based on my situation as previously posted, i had fair to good credit to begin with. NEver missed payments. When i do a 15000 credit card payment will my credit go to perfect? or does it take a while.

Answer:

No. A one-time payment doesn't mean anything. There are more people than you think who make multi-thousand dollar payments every month. A sudden, single large payoff from someone who usually pays the monthly minimum is much more likely to raise alarm flags than to reassure. Creditors don't like sudden changes in a borrower's habits.

In the same way, closing active accounts-- especially a lot of them all at once-- is likely to drive your FICO score down.

Last year, after a life change, I got copies of my credit reports. At the time, my FICO was 790. I found a bunch of dormant, inactive accounts open that I didn't even realize I had. I spent a lot of time calling creditors to close these accounts (and thus protect myself against their fraudulent use). Everyone assured me over the phone that closing these old accounts wouldn't affect my creditworthiness.

Wrong. One month after closing those accounts, I checked my FICO again. I was now at 715 without any other changes to my financial situation; as a matter of fact, in the ensuing period I had *increased* my liquid cash assets and conservatively reduced my debt.

So go figure. My FICO is now higher than it was before the account closures, even though my income is substantially reduced. I thank God every night that I am essentially debt free (liquid assets much greater than debts).

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