@bluedog357 wrote:I was playing around with the simulator today, and it said that if I paid off all of my credit card debt that Equifax and transunion would raise 10 points but that experian would not raise at all. Does anyone know why that is?
Ignore the simulator, in fact, ignore all simulators, they are waaaaay too simplistic to present you with an accurate picture.
There are others with MUCH more knowledge on the subject here as they have studied the various FICO buckets and the datapoints which trigger a score change. That said, I would A) consider a roof over your head, lights on, and food on the table as your main priority, B) maintain a small emergency fund, and C) paying down debt as fast as possible. Here's the thing, many of the FICO scores seem to be transient, do something which reduces your scores this month and they dip, do something else next month which looks good on the score cards, and they rebound. In your case, I would concentrate on getting your debt paid off while maintaining a positive cash flow; once the debt is paid off, even if some of your credit lines close, you can move forward with your remaining credit lines as well as any new ones you come up with, and your scores will recover.