I am about to pay 30,000 in debt .I have 11 card max out.I will paid off 5 in a month. Do points go up fast in few days,week,months. any infor on points.
My mortgage broker told me last night that it takes 90 days for the scores to recycle. Not sure how accurate this is but she has been in the business 20 years and has probably seen updates to reports made by her clients but no improvements in score for 90 days (??).
I don't think 90 days is right. I just started cleaning up my reports and I notice score increases/decreases happen frequently. As far as paying on CCs and utilization, that might be different because of how often and when the companies decide to update your info.
First, if you are most concerned with FICO, then pay off as many credit cards as possible to below 50%, rather than pay off some cards all the way. (OTOH, if you are most concerned with interest expense, pay off the highest rate cards first; if you are most concerned with debt payment load, pay off the ones with the largest % minimum payment amounts first) Second, most cards report the balance as of the closing date - so to get the best FICO effect the soonest, deal with the cards with the nearest closing dates first. If you have fee-free balance transfers available, pay them off to zero before the due date, and balance transfer back to them after the closing date (not the same as due date) Third, know where they report - if they report to Experian, you will see it show up within 1 to 5 days after the closing date. Equifax is more like 1-10 days; TranUnion can be anywhere from 1 to 90 days - apparently when things get busy they don't update for a long while, or maybe they just lose stuff - don't know - other times they've updated immediately. I've raised my score by 75-100 points going from 90% util to 10% util; OTOH, my score tanked over 100 points when a (false) current late payment appeared (truly bizzare - from an account that had been closed with "current" status for three years)... lesson - do not ever pay late, and monitor your CR for mistrakes! So, if you are looking for mortgage help where you only need the middle score, assuming you have the funds available you can probably improve your score within 10-40 days. If you need TransUnion specifically, it could be up to 120 days, but more likely 60-90. Good Luck!
