Credit / FICO Score - How to quickly improve significantly

[Michael Masters]

Here's a little tidbit I noticed a few years ago that I thought I would share.  I'm giving a reverse example, as in I will show how my credit score dropped 59 points in one month because I forgot to do my "trick".

The trick is to pay off your entire balance the day of your "statement closing date".  Many think that paying off their entire statement balance every month is the best you can do, this is not the case.  You want to have a statement balance at zero or as low as you can get it.  At least try to have all credit cards below 20% of the their individual limit.

The first image shows the drop of 59 points and the second shows the reason, I forgot to pay down one of my Citicards before the statement closing date.  Even though I paid off this $19,000 balance in full, the fact that I had a statement balance at all killed my score.  

Next month I'll show you the updated score with my balance paid off, it should shoot right back up again.

You don't need to do this all the time, but I make sure to do it for the three months before I take out a loan.

Image 1

Image 2