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I'm new here and I have a question for all of you.......
I need to know the best way to raise my credit score (I know the generic answer is "pay on-time, carry no credit card balances, have a variety of debt types, etc.").
I just took out a $12K loan for a car in March. Do I need to pay on it for awhile before paying it off, or can I pay it off quickly and have the same effect on my FICO score? (I have an inheritance coming, that I could use to pay it off with but I can afford the monthly payments, so it's not necessary to pay it off----especially if it wouldn't do anything to my FICO score).
Also, with my student loans, I had them in forbearance and deferment for a long time, so the interest accumulated. Presently, the outstanding balance is HIGHER than the initial amount taken out. Does that hurt my credit score? If I were to pay them down to under the initial amount taken out, would my score start to go up? I owe about $25K in student loans and have been in repayment for 3 months.
The only other debt I really have is two credit cards, each with $100 on them (the total credit limit is $1700 between the two of them--so my debt to available limit is really good). That will obviously be the first thing to pay off with the inheritance (but I'm paying more than the minimum each month to try and whittle it away on my own!).
I'm looking at buying a house next summer, and want to make sure that I'm going to be okay credit-wise.
Thanks in advance!