Is it normal for an auto loan to drop FICO 20 pts?

[jamie123]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Would that be a siginificant increase? I could, things would be tight (may not be able to make my Chase Blueprint payment of 218, already paid minimum though)

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You should use the "Snowball" method in paying down your credit cards.

This is how you do it:

Pay the minimum on all your credit cards but take any extra money and put it towards the credit card that has the smallest balance. Keep doing this until the card with the smallest balance is paid off. Then continue this process with the card that has the next smallest balance. Your scores should rise a bit with each card that gets paid to zero but you will get a sizable bump once you have less than 50% of your cards reporting a balance and another bump when you just have 1 card reporting a balance.

Your utilization is the only thing that is keeping your scores from being in the 700s.

[Anonymous]

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@jamie123 wrote:

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Pay the minimum on all your credit cards but take any extra money and put it towards the credit card that has the smallest balance. Keep doing this until the card with the smallest balance is paid off. Then continue this process with the card that has the next smallest balance. Your scores should rise a bit with each card that gets paid to zero but you will get a sizable bump once you have less than 50% of your cards reporting a balance and another bump when you just have 1 card reporting a balance.

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While I agree with your definition of the snowball method above, it's important to let those considering know that the FICO score gains you referenced may not always happen.  Scores may not rise at all as a card is paid off if it doesn't involve the crossing of an aggregate utilization break point, individual card break point, or number of cards reporting balances break point relative to the profile in question.  There are also some profiles that see absolutely no change when crossing the 50% of cards reporting a balance mark.  Mine is one of them.  It doesn't matter if I have 1 card reporting a balance or all of them, my FICO scores don't change (assuming small balances).  My conclusion is that number of cards reporting balances doesn't impact all profiles.