I pay off my credit card every month. I didn’t always do that and I recall 25+ years ago when my wife and I first got married that the interest charges on those cards exploded the balance when not paying the off immediately. It was a tough lesson to learn during those early years.
Because of the interest charges and wasted money, I have built systems to auto pay every credit card every week based on an estimated usage. For example, if I charge $1000/month on a particular card for things like insurance, utilities, and groceries then I autopay $250 every week on that card.
That system has worked well but I recently started checking my FICO scores in anticipation of possibly buying a new home or rental property. All of my credit cards give me access to my FICO score and oddly, the FICO scores are all different. One card has me at 783 and another card has me at 830.
I started researching why there are variances and a 50 point one at that and came across this YouTube video.
In a nutshell, this video suggests paying off 80% of the balance BEFORE the closing date of your card and paying off the remaining 20% balance BEFORE the due date. So if the closing date of your credit card is March 8 and you have an anticipated balance of $1000, you should pay $800 on March 6 so that the closing date balance shows $200 instead of $0.
Why do this?
Having a very low balance against the credit limit shows utilization on the card where having a $0 balance each month may show that you aren’t using the card at all.
I’m going to try this for 2026 and see if it improves my credit scores or if they remain the same. Ultimately, my credit score is high enough that I should qualify for the best mortgage rates anyway but boosting the score can’t hurt.
Share The Wealth
What do you think? Will this work?