How will carrying a credit card balance affect my credit score?

I currently have excellent credit (high 700's). I have always paid my CC balance at the end of the month; however, for the next few months, I will need to carry a balance due to educational and moving expenses. I fully intend to pay off the balance in a couple of months. Will this hurt my credit score? If so, how long will it take to bring it back to its current standing.|||Depends upon the balance amount versus your line of credit. The closer you are to your limit the more it impacts you. The answer is yes it will bring it down a little. Nothing major and nothing that you won't climb back up from and look better.


General rule of thumb is to never be more then 50% of your available line of credit. Keeping the balance low does in fact improve your score. Again nothing dramatic but as time goes on the score will keep increasing as your balance stays low and your history increases.|||if you pay your bill on time all the time it will show that you can be trusted to lend money to. also never pay the mininum amount unless you just have no other result. try to pay at least 3 times the min amount.|||It will increase the debt to credit ratio. Therefore it will decrease your score. However, it will only do this temporarily if you can pay off the balance in the few months like you said. Once your cc balance is back to zero, in 30-45 days (depending when your credit reports are updated) it should be back to your high 700's score. As long as you aren't planning on applying for any lines of credit you will be fine.