@Anonymous wrote:Hello forum
I have $1924 in 3 credit cards debt. Approximately 770, 800 and 319.I plan on using it to pay down the majority of it. I know it's a good idea it pay off How can I increase my credit scores by a big margin? I'm using my $1,400 stimulus check that's coming soon. Also will it be good to get a secured credit card right now as well?
If you already have three credit cards, unless they are "store cards" and the like, there probably won't be much benefit by opting to open a new secured card. That said, you didn't give us much to go on as a basis for making a recommendation. What are your current scores, any deragotory marks on your history, do you have a car loan and/or a mortgage? How about student loans?
Its exciting to get these debts taken care of isn't it? I'm sure your plan is to pay the smallest balance off completely then figure out how much to apply on the other 2.
If the goal is to raise your scores as much as possible, you need to consider what percentage utilization you are at on each of the cards right now. Then calculate how much you would have to put on each card to get it below 30% utilization. Without knowing the credit limit on each of your cards its hard to tell you what dollar amount will benefit the most.
I remember when I paid off a card I'd been ignoring for a long time. I was at about 90% utilization on an $1800 card, making just the minimum monthly payments. When I paid that thing off my credit score literally jumped.
