K H asked:
I know that paying more than my minimum monthly credit card payment will improve my credit. But how much more do I have to pay? $1? 50%?
http://1mortgagecalculator.info
I know that paying more than my minimum monthly credit card payment will improve my credit. But how much more do I have to pay? $1? 50%?
http://1mortgagecalculator.info
How much you pay monthly has NO bearing on your credit score. What matters is the balance in relation to available credit.
pay as much as you can afford to
You need to keep your debt-to-credit ratio down! For instance, if the limits on all your credit cards are $1000.00, Try to keep the total amount of what you owe under 20% of that $1000. The less debt you owe on your cards is what to strive for!!
It doesn’t matter what you pay monthly. Only that you pay on time. And once you have paid down to 50% of the max allowed, you will look better on paper. That you are not maxed-out..
Those other responses didn’t directly answer the question.
First, it is correct that paying more than the minimum *won’t* affect your score. What you are trying to accomplish is to keep from being characterized by the CC companies as a struggling payer. The strategy is to pay the min plus a little while paying down other cards.
My experience is that paying an extra percent above the min will keep the CC software from identifying you as a “minimum only” payer. To be safe since some companies are bumping the min from 2.5% to 3%, I suggest you pay 4%.