What Is Better For My Credit Score (2024)

To All Score Gurus:

I paid off a $40,000.00 personal loan.
I anticipate it will provide a boost to my credit score.
However, I have some additional funds to pay off more bills.
I can pay off a vehcile loan with a balance of $4,600.00; OR,
I can pay off several smaller credit card which total just under $5,000.00.

Which option is better for my credit score, i.e., which will provide the biggest increase in credit score.
Thanks for any suggestions.

• FICO Score changes

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Paying off credit cards will most likely be the best option, especially if any of them have significan't balances vs their credit limits.

Back to gardening until Late February 2025.
Current FICO8:

@lazerz69wrote:

To All Score Gurus:

I paid off a $40,000.00 personal loan.
I anticipate it will provide a boost to my credit score.
However, I have some additional funds to pay off more bills.
I can pay off a vehcile loan with a balance of $4,600.00; OR,
I can pay off several smaller credit card which total just under $5,000.00.

Which option is better for my credit score, i.e., which will provide the biggest increase in credit score.
Thanks for any suggestions.

Congrats paying off that loan, if that just auto loan is your only remaining installment loan , if you pay that off even though less debt your score will take a hit for no open loans . If your auto loan is a decent rate, I agree to pay down your cc debt .

EXP 780 EQ 798 TU 804

Pay off anything that has a higher APR than you can be earning with that cash (say, 5% APY). I suspect that will be the credit cards.

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Paying down CC is the best option. For debt management, consider to place them on the lowest APR.

Also, having evolving loans would boost your Fico8 score (auto, mortgage or a simple loan). If you pay down your loans completely, you may see a drop in Fico8 (I am not sure whether it would be immediate and I leave it for senior people to comment). To have an active loan while keeping your Fico8 high, you may take a small loan like $500 for 6 years and in the first month, pay down >90% of it. In that case, you would have an active evolving loan for 6 years with <10% utilization ratio and it would boost your Fico8 score.

For optimum scores you should aim to have:

1. Only one open installment loan with a remaining balance under 9%

2. Only one revolving credit card (not a store card, and not a charge card) report a balance of under 9%

Agree with everyone else, pay off/down the CCs. Multiple revolvers with higher % of usage is worse for your score... pay them down to AZEO and you will be a rockstar.

Sock - Biz -

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@lazerz69wrote:

To All Score Gurus:

I paid off a $40,000.00 personal loan.
I anticipate it will provide a boost to my credit score.
However, I have some additional funds to pay off more bills.
I can pay off a vehcile loan with a balance of $4,600.00; OR,
I can pay off several smaller credit card which total just under $5,000.00.

Which option is better for my credit score, i.e., which will provide the biggest increase in credit score.
Thanks for any suggestions.

Paying off "several smaller credit cards" should boost Fico 8/Fico 9 scores. Paying off the vehicle loan will provide NO benefit to score. Since credit card APRs are typically much higher than installment loans, paying the auto loan would provide less benefit financially.

Fico 9: .......EQ 850 TU 850 EX 850
Fico 8: .......EQ 850 TU 850 EX 850
Fico 4 .....:. EQ 809 TU 823 EX 830 EX Fico 98: 842
Fico 8 BC:. EQ 892 TU 900 EX 900
Fico 8 AU:. EQ 887 TU 897 EX 899
Fico 4 BC:. EQ 826 TU 858, EX Fico 98 BC: 870
Fico 4 AU:. EQ 831 TU 872, EX Fico 98 AU: 861
VS 3.0:...... EQ 835 TU 835 EX 835
CBIS: ........EQ LN Auto 940 EQ LN Home 870 TU Auto 902 TU Home 950

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