Do credit scores take into account the current balance of an account, or the average balance over the course of time? For example, one of my credit cards are hovering near the max, if I were to pay it off, would my credit score go up signifigantly? Or would it be negated from previous months.
I can say that with my scores on creditexpert, as I paid down my credit card balances, my score went up. In fact, if I remember correctly, my available credit went from like 51% to 90% and my scores increased by 79 pts. (or close to that)
Wow LKH! I am paying each of my CCs down to $1 balance this month. Factor 3 on my TU says too many with balance. I've been curious to know how much impact paying the balances down can have.
For every $700 I pay on my accounts, I get 1 point. I have over $60,000 in balances, so $700 is just over 1% of my total owed. I figure that when it is paid off, I will gain 90 - 100 points total. I am at 656 now, so I should get to mid 700's. What I have found is that paying down installment loans (like the cars) do not affect the score at all. Over $10,000 paid on these, and no points at all. Moral is to pay down cc accounts, not installment.
