I thought paying off a card early was pointless, but my FICO jumped 40 points

I always paid my Capital One card on the due date, thinking that was fine... but my score was stuck at 680. My friend in Phoenix said to pay it down right after the statement cuts, so I tried it last month. My reported balance went from $900 to $50 and my score is now 720. Has anyone else seen a big jump just from changing the timing of a payment?

2 comments

2 Comments

wren2171d ago

Wow, the credit score game is just made up nonsense, isn't it? I did the same thing with my Discover card and it jumped like 30 points. It's wild that the trick is just... paying it a few weeks early.

richardh441d ago

Tell me about it. The whole system feels like a weird math test where they won't give you the formula. I've seen my score drop for paying off a loan completely because it closed the account. It's not about being responsible, it's about playing their specific, kinda stupid game of always having some debt they can track.

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