<prompt> Human: I have three credit cards with balances of 3400, 800, and 400 - almost 5k in total. Saved up a good amount of money and would like to pay these cards off. My aunt, whos a realtor, advised me not to completely pay them off to a 0 balance as it would have a negative effect on my credit score, I forget her explanation - but she advised me to keep at least some debt on there. I was hoping to just pay this all off and see my credit score go from 691 to 7 something. What should I do?  <response>: Your aunts advice is wrong. Pay them off. There could be a very small drop in your credit score; there could also actually be a bump because your debt-to-income ratio will go down. But its not worth paying credit-card-level interest for a couple points on your credit score anyway And congrats on paying them off! 