How Much Will Credit Score Increase After Paying Off Credit Cards

How Much Will Your Credit Score Increase?

One of the most effective ways to improve your credit scores is by paying off your credit card debt. Credit card utilization is a big credit score ranking factor.
In fact, both of the most common credit-scoring models (FICO and Vantage Score) have credit card utilization as a primary factor in determining your credit scores.
While FICO claims credit card utilization makes up around 30 percent of your credit score, Vantage Score claims it accounts for 23 percent of your credit score.

Before we dive deep to answer your question, it’s important to know that credit scoring models differ. Two great examples of that is FICO and Vantage Score, which is 2 of the most commonly used credit scoring systems.
You can get your FICO scores by signing up to FICO. You can get your Vantage Score credit scores by signing up with Credit Karma.
Related Reading: What Happens To Credit Score When You Cancel A Credit Card

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Does Paying Off Credit Cards Help My Credit Scores?

In just about every scenario out there, if you’re going to pay off your credit card debt, you’re going to see your credit scores increase.
If you’re aiming to get your credit scores higher, paying off a credit card or two can certainly help you get moving in the right way.
Just as we said earlier, credit card utilization is a big factor in determining your credit scores. If you don’t know what credit card utilization is, it refers to the percentage of the credit card balance you’re using.
For example, let’s say I have a credit card with a $5,000 limit.I have a balance of $4,000 on that credit card.
My credit utilization ratio is 80 percent as I’m using 80 percent of my total balance.
If I had a credit card with a $10,000 balance and I’m only using $2,500 of my credit limit, my credit utilization ratio is 25 percent.To determine your credit utilization ratio, just use this example and see where you stand.

Here’s Why Credit Card Utilization Is Important To Your Credit Utilization

As we’ve been saying throughout this article, credit card utilization is important and plays a big role in where your credit scores fall (good and bad).The general rule of thumb is that you want your credit utilization ratios between 10-30 percent.
Why?In most cases, the higher your credit card utilization ratios, the lower your credit scores will be.
If I have a $20,000 limit and I’m using $15,000 of it, my credit utilization is at a high 75 percent.Due to this, it’s likely my credit scores are going to go down.
If I can make a payment on this credit card and get my balance down to $5,000 (which would be a 25 percent utilization ratio), my credit scores are likely to take a good jump higher.
See how that works?
Your goal is to get your credit utilization down to 10-30 percent.

Should I Get My Credit Card Utilization Below 10 Percent?

General rule of thumb would be yes, but every scenario is different. What works for you may not work for someone else as it pertains to raising your credit scores.
The only way to know for sure how paying off your credit cards will help your credit scores is by monitoring your scores. As you’ve learned, FICO and Vantage Score are 2 of the most popular credit scoring models.
We’d recommend getting sign up to one, the other or both. It just depends on which credit scores you want to monitor.
For FICO, you can sign up with the FICO website. For Vantage Score, you can join Credit Karma to see those scores.
Creditors use different credit scoring systems, so if you’re trying to raise your credit scores for a credit card, loan or something else, it would be smart to see what credit scoring model they’re using.
Besides FICO and VantageScore, creditors can also use different versions of those scoring models, a lot of people are not aware of that.
Again, if you’re going for a specific loan or card, ask which model and version they’re using to determine their credit scores.In most cases, they will know the answer or will be able to find the right answer.

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How Many Points Can My Credit Score Rise Paying Off Credit Card Debt?

Now that you know a few different variables for determining credit scores, we want to get a little more specific to give you a ballpark estimate of how much your credit can increase if you pay off your credit card debt.
As for your credit scores, credit utilization only makes up one factor of your credit score. Other factors that determine your credit scores are inquiries for credit, payment history, credit account mix and credit history age.
The reason we want to bring this up is because if you’re lacking in the other areas when you pay off your credit card debt, the increase may not be as much as one would think.
Predicting your credit score increases without knowing your credit profile is next to impossible.
We’re going to use a few examples to give you a ballpark number.

Example 1: We’re going to say Mike is going to pay off one of his credit cards. His credit limit is $7,000 and he owes $5,250 on the balance.
Mike decides to go ahead and pay off the total balance of the credit card. Mike has a good credit history, he always pays his bills.
He has over 5 years of credit history. If Mike pays off the whole balance, we could see a credit score jump of 15-40 points.
Example 2: Sarah is also going to pay off her credit card. She has a $10,000 limit and owes $2,000 on the credit card.
Sarah pays her credit responsibly. Sarah has a 3 year credit age, which is not much time but she’s never missed a payment.
Over the last few months, she’s applied for 3 new credit cards. These are known as credit inquiries and they can impact your credit scores.
Giving all we know and since her $2,000 balance is only 20 percent of her total balance, Sarah could see a 5-15 point increase paying her card off.
Example 3: Eva is going to pay 1 of her credit cards down. She has a balance of $688 on her card that has a $2,500 limit.
Eva has four other credit cards that have a total credit limit of $20,500. She is going to pay $300 on her credit card, which will leave a balance of $388 with interest.
Eva has a mortgage loan and car loan. The important thing to note is that she has a busy credit profile, but pays on time. In this scenario, Eva learns that her credit score dropped 5 points making the $300 payment on her account.

Why Did Eva’s Credit Score Drop?

You may be wondering, why did the credit score drop? It happens, every scenario is different.
I’ve been monitoring my credit for the past 10 years, I’ve seen a little of everything. Can your credit score really drop making a payment? Yes, it can!
To my point, make sure you’re monitoring your credit.

Important Tip:

Always pay attention to your credit card types. All credit cards are not equal. You may find out that your Capital One card helps your credit more versus American Express.
The best advice we can give you is to watch your credit and see how it responds.

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