Hi there OP,
I have removed the dup from General Credit as its cross posting and its not allowed as it can lead to confusion of the members. I am also going to move this to the UFS board.
The primary benefit of paying the small ones off first (snowball method) is the psychological benefit to see progress which, in turn, can help keep people focused onm their goal.
Paying off the high interest ones first is typically the best decision to make from a financial perspective because it minimizes the interest you will continue to pay. And, credit-card interest is often expensive
All of the above said, from a "maximize scoring" perspective, paying your balances down below 48.9% --> 28.9%-->8.9% then AZEO is the ideal path.
@myscorerocks wrote:I just posted in another area, but perhaps I should have posted here. I need to get a line/loan to payoff some debt, but need to get my score up. I'm at 680 right now. My cards have varying balances, but high interest. Best to pay off smaller cards or bring down balances to 50% across the board. What will look better and increase my likelihood of approval? I'm tempted to pay off the smaller ones to remove those payments. Thanks for any advice, especially if you've done this before!
Some of the algorithms will reward you more for chipping away at some of the bigger balances, while others will reward you more for getting more zeroes to show up.
Since paying off the small ones is a great strategy for debt reduction, and since you're even tempted to go that route, I say go with it -- it's one of life's healthier temptations.
