I have had a similar situation to where I had balances on both credit cards & an auto loan. You're revolving accounts, being your credit cards, have more impact on the FICO score than your installment loan does. So before I elaborate any further there are two things that you need to be aware of on installment loans (auto). There are different risk codes which include amount owed on account is too high, current balance to original amount is too high. Those two will go away when you pay down 35% of the original balance to which you need to take into account the accumulating interest. Then if you pay off your auto loan the risk code will come back as lack of recent installment loan information. So I wanted to give you the haeds up on that. And on your credit cards the credit risk codes will come back as the following, amounts owed on revolving accounts is too high, ratio of balance to limit on revolving accounts is too high, too many accounts with balances, & amounts owed on accounts is too high. I have a list of the codes to which i looked them up for you. Other than what I state here allow your accounts to age.
How many inquiries are on your credit report that you have applied for in the last 12 months????? How many accounts have you opened within the last year???
From experience here is the bottom line plan that will help you meet your goal. And of course you did not state if you have any adverse (negative) accounts.
1. Pay off two of the three credit cards. That way you do not get your score dinged for having balances on multiple revolving accounts.
2. On the third credit card leave a balance of around $ 10. This will also allow you to barely have to make an interest payment as well as bring your score up.
3. Take the remaining amount that you have & pay down your auto loan. If you can pay the balance to at least 35% of the original loan that will help the score. if the original amount was $ 20,000 then you need to have the amount down to $ 13k. Better yet if you can bring down the balance to 50% of the original loan or to a new balance of $ 10k.
4. If you have had any inquiries to where you had applied for credit within the last 12 months, then keep track of the dates. For example Chase Bank pulled an inquiry on 08/04/2015 then pull a new report on 08/06/2016. It is always exactly one year from when you applied for credit or utilities. Even though inquiries stay on your credit reports for 24 months they only impact the Fico score for 12 months.
5. Allow your accounts to age. As each trade line(account) ages the score will go up. But you will need to be patient. Does not happen overnight.
6. ONLY APPLIES TO ADVERSE (NEGATIVE) ACCOUNTS. If you have any of these then be patient. As they age & get older tehy will have less of an impact on the Fico score.
7. Do not apply for new credit or allow any other such as a utility company to pull a credit report.
