to have less than half of your cards reporting a balance - so if some or all of those cards have small balances, I would also pay them off ASAP to help boost your score. If they're already all at 0% then you're using less than half your accounts and you're good either way.
