What is the fastest way to raise your credit score?

I have about 16 credit cards and I wasn't sure if I should payoff the high amounts first or pay the lower amounts and close those accounts.

Public Comments

1. great question........I don't have an answer but I will give you a STAR! :-)
2. Pay off the ones you can first. Then consentrate on the big ones.
3. I would pick your highest interest cards and pay those off aggressively and as each one is paid off apply that allocated money to your other cards and so on. If you're aggressive and diligent you can pay your cards off fast. Only close a few of the accounts because they help you with maintaining a good credit report. Your credit history is a complicated animal but age of credit, amount, payments and debt to income help in determining your score. Then once you are done and no longer have payments I would apply that money to other things such as your portfolio. real property, savings, bonds, stocks and so on. At that point you will already be used to not using the money for personal fun and stuff so you should be able to save for that rainy day.
4. There is something called snowballing. Pay off the smallest amounts first, then try to make a settlement with the larger ones. Jennifer
5. i found an article on yahoo not to long from a finance guy and he says yeah pay off the highest interest ones first but he said keep accounts open after you pay off even if you don't use, he said open unused credit is a great credit builder, also get a small loan from bank or finance company and pay payments early every time and then pay off early, then go do it again for a little bit more each time, that's how i built mine and now my score is over 700!!!!
6. You are best to pay off and close the ones that have the highest interest rate. Keep your lower interest rate cards, with a low rotating balance that is far from your limit. You should keep about 3 or 4 cards.
7. If you're looking to raise your credit score quickly while paying them off then do NOT close the accounts while paying them off or right after. Your credit score is affected by utilization or how much of your available credit is being used on these credit accounts. Closing your account will raise that percentage, you want it lower. The fastest way is to pay each account down to about a third of the credit limit and then work on getting rid of the balances all together. Once they all have low portions of the credit lines being used then the snowballing method is one of the most successful i've heard of. Simply put, start paying the smaller accounts first. Once you pay one off then take that payment and apply it to the next largest one in addition to the payment you were already sending them. Repeat until you have them all paid off, it's a great way to budget paying extra on your accounts until they're gone.
8. First. Pay attention to the folks that say pay off the card with the highest interest rate first, then the next highest, etc... Second. If you have 16 credit cards, you have WAY too many. Close some of them. (Not all, some.) Keep 3-4, maybe 5 accounts open. That will help your credit score. 16 open accounts, not so much. Last, there is no magic way to get your credit score to rise fast. There are things that you can do to better you chances of an increase, but the only thing that will raise your credit score is paying off your obligations in a timely manner over time. Paying off the credit cards, good boost. Paying off the credit cards in full every month, not so big a boost. Getting a car loan or mortgage and paying that off over time, big boost. Getting a debt consolidation loan and paying that off over time, not so big a boost. Getting a mortgage, HUGE boost. Best of luck!
9. while in doubt, just keep on wasting money on paying interests.
10. neither -- don't cancel them -- just lock them up some where -- then take the one with the most interest and pay it off first and pay the minimum on the other -- work you way down the list until you have no more debt!!!