What would happen to the score if an applicant were to pay off his or her balances and/or close some accounts?
It is not possible to ensure that scores would increase in this case. Such actions may upset the mix of available credit, and actually decrease the score. It is important to remember that the point of the scoring is not to calculate an up-to-date debt ratio – the debt ratio is still considered by the lender independent of the score. Therefore it is not critical that balances be completely up to date for the purposes of scoring. The score reflects data available on the credit report to assess the consumer’s current payment patterns as well as payment history.
