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Hi!
By Christmastime I am going to be able to pay off all of my credit card debt ($12,000) in one complete lump sum and want to build my credit score up so that by summer I can begin looking for a house and apply for home loans with (hopefully) an improved credit score and therefore a better interest rate and higher approved loan limit. Do I need to wait six months, shorter, longer for my credit score to be impacted? Also, I plan on paying off all credit card debt in full, but will not close any card accounts.
Thank you in advance!
Normally once you pay off it will have an effect after 60 to 90 days
But also what you do after that will defines what happnes in 6 months
Hi Feelfelt,
By paying up all your debts in full, you should be able to boost up your credit score. More or less, it takes 3 months for the credit reports to get updated. However, this time period is not the same for all the CRAs. Once, you pay all your debts in full, you can call the agencies and inquire about their report updating time.
Hi feelfelt
It is nice to know of your plans to clean your score :) Like Justin said CRAs usually take 3 months to update reports. However, if after the 3 months they have not updated their reports, you may contact them and give them a reminder about updating your report because misleading information can be harmful for you in getting future loans.
Not closing credit cards is a good idea as closing cards do have a negative impact on your report. You may rather still have them but not use up the limit on them and keep making regular payments on them. Once you have cleaned your report and boosted your score, I believe it will be easier for you to handle things :)
As Carol said not to cancel the credit card is really important, since it will affect your credit score indirectly
One you cancel your credit card it will lower the amount of availabe credti you have and if you still owe on othr cards that will make yoru debt to incoem ratio higher. This will makes looks like you are using more credti from what you have been arppoved for.
Normalyy if you keep your credit usage with in 10 to 20% ratio of your allocated limit then your score will be in good shape
Example: if you have credit limit of $2000/- on one card and $1000 on secodn card, and if you close the card with $2k limit after payign it aoff and if you still owe $500/- on the second one them you credit utilaization changes from 16% to 50%
Thank you Everyone! I will be paying off every credit card IN FULL in one complete lump sum. Although I don't want to use them anymore, I guess I have to play the game -- put a little on, pay it off. I hope it has a really good impact on my score!